Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation
by The Legendary Dragon Reaper
Summary: Who would've expected that just a few changes could have such a major impact. Read as Gohan and Kai journey through life and across the universe in this exciting retelling of DBZ, with changes and surprises around every corner. Yamcha x Bulma, Raditz x Android 18, Gohan x Erasa later on. Other pairings undecided at the moment.
1. A Desperate Battle, Training Begins

5 years had passed since the fateful day of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, the day of the final battle between Son Goku and Piccolo Jr, and the Dragon Ball Gang (or Z Fighters) have gone their separate ways for the most part while the Earth enjoyed a quiet era of peace.

That is to say, until now.

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Things were calm and peaceful at Kame House.

That is, until a certain bluenette by the name of Bulma dropped onto the island in her airship, which symbolized that the party had begun "Hello in there, hey guess who you guys!"

Krillin, Launch and Master Roshi both lit up when they saw her "Hey Bulma long time no see!"

"Yep I got your invitation so here I am."

"Oh good we weren't sure you were gonna make it, it's been way too long."

"Yeah I miss this old place, it hasn't changed a bit."

"Well there's no need for you to be such a stranger, you don't always have to wait for an invitation you know." Roshi downed some beer only to have a box shoved in his face (no not that kind of box you Roshi-minded pervs).

"Here take a look at these, I brought you guys a little bit of goodies."

"Oh well isn't that sweet of you but you didn't have to go to all of that trouble." and then he started making his way towards her cleavage "I mean just a quick sample of those other goods you're hiding would've been more than enough." he received a major conk to the head in the form of Bulma's fist, the box and his mug "Well I see you still don't know how to take a damn joke!"

"And I see that you're still just a dirty old creep!"

And then Krillin made things that much worse "Hey you know that reminds me, where's Yamcha at right now? We all figured that he'd be with you."

"Yamcha that son of a bitch, how the hell should I know?! He could be out chasing every girl in the city for all I care! I'm so done with that bastard, I didn't even tell him that we were getting together today! But who needs that guy right, we can still have fun without him."

"Yeah if you hate having a good time." and then a very familiar figure dropped down onto the ground outside of the house with another figure clinging onto his leg "Hey guys long time no see!"

"Hey Yamcha!" Krillin caught him in a guy hug "How's it going man? We haven't heard from you in Kami knows how long!"

"Sorry I've had a lot of stuff on my plate, oh hey there's someone I want you to meet." he pulled out a little kid from behind his leg, him having short kurt brown colored hair, teal eyes, a pair of glasses, a crimson red martial arts gi, a black obi, white shin guards, black wristbands and black shoes "This is my nephew Kai, Kai this is pretty much everyone else."

"Hey how's it going?" Kai waved and leaned back against a wall nonchalantly.

"Well isn't he a cute little guy." Bulma knelt down in front of him "So how old are you little guy?"

"4 and still more mature than him."

"That sounds about right. So tell us a little bit about yourself, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"The outfit says it all the one that got away from him." he jerked a thumb at Yamcha "Or was it that he got away from you but you're too proud to admit it?"

"...Yep I'm done with the kid. So Yamcha why exactly did you bring this kid here?"

"Actually about that Bulma… can I talk to you outside for a second?" Yamcha quickly pulled her outside "He's actually my sister's kid."

"Oh yeah you mean Scarlet, how's she doing?"

"She… She's gone. She got sick a few months ago and passed away."

"What…?"

"And I can't bring her back with the Dragon Balls either, it was natural causes and his dad just ran out on him before he was even born. Frankly I always hated the bastard but we're getting off track. I couldn't do anything to save my sister so looking after her son is the least that I can do. Anyway he asked me to train him in martial arts and I just can't say no to the kid when he gives me the look. He's pretty strong for his age, he's gonna surpass me soon too. I just know it."

"Yamcha… you're a good guy."

"What can I say, you and Goku rubbed off on me."

"Clearly not that much."

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At the same time, a certain Saiyan by the name of Raditz was following his Scouter in the direction of two power levels ' _Yes that's very good, this power level is moving fast in the direction of another high power level. With any luck one of them is Kakarot and then together we can take that asshole down.'_

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"Hey look we're here, that's Master Roshi's house!" Goku leapt off of the Flying Nimbus and dropped to the ground with Gohan in his arms "Hey guys we're here!"

"Goku hey!" and then Yamcha and everyone else rushed outside.

"Hey guys it's been awhile."

"So… elephant in the room I'll just say it, what's with the kid? Goku just because Bulma shot you in the face and picked you up in the woods doesn't mean you can go around stealing random kids."

"Yamcha went over this, Bulma did not steal me. Anyway this is my son."

"...Say what now?"

"Yep that's right."

"Oh. Well in that case, right on man! I didn't think you had it in you!"

"Have what?" Goku set Gohan down on the ground "Come on son, say hi to them."

Gohan looked up at him, then nervously bowed to the others "Hello." this caused the others to nervously return the gesture.

"His name is Gohan."

"Gohan eh?" Roshi lit up "Oh I see what you're getting at, so you named him after your dear old grandpa did you?"

"Yep you got that right."

"I have to admit Yamcha was about right on the money, none of us ever really thought you had it in you Goku."

"You mean what you've never been able to do." Yamcha shot him a smirk.

"Oh like you could?" the smirk fell.

"And he's so cute too." Bulme knelt down in front of Gohan "So how old are you anyway?"

Gohan counted off his fingers "I'm four miss."

"Oh wow aren't you a little gentlemen?" she ruffled his hair and looked up at Goku "Are you really sure he's yours considering your little habit from when you were a kid?"

"Oh yeah that." Goku let out a chuckle "Well you can thank Chichi for that."

"Still rather surprising considering you used to touch people on the crotch. So anyway tell us some more about yourself Gohan, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I'm gonna be a great scholar." Gohan's voice sounded a lot like it had been rehearsed a great deal.

"...You sure you're Goku's kid?"

"Daddy did say that you'd say something like that." and then he was Turtle and quickly clung onto Goku's leg, revealing a certain something.

"Wait is that a tail?"

Goku nodded without getting any sense of the memo "Yeah I know, it's just like I used to have when I was a kid remember?"

"Oh yeah we all remember. Hey just out of curiosity Goku, have you ever noticed anything strange about your son?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing too big, like does he ever do anything weird when he sees a full moon or anything like that?" asked Yamcha.

"Sees a full moon? No I don't think so but we go to bed pretty early so I don't think he's ever seen a full moon." this left them thoroughly "What's up with asking a question like that to begin with?"

"Uh… no reason, forget I ever brought it up. So what's the deal with your kid?"

"He's actually my nephew, I've been looking after him for my sister ever since she… passed away."

"...Oh. Can the Dragon Balls…?"

"No, it was natural causes."

"Oh."

"Yeah. His name is Kai and I've been training him in martial arts and he's a major prodigy with the stuff. What about Gohan though, he sure takes after you in the looks department but is he strong like you too?"

"Well it's hard to say, there are a few times every now and then when it seems like it but I can never give him any martial arts training to find out for sure. Chichi won't let me, she just explodes and then locks me out of the bedroom."

"Why not? That sure sounds like a waste to me."

"Tell me about it but Chichi just won't budge, she says that the world has been at peace for so long now that there's no reason to teach him how to fight and she just goes on a tirade about how he has to study."

"So she's a real school marm, man you think you know a woman but then she does a complete 180 on you. But have you been keeping up with your training?"

"More or less, I can tell that you've gotten a lot stronger in the past few years."

"Yeah I've been stepping up my own personal training big time, I wanna be someone that both my sister and Kai can be proud of."

"Well you're a good guy Yamcha."

"I just do what I think is right. Hey by the way is that a Dragon Ball on Gohan's hat?"

"Yeah that's the Four Star Ball, that was my grandpa's most prized possession. I put it on there to remember him by and I was even able to find the Three Star and Six Star Dragon Balls along with this one but I keep those at home."

"Man we had some crazy times searching for those things back in the day, but now you're stronger than anyone else on the entire- Holy black on a Popo and green on a Piccolo do you feel that?"

"Oh yeah I feel it." the mood had turned deadly serious "I don't know what that is but there's something coming this way, it's fast and it's powerful."

"You think it's Piccolo?"

"No I recognize his Ki signature, this is something new completely and it's way more powerful than him. Get ready guys, he's coming!"

Sure enough, at that moment Raditz dropped down to the island in all of his (at the moment) intimidating glory "Power levels at 334 and 350, that means that my previous assumption was correct. So we finally get the chance to meet, you've really grown but even at a glance I could tell that it was you… Kakarot."

"Kaka-what?"

"My how you take so much after our father."

"Wait what?"

"What is this guy talking about?" asked Yamcha "Goku do you know this guy?"

"I don't have a clue."

"Don't act so dumb Kakarot." Raditz let out a scoff "What the hell have you been doing here all these years? Your mission was to terminate every native life form so why the hell haven't you done your job?"

"...Huh?"

"Oh for f*ck's sake it's like dealing with father when he's drunk. How do you think I got this down here?" he pulled down his armor and revealed a deep scar on his torso.

"Alright I've had enough of this." Yamcha stepped forward and got into a fighting stance "I don't have a clue who you are and I don't really care but I think I speak for everyone when I say that we've heard enough so get out of here already or do I have to point you in the right direction?"

"Yamcha get back!" Goku barked.

"What I can deal with this-"

"No you really can't." Raditz revealed a shocking secret, that being that he had a tail, and used it to bitch slap Yamcha through Kame House "I'll give you points for effort though, but not really much else."

"Yamcha!" Goku prepared to round on Raditz, only to freeze at the sight of his tail ' _This guy… he has a tail? Just like Gohan… Just like I did…'_

"Yes that's right, very good Kakarot. You've finally realized who I am."

"I have what are you saying? I don't have any idea who you are or what the heck you're talking about!" he gestured for Bulma to take Gohan back out of harm's way.

"Oh for crying out loud Kakarot, have you lived on this planet for so long that you've forgotten even that?"

"My memory is fine and you can quit calling me this Kaka-whatever it is that you're trying to say, my name is Son Goku."

"What the hell happened to you?!"

"What do you mean?"

"Daddy!" Gohan rushed out to Goku and clung onto the back of his leg.

"Gohan stay back, this guy is dangerous."

"Hey focus!" Raditz barked "Tell me something, did you suffer any serious blows to the head when you were young?"

"Wait what?" this got Roshi's attention.

"] I'm asking you if you ever hit your head when you were still a little kid you idiot now did you or not?"

"Yes I did but it was when I was really little, I don't really remember anything about it very well okay."

"I see, that actually explains it."

"Explains what, what are you talking about?"

"Goku listen to me." Roshi got their attention "There's something that your grandfather told me once a long time ago that I think you should know. A long time ago your Grandpa Gohan was walking through the woods when he came upon a strange looking object that appeared to have fallen from the sky, when he went to examine this object more closely he found a baby boy with a tail sealed inside of a little round pod. Gohan decided to take the boy home and raise him as his own but the boy had an angry and violent nature and before long the old man was at wits end with him. But then one day there was a terrible accident, the child fell into a deep ravine and hit his head. The injury was nearly fatal but somehow miraculously the boy had survived, and what's more is that from that point onwards he was no longer as violent as he once was. From then on he became a happy and loving boy."

"...That boy was me wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"But if that's true then what does it mean, are you saying that I have some kind of connection with this guy? How is that even possible?" Goku promptly rounded on Raditz "You know I think it's time you did some explaining, first of all who are you?"

Raditz let out a chuckle "Let's start at the top. The truth of the matter is that you're not of this world Kakarot. For starters the fact of the matter is that you're not of this world Kakarot, you were born on a distant planet known as Vegeta the home of the Saiyan race, the most powerful warriors in the universe. You are one of us." this left everyone speechless "And as for your other question my name is Raditz, I'm your brother."

"What?!"

"Kind of ironic when you think about it." Kai glanced up at Yamcha "You once said that you doubted He With the Palm Tree for a Head was even human, I guess I owe you 20 bucks for that little wager."

"You really have to pick your moments kid." Yamcha pointed out dryly "Besides how do you know he's not joking?"

"Well if it is a joke then it's not funny." Goku rounded on Raditz "That's insane, if I'm really some kind of alien like you say then what the heck am I doing here on Earth?"

"Well it's not hard to understand Kakarot, you were sent here with a relatively simply by our standards mission not long after you were born, which was to destroy all life that existed on this planet."

"What?!"

"Hey don't get mad at me, I don't make the rules. Anyway we Saiyans are a proud warrior race but we're also what you might call businessmen. You see we're part of an organization known as the Planet Trade Organization, we scour the universe in search of planets with habitable environments and then use our abilities to eliminate the native lifeforms and once it's clear the planets are then sold to any alien race that's willing to pay the price. For those planets whose inhabitants have high power levels adult Saiyans, but to planets like this one whose life forms are of very low average power levels we send our infants. This is mainly how you first came to this planet Kakarot."

"So you're saying that aside from the inhumane purging what you guys do is some kind of real estate?" asked Kai.

"In a manner of speaking yes. Anyway Kakarot we had expected you to be able to liquidate the population of this world. But on the other hand it seems that you've grown accustomed to their ways of life and of battle, if you hadn't lost your memory then you would most likely have completed your mission rather easily. Especially considering the massive size of the moon on this planet."

"Hang on a second, what are you talking about?" asked Goku "What does the moon have to do with anything."

"Kakarot you've lived on this planet for your entire life so you should know, the full moon is the key to unlocking the full potential of a Saiyan." this one statement left Yamcha, Bulma, Krillin and Master Roshi all looking horrified.

"Maybe I am an idiot because you still aren't making any sense to me!"

"Okay first of all I never said you were an idiot so those are still your own words, second of all you should've found it plenty of times by now- Oh no. No no no. No no no no no no no! NO NO NO NO! Kakarot your tail!"

"...Say what now?"

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOUR TAIL?!"

"Oh that thing? It got cut off a long time ago, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Okay you living your life on this planet without living under Frieza's rule is something that I applaud you for, but that is crossing the line. At least that explains how these humans have been able to accept you as well as they have."

"What does that mean?"

"It's not another Saiyan thing Kakarot, people simply fear and hate things that they do not understand. I've learned this from personal experience, and that's why it's so comforting to know that you've been spared from the same prejudice."

"You… Why did you come here?"

"Kakarot… I-"

"Raditz." this was when another figure dropped down onto the island, this one appearing as another Saiyan like Raditz, this one being a slim build Saiyan with black hair, prominent cheekbones and a tail. He wore a blue jumpsuit and wristbands, white boots, a waist belt holder, and a different style of armor, a devious smirk plastered across his face "So Kakarot lost his tail did he? I suppose that explains how he fits in with these worthless inhabitants of this world, but then again all we have to do what we must."

"That's enough!" Goku finally lost his temper "Even if it is true and I'm some kind of alien from another planet or even if one you really is my older brother it doesn't matter, if anyone would do the horrible things that you've said then they're no friends of mine! My name is Son Goku and this is my home and the two of you aren't welcome here!"

' _Kakarot… such passion and fire in his eyes… he really is like father…'_ Raditz clenched his fist and gritted his teeth "Beets let's go, Kakarot clearly has no intention of joining us so let him rot out here." he shot Goku a subtle glance and a wink ' _I guess this is all I can do for you as your older brother.'_

"Whatever my past may be these people are my friends and I've saved this entire world, would an alien warrior do that?"

"No I suppose he wouldn't. You have the same fire in your eyes as our mother and yet on the surface you look like our father."

"Spare us the theatrics." Beets shut them up "It's going to take more than some simple brotherly spat to make us leave, or at least me considering Raditz is such a weak hearted disgrace and a failure. Powerful though we might be we Saiyans have been few in numbers for quite a long time now, quality over quantity you might say, what's more is that our proud race was almost wiped out entirely 24 years ago when a giant meteor struck our home planet of Vegeta. There were no survivors of the collision and everyone was vaporized, including yours and Raditz's own parents as a result. There were rumors going around that your father Bardock tried to stop the meteor single handedly but met a gruesome demise as a result, but that matters little right now. Counting all three of us here there are only five left in the universe who are of pure Saiyan blood, myself and Raditz here were away on assignment with another of our warriors when the meteor struck our planet and as a result we survived. A fourth Saiyan had also survived as he had been sent to conquer a distant planet just like you had been Kakarot. Recently we had happened upon an inhabited world that we believe could fetch us a nice price but that is also where the problem lies, even with the four of us it won't be an easy fight. And that was when Raditz decided to bring his long lost little brother into the picture. Your power level is about what Raditz said that he would be but even so he believed that the five of us together should be able to manage just fine, at least that's what this fool believes. Open your eyes Kakarot, you're a Saiyan and this is what you were born for."

"That's ridiculous, there's no way that's gonna happen! I'd rather die thousands of times over before I help you murder an entire world full of innocent people."

"Is that so?" Beets glanced over at where Gohan was whimpering in Bulma's arms, drawing a glare from Goku and an uneasy glance from Raditz "You know Kakarot there was something else there that caught my eye when I arrived. About that brat hiding behind the broad with the blue hair, is that your son?"

"No it isn't!" Goku tried not to sweat.

"Raditz might be gullible but I'm not so easily fooled, that boy has Saiyan blood coursing through his veins. There's no point in trying to hide it from me, his tail is as visible as the sun itself from here."

"Well so what if he does? Touch him and you're going down!"

"Oh is that right?"

"Beets we agreed to try my approach." Raditz tried to call him off "The last thing we need is to fight with each other, if we're going to take down Frieza at some point then we have to have a common goal."

"Yes I did try to reason with him but it's clear to me that this arrogant little punk doesn't know what's best for his own son, your own nephew for that matter, so now we're going to take him with us."

"Don't even think about it."

"And what will you do, stop me?"

"If I have to then yes." Raditz took on a combat stance, and he gave a small smile when he noticed Goku do the same ' _Well well, what do you know.'_

"How touching, the brothers are reunited."

"Don't take one step closer to my son." Goku snarled "Whether he is my brother he's trying to help my stop you from taking my son so right now he's my ally."

"Which makes both of you my enemies." Beets suddenly blitzed forward and kneed both of them in the gut, sending both of them crashing to the ground before they could react, much to the horror of everyone else.

"DADDY!" Gohan tried to rush out towards Goku.

"And look what we have here now." Beets grabbed Gohan and slung him over his shoulder before turning back towards Goku and Raditz "So like I was saying you two, I'll be taking this little brat and if either of you pieces of low class waste want to see him alive again then you'll do what a superior officer tells you to do. Out of respect for the fact that we're fellow Saiyans I'm going to give Kakarot here 24 hours to think about Raditz's offer, the choice is yours but for the sake of your son it would be wise of you to join us. As for you Raditz I'll make sure that our dear prince hears about this."

Raditz felt his blood running cold ' _Vegeta…'_

"But on the other hand Kakarot you should make a gesture of your allegiance in order to prove your loyalty to us. I think I know just the thing, you're going to slaughter by this time tomorrow and if you get a taste for it then feel free to kill more and stack the bodies up here on the beach but make a separate pile for any heads you might rip off." (reference to the Venom 2018 movie).

"Wh… What…?" Goku felt his blood run cold.

"I can't wait to see which fate you've chosen for your son Kakarot. Now try not to worry, I would rather not a child of Saiyan descent if I don't have to. Like I said you have 24 hours to do what I've asked you to, if you do then you'll have the privilege of rejoining our race and if you fail to complete this task then your son dies. As for you Raditz I'll be sure to let you know what punishment our dear prince comes up with for you."

"You coward he's just a kid, leave him out of this!" Kai tried to hit Beets with a Ki blast, only to not even scratch him.

"Kai take it easy, don't do anything reckless." Yamcha pushed him to the back and decided to confront Beets himself "No matter what you do it won't work. It doesn't matter what you say or do, I've known longer than everyone except for Master Roshi and Bulma and he would never kill anyone!"

"Oh is that so? Well I'll admit that for an Earthling you have some serious spunk, but if you're willing to let the little brat die then I could just finish him off right now and Kakarot won't have to get his hands dirty. I mean granted Raditz will still get punished for these transgressions but still. Suit yourselves then, your days are numbered anyway since every creature on this planet will soon be exterminated. Once we've completed our current mission, with these two or without them we'll be back to wipe out this planet and conquer what's left of it. Of course it will be three of us against a population of billions of humans on this planet but still I'm sure we can finish this job in under a month."

"No…" Goku struggled his way forward and then grabbed Beets by the leg in a moment of desperation.

"Did you catch all of that Kakarot? You can struggle as much as you like, there's only one way out of this and that's for you to join me and the rest of the Saiyans."

"You… give me back… my son…"

"Remember what I said to you before, when I come back here tomorrow for your decision the word that I want to hear is yes." he kicked Goku's arm off of him "For the sake of your son it wouldn't be a wise move for you to try and fight back, your power level is nothing in comparison to that of a real Saiyan and you're definitely no match for me. I'll be looking forward to tomorrow, that much I can assure you of." and with that, he took off.

"GOHAN!" Goku tried to force his way to his feet, only to fall back to his knees and slammed his fist into the sand "Dammit!"

"Kakarot… I'm… sorry…" Raditz helped him to his feet as the others rushed over in order to help Goku "I was hoping to avoid something like this but he fights dirty, regardless of what you may think of me there's only one course of action that we can take right now."

"Yeah I know. FLYING NIMBUS!" Goku summoned his Flying Nimbus and prepared to hop onto it.

"Goku think about what you're doing." Yamcha tried to stop him "Even with this guy apparently willing to help us he's way too strong, and besides you're hurt right now."

"I know that Yamcha but what else am I supposed to do?"

"Well… I think I know a way, you remember back when we first fought back in the desert when we were searching for the Dragon Balls for the first time? I was gonna grab your tail because I saw that it was a weak spot!"

"Oh yeah that's right, if we can somehow grab his tail then he'll lose all of his power just like it did for me!"

"Not an impossible strategy." Raditz noted "But still he outclasses the two of you. Kakarot your power level is about 334 and the scar man has about 350, I'm at 1,500 myself and Beets is at a solid 2,000. You'll need my help."

"...Alright, I get what you're saying."

"It's useless, you can't win." a new voice cut in.

Goku glanced up and his eyes narrowed "Piccolo…"

Sure enough, Piccolo lowered himself to the ground, his eyes never leaving Goku or Raditz as he spoke "In case it wasn't already obvious the so called Saiyan here has a power level nothing short of extraordinary compared to us and this second one is even stronger, both of them being far more powerful than what we're capable of at the moment. You'd be foolish if you thought you could beat him alone even with help from Yamcha or the other Saiyan, however if the four of us were to join forces and combine our powers in order to face him together then our chances of victory would be significantly higher."

"Hold on this isn't like you Piccolo, you've never gone out of your way to help us before so why now?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart. This is strictly on business, I have no interest in helping you play the hero again and I care even less about what happens to you or your son. But that being said the last thing I need is a bunch of alien freaks like them interfering with my conquest of this planet."

"This coming from the green guy with pointy ears." Kai muttered, earning a dirty look.

"So here's my deal, I'm willing to join you for as long as it takes to defeat these Saiyan warriors but that's it, as soon as we're finished with that I plan to crush all of you like bugs, Goku being the first one to go, and then I'll continue my plans for world domination."

"That's not gonna happen, I'll make sure of that." Goku told him "But that being said the part about us teaming up is actually a pretty smart idea, with us and Yamcha and my brother teaming up it just might be the only chance that we have."

"Then we're agreed, we'll just have to deal with it for now."

"I guess so."

Raditz perked up at what Goku had said ' _He called me brother…'_

"Hey Raditz, you'll stick around after this right? I'm sure my wife will love to have you later on and my son would love to have an uncle."

"...Sure thing."

"Great now come on, we've got work to do." he glanced over at Bulma "Hey Bulma we're gonna need to borrow your Dragon Radar for a little while."

"Yeah sure okay…" a terrified Bulma handed him the Dragon Ball.

Goku accepted it and hopped onto the Flying Nimbus "Hey guys do you think you'll be able to keep up with my Flying Nimbus?"

Piccolo let out a scoff "That silly little flying cloud might work for you but my own method of travel is a bit more advanced."

"Suit yourself. Raditz what about you?"

"The same with the green one, I can fly under my own power just fine." Raditz assured him.

"Fair enough. Yamcha?"

"Way ahead of you." Yamcha leapt onto the Flying Nimbus "Kai you stay here, I don't want you getting caught up in this if it turns out to be more than we can handle."

"...Fine." Kai put down a random bazooka that he had pulled out of nowhere "F*ck."

"Yeah that's about how I expected you'd react." and on that awkward note, the four of them took off to find Beets and Gohan.

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By this point Beets had locked Gohan in his pod when he noticed a reading on his Scouter "What do we have here, a power level of 710? And it's not far from here." he followed the reading until it landed on Gohan inside of his pod "So that must be it, the thing must be broken. Either that or the brat has been trained in combat. No I'm pretty sure it's broken, it almost caught me off guard though. Well either way I suppose I should go and find some food."

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Goku and the others continued their journey towards Beets "We're getting close, I think we should try and sneak up on him."

"That's not going to work." Raditz told him, with Piccolo grunting in agreement "The best way to go about this is the direct approach, he's wearing a Scouter like me that can locate his enemies and determine their strength in numbers. They also act as communicators which is both convenient and inconvenient at the same time."

"So you're saying that he already knows that we're coming to get him?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did, but Beets is arrogant so that means that we can use that to our advantage."

"Well fine then, I guess that means that we don't have any other choice but to attack him head on!"

"Exactly."

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Beets had picked up some fruit when his Scouter alerted him "Again with this, and it's the same reading as before. And now there's 4 more readings and they're all heading this way. They're moving fast with power levels of 322, 334, 350 and 1,500. The larger one and the second weakest are the same as Raditz and Kakarot respectively but that couldn't be them, there's no way that either of them could be stupid enough to defeat me- Wait no scratch that. And now they're here."

Sure enough, at that moment Goku and Raditz dropped to the ground, with Piccolo and Yamcha not far behind them "Hey."

"And how exactly did you know where to find me, what did Raditz track me down using his Scouter?"

"That's none of your business."

"Fair enough I suppose. Alright then let me try a different question, what exactly do the four of you think you're doing here?"

"I thought that would be obvious, we came to take my son back."

"Let me get this straight, you mean to tell me that the two of you are two of the last living Saiyans and not only are you refusing to join with the rest of your kind, but Raditz is daring to betray us?"

"Yeah that's exactly what I'm saying."

"Who would've thought brothers would reunite on the same day that they die."

"All I need to know is that my brother is helping me rescue my son and take you down, and that's all you need to know too."

"Is that so Kakarot? You know I'm not surprise by your response but I always expected Raditz to have a little bit more sense than this."

"That's enough I'm not interested in this little squabble of yours." Piccolo ripped off his weighted clothing.

' _The Namekian's power level just jumped up to 408.'_

"Well Piccolo I see you still wear weighted clothes just like me huh?" Goku shedded his own weighted clothing "I've got a feeling that I'm not gonna want to hold anything back against this one."

' _And now Kakarot is at 416._ Oh please, do you think that such a small increase in power will make a difference in this fight? What fools you truly are, coming here with such pitiful power levels thinking that you could take me on, I can see that I'm going to have to put all four of you in your place."

"You can go ahead and try, just because you're stronger than we are doesn't mean that we don't have a chance at winning. You might have power but we've got strategy."

"Then we'll see how long that strategy of yours can keep you safe from me, I'm sorry about this but I was thinking about the offer that I made you and I changed my mind." he flared his blue aura "You would probably just slow the rest of us down, and for betraying the Saiyan race you're both going to die!" he blitzed past all four of them and elbowed and kneed all of them in the back, knocking them to the ground "And how about this, I'll let the three of you from this planet in on a little secret. The other two surviving Saiyan warriors that I mentioned earlier, each one of them alone is even more powerful than myself and Raditz combined." this earned looks of horror from Goku, Piccolo and Yamcha "Only now that it's too late do any of you truly understand what it means to face a Saiyan in battle. I tried to warn you Kakarot, I tried to get you to see reason but you refused to listen and for that you're going to die."

"And even if we don't there's still two more Saiyans even stronger than you and Raditz out there right?"

"So what?" Piccolo muttered "Personally I find the prospect exciting."

"Yeah I can imagine that you would, and to be honest it kind of excites me too."

"Like that's supposed to surprise me." Yamcha let out a scoff "Exciting is the last word that I'd use right now, to be completely honest I'm pretty terrified."

"I can't blame you for that Yamcha."

"Nor can I." Beets let out a chuckle "I suppose I would react the same way if I found myself staring death in the face."

"I'm done listening to this, where is my son?! Where have you hidden him, TELL ME!"

"Calm down Kakarot, I haven't hidden him anywhere. He was annoying me with his crying so I shut him up and I tucked him away in my space pod in that crater over there."

"In there?" Goku floated upwards until he could see the pod and heard Gohan crying in pure terror "Just hang in there for a little while Gohan! Daddy's gonna get you out of there really soon, I promise!"

"It's no use trying to get the boy's hopes up, you know as well as I do that that's a promise that you can't keep. You would have to get through me first and you know that's never going to happen."

"Fine by me, now let's do this." Goku dropped back to the ground and quickly took on a combat stance.

"Good because I'm sick of all of this talk." Piccolo took on his own combat stance, with Yamcha and Raditz both doing the same.

"Come on let's go!" Goku charged at Beets at full speed, with Piccolo, Raditz and Yamcha doing the same.

"Is this supposed to be what you call fast?" Beets began dodging and blocking all of their attacks with ease until he eventually got bored and kicked and punched each of them in the jaw.

Goku and the others rebounded and attempted to rush him again.

Beets leapt high into the air and fired a barrage of energy blasts, with Goku, Raditz and Yamcha managing to dodge, but Piccolo wasn't so lucky.

Goku and the others landed on the ground with a thud "What the heck where did he go?"

"Where else Kakarot? I'm right behind you." Beets blitzed behind Goku and kicked him into the dirt.

Goku picked himself up off of the ground "Hey are you guys alright-" he froze at the sight he saw.

Piccolo forced himself to stop bleeding from the stump where his left arm once was "Don't worry it's not as bad as it might look, I only need one arm to fight."

Beets let out a full on maniacal laughter "Who are you kidding, you're half dead already. This will be easier than I thought."

"Well f*ck you too. Hey Goku I don't suppose you have any new tricks up your sleeve that you've been holding back?"

"Me, no." Goku let out a chuckle "I wish, sorry but I've got nothing."

"Well that's just great."

"I've got something if it helps." Yamcha spoke up "Me and Kai have been working on creating this new technique for the past year or so."

"I guess that makes two of us, only I haven't gone soft over some brat. I myself have spent the last few months perfecting my own new attack."

"What are you all whispering about?" Beets taunted "Some new strategy I assume, not that it will do you any good. How about all of you just die already and quit wasting my time."

"Ignoring him. The upside is that I can use this attack even with just one arm, that part isn't a problem. But I will need some time in order to charge up my energy, a few minutes is all that I'll need. You guys will have to find a way to keep him occupied until I'm ready, do you guys think you can do that?"

"That I think we can do." Raditz glanced over at Goku and Yamcha "Kakarot, other one whose name I never learned (cue eye twitch from Yamcha), I'm going to fight him head on while the two of you prepare an ambush for him."

"How ironic, I originally planned to use this attack to kill Goku and now I might end up using it to save him and two others. But then again you can consider it a preview, after we beat this guy you're next."

"Alright then, you've got yourself a deal." Goku told him "After we win you can take your best shot at me."

"That is if we win." and on that somewhat somber note Raditz charged towards Beets at full speed while Goku and Yamcha split up and Piccolo began charging his energy.

"Is this really what you call a strategy?" Beets began fighting off Raditz with ease "Well you're persistent, I'll have to give you that much if nothing else." he glanced over "And so are the rest of them."

"You're damn right we are!" Yamcha began charging energy into his fingertips.

"And what do we have up there."

Goku leapt up into the air and began charging energy as he cupped his palms together " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

' _His power level is rising, he's already past 800.'_ Beets glanced over at Yamcha ' _And that one too, his power level just shot up to 1,200 and it's still climbing.'_

" **HAAAAAAAA!"** Goku fired a full power Kamehameha down at Beets using as much power as he could.

Beets tried to outrun the blast, only for it to follow him "Fine let's have it!" realizing that he couldn't outrun it, he caught the blast and was engulfed in an explosion, and when the smoke cleared he stood there unharmed.

"Dammit, he deflected it!"

"Neat trick isn't it? Now let's see if you and your brother can do the same!" Beets fired two simultaneous Full Power Energy Waves at both Goku and Raditz, sending both of them crashing to the ground, both of them being heavily wounded, and he prepared to finish off Goku when his Scouter alerted him to what Yamcha was doing "His power level, it's at 3,500?! Somehow he's concentrating all of his power into his fingertips! They've been holding back, they can alter their power levels at will!"

"You're going down Saiyan! **NAIL GUN!"** Yamcha fired a white beam of energy from his fingertips, manipulating its direction with his other hand, and the blast eventually blew off the entirety of the top of a mountain in the distance in the explosion that followed.

When everything settled down, it was revealed that Beets had somewhat managed to dodge the attack, albeit receiving a gaping hole in his shoulder "Congratulations you actually managed to wound me with that little attack of yours, and for that you're going to suffer." he prepared another energy blast "I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!" he prepared to fire the blast at Yamcha, only to suddenly freeze as his energy blast disappeared.

As it turns out, Goku had managed to grab his tail at the last second "You let your guard down and now I've got you by the tail." he yanked on it, driving Beets to the ground.

"How… How did you manage to…?"

"Now guys I've got him, hurry up and attack him before he tries anything!"

"Well done Goku now be sure to hold him still!" Piccolo continued to charge his attack "Don't let go no matter what, I only have enough energy to use this technique at this magnitude one time!"

"Got it!"

"Kakarot…" Beets ground out "Would you really kill… one of your own… a fellow Saiyan… one of the last of our kind?"

"Shut up! We've already been through this, I'm not one of yours and I never will be! Besides you tried to kill me, my brother and my friends first!"

"Yes… Yes you're right… you've shown me the error of my ways… Let me go and I'll leave all of you in peace…"

"Don't be fooled Kakarot he's lying!" Raditz barked "He doesn't mean a word of what he's saying, there's no way he'll just leave quietly after all of this!"

"Please believe me Kakarot… it's true… I've done some horrible things… I realize that… you're right to be cautious… But I will leave… I promise on my life… on my pride as a Saiyan… I promise…"

"Do… Do you really mean that?" Goku's tone was cautious.

"I do… I really swear it…"

"Well…"

"No Kakarot, don't let go of his tail!" Raditz tried to call him off "This is all just a ploy!"

Unfortunately, Goku's good nature got the better of him and he let go of the tail.

"DAMMIT KAKAROT!"

"What?"

"This!" Beets suddenly dealt both Goku and Raditz sharp kicks to the face as he wrapped his tail around his waist and began stomping on Goku's chest "You really are such a fool Kakarot, in all of my travels I've never met anyone as stupid in naive as you!"

"You… You lied…"

"Of course I did, I'm a first class warrior and I do what it takes in order to survive without any hesitation even if it means killing my own kind. No, especially then. Do I have to prove that to you then?" he started stomping on Goku's chest "How about I kill all of you nice and slow starting with you Kakarot, that will help you remember!" he glanced over at Piccolo and Yamcha and smirked "Well go one, what are you all waiting for?"

Piccolo was forced to grit his teeth as he realized the futility of the situation "Dammit I can't or he'll just dodge it again!"

"Yes that's right, know your place you worthless slug." this was followed by Gohan suddenly bursting out of the spacepod looking thoroughly pissed off, taking everyone by surprise "Okay what the hell is this?"

Goku struggled to lift his head "Gohan… run… run away… Gohan… hurry… before it's too late… run while you can…"

"His power level… it's at 3,000?!"

"You stop hurting… my DADDY!" with a surge of power unlike anything they had ever seen before, Gohan suddenly shot forward and dealt Beets a devastating headbutt that shattered his armor and left a large gaping wound in his chest.

Goku could only gape at what he was seeing "G-Gohan…?"

"Daddy!" Gohan got to his feet.

"How… How did you…?"

"Daddy… you're hurt…"

"...What?!"

"You… You little brat…" Beets struggled his way towards Gohan, leaving him frozen in pure terror.

"Go, run away! Hurry Gohan, run as fast as you can!"

Beets scanned Gohan with his Scouter "What is this some kind of joke, now his power level has dropped back down to 1."

"Please Gohan just go while you can!"

"Yes that has to be it, it's the only explanation. This boy's power changes with his emotions, well we'll fix that soon enough."

"GOHAN!" Goku's cries went unheard.

Beets then proceeded to smack Gohan upside the head, knocking him to the ground a fair distance away.

"GOHAN!" Goku tried to scramble his way towards Gohan and tried to stop Beets from finishing the job "No stop don't do it, please I'm begging you! He's just a-"

"Just a child, is that what you were going to say Kakarot? Don't make me laugh Kakarot, this child has a far greater power level than either one of you, it's best that I kill him now before he learns how to use that power. But you don't have to worry about that Kakarot, you'll see your son again soon enough in the next world!" he went over to Gohan and prepared to finish him off, until…

" **Nail Gun!"** a white hot energy beam hit Beets in the shoulder, burning him but failing to pierce him like Yamcha's did, courtesy of a certain kid in a crimson red martial arts gi.

Yamcha looked on in horror "Kai what the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay back with the others!"

"And your first mistake was thinking that was gonna happen." Kai pointed out dryly.

"And your second mistake was thinking that I was going to let that slide." Beets prepared another Full Power Energy Wave, but rather than aim it at Kai he aimed it at Yamcha, shooting him square through the chest, killing him instantly, much to the horror of everyone present, with the exception of Piccolo "Remember this boy, your actions have consequences for others that can very well be fatal."

"Uncle Yamcha! You bastard you're gonna pay for that!" Kai started attacking Beets in a blind rage, only to be swatted aside in an instant.

"Calm down boy, I'll get to you in a moment." Beets towered over Gohan's body "To think this boy was the first opponent who has ever been able to cause me any significant damage on the battlefield, an embarrassment that I will be sure to soon erase along with the other little brat."

"What… What happened…?" Gohan slowly opened his eyes, only to freeze in pure horror at the sight of Beats about to annihilate him.

"AND NOW DIE!"

"NO!" Goku suddenly appeared behind Beets and caught him in a Full Nelson, taking everyone by surprise "PICCOLO! QUICK YOUR ATTACK! DO IT, DO IT NOW!"

Piccolo let out a scoff "Well it's about damn time you decided to make your move now keep him still, it's almost ready!"

"HURRY PICCOLO, I CAN'T KEEP HIM LIKE THIS FOR VERY LONG!"

Beets tried to break free of Goku's full nelson, to no avail "Are you really as incompetent as you make yourself out to be Kakarot?! Get off of me, when he fires and you're standing right behind his blast is just going to kill you too!"

"Then I guess that's just the way it's going to have to be!" this left Gohan looking mortified at what Goku had said.

"What?! Are you out of your mind?! What about your son, think about him!"

"I am, this is the only way to make sure he's safe from someone like you!"

Gohan felt tears brimming in his eyes ' _Daddy…'_

"Hey." Kai gripped his shoulders and gave him a reassuring smile "Come on, we'd better get out of harm's way." and he pulled Gohan out of the range of the attack "Alright Goku he's over here, avenge my uncle's death that has no consequences and kick this guy's ass!"

"Thanks Kai, you're a good kid!" Goku gave him a quick strained smile "PICCOLO! DO IT NOW!"

Piccolo let out a chuckle filled to the brim with malice "Alright then Goku, if that's what you want then I won't hold back. It's no secret that I've wanted you dead for a long time so I'm not gonna pass up this chance."

"I know, now do it!"

"Wait, please let me go!" Beets made a desperate plea "I'm sorry I was wrong, please just let me go and I'll leave this planet!"

"Yeah you can forget about that, I'm not so stupid that I would actually fall for the same trick twice!"

"I mean it this time! Please I'm begging you Kakarot, don't you trust the word of one of your own!"

"PICCOLO HURRY UP!"

That was when Piccolo finally finished charging his attack "Sorry to keep you guys waiting for this long, are you ready Goku?"

"DO IT!"

"RIGHT! **SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"** using all of the Ki that he could, Piccolo fired his newly created Special Beam Cannon, piercing both Goku and Beets and leaving gaping holes in their chests.

Beets spat out some blood as he tried to comprehend his defeat at their hands "How… How did… this happen? How could I lose… to these… these weaklings? Kakarot… I never imagined… that he would… actually do it… He just… threw away… his life… in the way… that he did…"

"Yeah I wouldn't worry about that." Kai made his way over to Beets "I doubt Goku or my uncle will stay dead for long."

"What…?"

"Did I stutter jackass? You see my uncle told me about these things that we have on this planet called the Dragon Balls, gather all 7 and together they can grant any wish that the user may desire, aside from trying to get my uncle to be a lady's man. I bet that both Gohan's dad and my uncle will be alive and kicking again before lunch, especially since it's pizza night."

"You… You can all… go to hell… but still… I thank you for the information…" Beets gave a bittersweet smirk "Everything… that's happened here… today… has been transmitted… to my two Saiyan comrades… deep in outer space."

"I did hear Raditz mention something about those Scouters being communicators, so you had the frequency turned on this entire time."

"That's right… when they've learned that I've been killed… they'll come here… to avenge me… They'll wipe you out… you and every living thing… on this planet… You won't have a chance… none of you will…"

"Uh huh. And these other two Saiyans, when are they gonna come to Earth?"

"One year… one short year…"

"Which means we have one year to train until your two boyfriends arrive."

"How does… that victory… taste now… boy?"

"Like a goddamn ice cream cone."

"They'll soon have you… writhing in agony… like the worms that you are…"

"Yeah you just keep thinking that on your way to hell." Kai proceeded to shoot him through the head with a Nail Gun, ending his life in an instant "You thought that was funny Chuckles the Assclown, but we'll just see who has the last laugh when it's all said and done. Alright it's over guys, he's dead."

Gohan slowly made his way over to them "That was amazing, how are you so unfazed by all of this?"

"My uncle once made the stupid mistake of letting me binge watch the entire first 8 seasons of the Walking Dead, nothing fazes me anymore." he glanced up to see Bulma and the others arrive in their airship and touch down, forcing Piccolo and Raditz, the only two adult combatants left standing, to fill everyone in "So you know Gohan there's something I've been wondering about since the whole thing at Master Roshi's house."

"What is it?"

"How come you don't wanna be a fighter like your dad? I mean he's the most powerful being on the planet and your mom used to be a martial artist too before you were born so what the hell is that all about?"

"Well… I actually watching my daddy train but I don't know how to fight myself, my mommy always has be studying to be a scholar and I actually want to be a writer someday so I do that but I want to fight like him too. But if I told her that then she would be furious at me and then she would probably take away my dinner."

"Yeah well like a wise man once said, what your mom doesn't know won't hurt her. That's a philosophy I live by."

"Why do I feel like I'm going to hear that for the rest of my life?"

"Because you are."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, on another planet…

"Well isn't that just perfect." Nappa let out a scoff "Beets went and got himself killed and in the meantime Raditz went and betrayed us."

"Serves Beets right." Vegeta didn't even look up from the corpse that he was eating "The way I see it if Beets can't even handle Raditz and a couple of puny fighters with power levels less than 1,000 then he deserved to die, it serves him right for being as arrogant as he was. I mean yes I'm arrogant but my arrogance is justified."

"Fair enough. So what now then, do we just put this planet on hold and head to Earth?"

"Did you catch that last bit? Those things that little brat mentioned, Dragon Balls I believe he said that they were called."

"Yeah they said they could grant any wish right?"

"I would say that's worth looking into."

"Maybe we can use the wish to bring Beets back to life."

"What is that a joke, why would we waste a wish on worthless scum like that? If this story is true then we can have anything we want whether it be immortality or eternal youth, do you think we could live with those? We could be the most unstoppable force in the universe."

"Oh I like the way that you think, yeah I'm in!"

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By this point Piccolo and Raditz had finished explaining everything to the others "And that's all that happened before you got here."

Master Roshi frowned "I see."

"Goku, hey Goku!" Krillin tried to get him to wake up, to no avail "Goku! Come on man can you hear me? Oh man oh man!"

"Hey… easy on the yelling…" Goku slowly opened his eyes.

"Goku!"

"How's Gohan… is he okay?"

"Yeah, yeah he's fine. He and Kai both are."

"Good… he's safe… Chichi would… probably kill me… if he got hurt…"

"Oh Goku…" Bulma tried not to shed tears from where she was crading Yamcha's body in her arms, along with a distressed Puar.

"Hey Krillin… tell me something… this whole dying thing… it's not… a lot of fun… now is it…?"

Krillin immediately grew distressed "Hey what the heck are you talking about? Nobody else is dying here, you're gonna be fine you got that?"

"No… not this time… I'm already… to far gone… as it is… and so is Yamcha… for that matter…"

"Well you don't have to worry, we're gonna find the Dragon Balls and wish you and Yamcha back before you know it!"

"Yeah… sounds… good…" and with that, Son Goku drew his final breath and passed on into the afterlife.

"Goku! GOKU! GOKU!" Krillin tried to shake him in order to wake him up, to no avail "Please no, you can't be dead! You just can't be dead! Come on man wake the hell up!"

"He's really gone…" Bulma had tears streaming down her face "I can't believe our Goku is actually gone…"

"Goku… Goku…" this was followed by the bodies of both Goku and Yamcha vanishing into thin air, as if they had never been there to begin with "What the hell, both of them just up and vanished!"

Piccolo gave a bitter smirk "Well that figures, this has to be the doing of Kami. I can't think of anyone else that can do something like that, my guess is that he's come up with some sort of meddling plan and has taken Goku and Yamcha to see King Yemma in Other World."

"Well if they're in the hands of the guardian of Earth then that means that they're in the best hands that we've got." Kai muttered "The only question is, where the hell do we start from here?"

"I think I know." Gohan handed his hat to Bulma "I think you should look for the Dragon Balls to bring my daddy and Kai's uncle back to life."

Bulma nodded slowly "But what are you going to do?"

"Well I'll also need you to tell my mommy that I'm sorry but… I'm going to train with Kai and learn how to fight like my daddy."

"Oh, I see. Well you both are more than welcome to stay with me while you do that."

"Thanks for that Bulma but it's best if we both do this in the best way that men know how, by making complete asses out of ourselves for no one else to see." Kai started flexing.

"Of course you are."

"So tall green and brooding what are your plans for the next year or so?"

"Well for starters, this." Piccolo put his weighted clothing back on and suddenly started growling, and with a roar he regrew his missing arm, much to the horror of all of the adults present.

"Like I said, the Walking Dead makes me immune to any and all gore."

"Good for you." Piccolo glanced over at Krillin and the others "The three of you should start looking for the Dragon Balls right away, wherever Goku and Yamcha might be right now they'll still need you to wish him back to life. But you can leave the two brats with me."

"And what do you plan to do with us exactly?" asked Kai "If you plan on eating us then I'm ripping off that new arm and shoving it down your throat."

"You're feisty, I like that. The two of you both exhibit great potential but how powerful you both become depends almost entirely on whether or not you receive the proper training. One year from now two more Saiyans will arrive on Earth and when that day comes the two of you will have to be ready, there is little time and much to learn so for the next year the two of you are with me."

"And we don't get a say in this?"

"Nope."

"Just checking." Kai climbed onto Piccolo's back, with Gohan reluctantly doing the same "Now step on it Yoshi!"

"Call me that again and I'll send you to join Yamcha in the next world."

"Alright alright." Kai glanced over at Bulma "And for the record out of the four of you Launch and Bulma are the only ones who haven't been wished back before so your best option is to use them as meat shields against Goku's wife."

"...My opinion on you continues to shift. Anyway once the year is up and their training is complete I'll bring them back but not a day before, when you wish Goku and Yamcha back to life tell them that they can look forward to seeing these kids again when we return. Now, farewell." and with that, Piccolo took off with Kai and Gohan in tow.

"Woah." Bulma muttered "This is bad isn't it, this is really bad."

Krillin nodded "Gohan and Kai are both gonna be killed or even worse, the two of them will turn out like Piccolo. And the sad thing is that Kai isn't that far off."

"The boys have potential, if anyone can surpass the likes of Vegeta and Nappa then I suspect it will be them." Raditz made his way over to the corpse of Beets and soaked a white cloth in some of his blood.

"What are you doing?"

"This is a Saiyan tradition, when a fellow Saiyan dies in battle you soak a white cloth with their blood and then wear it into battle as a sort of memento. He may have been wicked hearted but he was still a Saiyan."

"So what are you gonna do from here on out?"

"As much as I would prefer to be here when Kakarot returns to help you confront my former comrades I cannot, there's something else that I have to do. There was another reason why I came looking for Kakarot."

"What do you mean?" asked Bulma.

"The surviving Saiyans are currently stuck under the thumb of a much worse monster, one with a power level so massive he makes the rest look like specs of dust. For example, my power level is 1,500. This one's is over 500,000." this left them looking terrified "I have to make sure that I am prepared for a threat as colossal as that, and you would be wise to make sure that you are as well." and he took off for his space pod without another word.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"...and that is why these two courageous young men are here standing before you on this day your greatness." by this point, Kami was presenting both Goku and Yamcha, the two of them now having halos over their heads, to King Yemma at the Check In Station in Other World, or the afterlife, or whatever you wanna call it "They have come to make this one request, all they ask for is training and on their behalf I humbly beg of you to allow him to call upon the great King Kai for the guidance that they sorely need."

"Uh huh." King Yemma looked at one of his checkbooks "Son Goku and Yamcha Sapien right? I have their files here and Yamcha's isn't bad, whereas Goku's is certainly the more impressive of the two. So let me get this straight, even those these friends of yours are sure wins to get into Heaven they still want to risk going on Snake Way just to meet with King Kai for the sake of training?"

"Yes sir."

Goku glanced over at Kami "Hey so this is the place that everyone comes to when they die right?"

"That's right."

"Aliens too."

"That's correct, every living being in the universe whether they be human or otherwise comes here to be judged and learn where they are meant to spent the rest of eternity."

"Oh. Cool." Goku glanced up at King Yemma "Hey did a big guy named Beets show up here a little while before we did?"

"Goku quiet!" Yamcha hissed "This guy can literally send us to Hell and while you can afford a few strikes against you I can't!"

"Oh come on Yamcha lighten up a little bit."

"Yeah I remember him." King Yemma checked another part of his book "Says here the two of you teamed up against him along with Kami's other half and another Saiyan named Raditz. He's on his way down to Hell, go figure right?"

"He give you any trouble?"

"You'd better believe he did, or at least he tried to. But I was able to knock some sense into him and he calmed down and went quietly."

"Wow and Raditz was tough, you must be really strong." Goku glanced over at Yamcha "Hey what do you say we stay here and train with the big guy instead?"

"Quiet, keep your voice down. You have to show King Yemma the utmost respect when in his presence." Kami leaned in and lowered his voice "Just be quiet and between the three of us I know for a fact that King Kai is much stronger."

"HEY!" King Yemma thundered "What was that Kami of the Earth? You know you shouldn't talk that way about someone who can literally send you straight to Hell!"

"Oh you heard that, you must have the ears of the devil himself sir! How appropriate wouldn't you agree?"

"...Tell me something Kami, do you think you're funny?"

"Uh… nope."

"Well fine then, if these two idiots want it that badly then they can take Snake Way to meet up with King Kai."

"Oh, thank you your greatness."

"I'll summon a guide for you two, just go and wait outside for the time being."

"Thanks." Goku and Yamcha both prepared to rush outside, only to stop when they received a warning.

"But I should warn the both of you, if you fall off of Snake Way then I don't want you to come crying back to me."

"Uh… okay." Goku and Yamcha both shared an awkward look.

"Goku, Yamcha, I wish the both of you a safe journey." Kami told them "This year will be the most challenging year for you."

"Well I'm not really sure what you mean by that but if this King Kai is as strong as you say he is then I'm sure it'll be worth the trip."

"Yeah I'm real sure." Yamcha muttered.

"Well we'd better get going Kami, see you soon and say hey to Mr Popo for me. Well see ya later!" and so Goku took off, with Yamcha following right behind him.

Kami was left alone with King Yemma, his mind drifting ' _The Earth and its gifts have drawn the attention of some of the most despicable beings the universe has to offer, if something isn't done soon then we could find ourselves in a great deal of trouble. What could we do? We could try to wish our enemies away but even the great Shenron might be powerless against their tremendous might. Goku is the greatest warrior the Earth has ever known and Yamcha has improved by leaps and bounds since he took in his nephew and yet to these Saiyans they seem these two as nothing more than an inconvenience, I wonder if King Kai training them will even help. Until those two return it would seem that Gohan and Kai are our best hopes. They're both young though and we have so little time-'_

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" King Yemma thundered, snapping Kami back to reality "GO HOME! I HAVE WORK TO DO!"

"Oh forgive me your greatness of course you're busy, I'll just be getting out of your way now so… bye!" and then Kami left.

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By this point a guide was escorting Goku and Yamcha to Snake Way "Terribly sorry for the wait but you don't have to worry, I'll get you to the head of the Snake Way before you know it. The two of you are in good hands with me, that much I can promise you. So Snake Way happens to be very long and extremely treacherous, what kind of shape are the two of you in?"

"You do realize that we're dead right?" Yamcha pointed out "I mean the kind of shape we're in is rather irrelevant."

"Oh yes that's true."

"Hey so what's this King Kai like anyway?" asked Goku "You've met him before haven't you?"

"Oh yes sure lots of times, he's surprisingly down to Earth considering he rules over every other deity in this region of the universe."

"Oh man he must be strong, I can't wait! Man this is gonna be so awesome!"

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The ride back to Kame House was awkward to say the least.

Master Roshi finally broke the silence "Well I don't suppose we would be able to get away with not telling Chichi about this. Hey Launch why don't you go over there and break the bad news, I'm pretty sure that she likes you."

Launch suddenly sneezed and turned into her yellow haired form "Alright but I'm gonna need some serious ammo for that harpe." she pulled out a musket out of nowhere "Just in case she doesn't know better than to shoot the messenger."

"...You know what on second thought it's probably best if we send Krillin instead."

"Your loss old man."

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"Here we are, welcome to Snake Way gentlemen." the guide opened the car doors.

Goku opened his eyes and found a gigantic stone snake staring him right in the face, making him yelp in terror "Woah."

"Just watch your step and exit to your left."

"Wow, so this is Snake Way then is it?" asked Yamcha.

"Yes indeed it is."

"So what are we supposed to do now?" asked Goku.

"You'll just have to start walking, you'll want to take Snake Way all the way to the very end and only then will you be able to reach King Kai."

"Looks pretty long though." Yamcha commented "I guess it's gonna be pretty hardcore training just getting there to begin with."

"Yes it is, according to the legends that I've been told Snake Way is about 1 million miles from one end to the other."

"1 MILLION MILES?!" Goku and Yamcha shared a look "So has anyone ever made it all the way to the end?"

"From what I know only two people have in the last 100 million years, one of them being the great King Yemma himself. The other one was a Saiyan known as Bardock."

"The big guy from before and another Saiyan huh? Well I guess if there are two people who can make it all the way to the end then Yamcha and I shouldn't have that much of a problem with it right?"

"It is possible but just be sure that you're both careful not to fall off into the clouds, below those clouds is where Hell lies and once you go there you can never come back."

"Really? Wow."

"Indeed."

"Hey hold on a second." Yamcha spoke up "Hey before we go there's one favor I was hoping to ask you."

"Yes what is it?"

"Do you know of an old woman by the name of Fortuneteller Baba?"

"Oh yes she comes by to say hello once in awhile or to borrow the occasional warrior for her set of five."

"Great then do you think you could send her a message for us?"

"Oh yes of course."

"Great, tell her to go see Master Roshi and give him an important message. I want him to know that whatever happens he can't bring Son Goku and Yamcha back for one year."

"Let's see if I have all of that." the guide started writing this down "Don't bring Goku or Yamcha back to life for one year, you said Master Roshi right?"

"Yeah that's right thanks, well I guess we should get started."

"I guess so." Goku started stretching "So the only real trick he said is not to fall off of the path right?"

"That's what the guy said."

"That's gonna be a breeze!" and then Goku started flying down the path.

"Oh come on that is so cheating!" and then Yamcha started flying down the path after him as fast as he could.

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At the same time, Piccolo dropped to the ground in some random wasteland and quickly motioned for Gohan and Kai to get off of his back "Alright you two let's go over the facts before we get started. Myself, Goku, Yamcha and the other Saiyan were able to defeat the man who took you Gohan, but before he died he alerted two other Saiyans who are going to reach the Earth in one year. We also have reason to believe that they're even stronger than this one was, and if that's true then even Goku wouldn't be able to stop them, not even if I were to help him in that fight. But on the other hand they don't know about the potential you two have, so if the two of you can be trained then your strength could give us the edge that we need in order to defeat them."

"But that's the thing." Gohan spoke up "I mean I want to do my part for my daddy to make him proud but am I really that strong? I'm so little and I haven't even had any training."

"And that just proves that you're blind to your potential, though you may not be aware of this your power level at the moment is far higher than mine. But you still need to be trained in order to control that power and my job right now is to help you find that strength."

"But I just don't think I have it in me."

"Do I have to prove it to you?" so Piccolo picked Gohan up by the collar and then threw him at a nearby mountain ' _Do it kid, release your power! Let's just see what you've got.'_ this was followed by an explosion that blinded both him and Kai along with a massive shockwave that nearly blew both of them away.

Kai was the first one to open his eyes and see the massive crater left behind by the blast "Okay what the f*ck?!"

Piccolo soon followed and was left stunned "What the- How did he-?!"

"He's way more powerful than either of us thought, the only difference is that I'm not gonna end up on his shit list at some point. Not to mention you're training the kids who are bound to someday become your greatest adversaries."

"...I hate you more and more every minute and yet you further cement why I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"I could've told you that." they started making their way forward.

Gohan was left stunned by what he was seeing "W-Wait a second, I didn't do that did I?"

"Yeah you got that right, and unlike me you didn't have to spend a year and a half creating a new technique to blow shit up. You've got insane power inside of you Gohan but the problem is that your power is linked to your emotions, you can't control it yet which makes this a lot harder than we thought. The first step is teaching you how to control that power, and as a result you and I will be the greatest warriors the Earth has ever seen, stronger than your dad or my uncle or even my mom who could've kicked Piccolo's ass."

"I beg to differ." Piccolo pointed out."

"And I really don't care. Anyway Gohan you'll be the second best this world has to offer behind yours truly."

Gohan nodded slowly "And maybe make this into some kind of sci fi novel?"

"I want 50% of the profits for keeping you alive during our year with the Jolly Green Jackass over here."

"Deal." they shook on it "So where do we start?"

"Well you're not gonna learn how to fight with the Chinese Prince look but luckily I came prepared for that." Kai pulled out a capsule and revealed another martial arts gi like his, only this one was purple instead of red "You've gotta be sure to be prepared when you're living with a guy like my uncle."

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Yamcha suddenly let out a loud sneeze and glanced over to see Goku drop back down onto the pathway ' _He ran out of energy already, man this is gonna be one hell of a long year.'_

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 **And so as Gohan and Kai prepare to face an entire year of rigorous training under Piccolo back on Earth, Goku and Yamcha have now begun their own rigorous journey to reach the end of the 1 million mile Snake Way. The race to prepare is on, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **I was going to wait until after New Years to publish this but I figured I would just give you guys a taste of what's to come in 2019.**

 **This is basically a rewrite of my previous Dragon Ball Z story, the Rise of a New Generation. I just lost my drive for that one and I just felt like I had written myself into a corner somewhere along the way. But instead of just giving up on it altogether I decided to create a new story with the same premise, that being the same idea featuring Gohan and Kai (only he's Yamcha's nephew instead of his son) as the main characters but with other elements of Z that I feel like could've been expanded on a lot more.**

 **One of these ideas would be giving Raditz a little bit more time to shine, as well as featuring another character next chapter. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, which I think is one of the problems from the last version of this story.**

 **Another idea such as this would include Yamcha dying in the fight against Raditz along with Goku, and as a result both of them train with King Kai and learn the Kaioken (though only Goku learns the Spirit Bomb).**

 **The next change is to include Launch in this fic to the best of my ability since while it's funny that even Toriyama forgot about her, it's kind of a waste of a character now that I think about it. I have a pairing in mind for her but it's just a what if for now.**

 **I had Raditz survive and flee Earth in his Saiyan pod for the sake of a plot development I have in mind for later. He won't reappear during the conflict with the Saiyans, he'll reappear much later than that. Still though, since his personality is different he's a little bit stronger too.**

 **Beets is just some random Saiyan I stumbled across the page of when I was looking up info for the Dragon Ball Super Broly movie. I basically put him in here as fodder so that I didn't have to make Raditz the bad guy again.**

 **Also, let me explain the main reason why I made it so Kai is Yamcha's nephew instead of his son like in the original story. That answer comes down to one simple word: Bulma. See keep in mind that by this point Bulma and Yamcha would still be dating (I'm not really sure what to do about that later on but I'll figure it out at some point), and to give Yamcha a son now would make everyone assume that he cheated on Bulma, which is not the case.**

 **So like I've said before, I feel sorry for Yamcha and I want to give him as much spotlight as I can, so I had him die with Goku and train with King Kai, and I'm thinking about mixing up the pairings so that he stays with Bulma. As for Vegeta, his time will be cut rather short based on an idea that I heard about in regards for the original plan for him.**

 **Lastly, let me explain why Gohan is less reluctant to train with Piccolo and Kai than in canon. It's because now he sees that Kai, a little kid just like him, is managing what he thought he couldn't so now he has a little bit more confidence.**

 **Power levels:**

Weighted Goku: 334

Unweighted Goku: 416

Goku (Kamehameha): 925

Weighted Piccolo: 322

Unweighted Piccolo: 408

Piccolo (Special Beam Cannon) 1,830

Yamcha: 350

Yamcha (Nail Gun): 3,500

Kai: 220

Kai (Nail Gun): 2,200

Gohan (angry):

Raditz: 1,200

Beets: 2,000

Beats (wounded by Nail Gun): 1,600


	2. One Year Training, the Saiyans Arrive

Gohan finished slipping on the gi that Kai gave him and neatly folded his tunic "So what do I do now, I mean how do we train?"

"Well for now you don't have to do anything for training." Piccolo told him "All you have to do is survive."

"Wh-What do you mean survive?"

"Out here for 6 months with that idiot (referring to Kai), the two of you stay alive out here for 6 months and then I'll teach you how to fight."

"You-You're leaving me out here? But you can't!"

"I'd rather you be alone but the other kid is here, and besides it's not going to be alone out here or anything. You've got Kai there along with a bunch of hungry wild animals to keep you company."

"Which means we either eat them or they eat us." Kai put a hand on Gohan's shoulder in order to calm him down "That sound about right?"

"That's one way to look at it."

"But then what do we have to do?" asked Gohan.

"Just do whatever it takes to stay alive for 6 months, what that entails is up to you. Do that and you'll be far stronger both in body and in mind. Remember this if nothing else, there's a great power inside of you just waiting to be unlocked. The question is, do you want to unlock that power? If you do then you have to believe in your own abilities and those of the people that surround you."

"I… okay, I'll do it. I guess." he glanced over at Kai "Have you ever done this before?"

Kai gave a simple shrug "A few times a month or so, besides it's not like the Grinch over there said that this would be easy. But fate chose this path for us for a reason, the sooner we accept it the less of a bitch life is gonna turn out to be."

"Best to keep that in mind." and then Piccolo took off without another word.

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Mr Popo glanced up at Kami and noticed him looking disturbed "Kami whatever is the matter, is there something troubling you?"

"It's Piccolo." Kami let out a sigh "I can still feel the evil that dwells within his heart, and yet at the same time there seems to be a change coming over him as well Mr Popo. He's not acting like the villain that I had anticipated."

"Yes it is quite odd, the old King Piccolo would never have been willing to train two children, let alone the son of Goku."

"Yes I found it equally surprising when he agreed to forge an alliance with Goku and the others in order to do battle with the Saiyan Beets, I realize he had his own selfish motives for doing so but still it does not change the fact that he chose to defend the Earth. And thought it would appear that the true evil nature within Piccolo chose to reveal itself when he killed Goku along with Beets we must not forget that Goku chose to make that sacrifice, and not only that but he can be easily revived with the Dragon Balls. Piccolo knows that Goku is certain to return along with Yamcha and yet he has still made the choice to train his son and Yamcha's nephew, two boys that one day may very well grow to be powerful enemies in their own rights."

"But when you put it in a way such as that it doesn't make sense."

"And yet at the same time perhaps it does Mr Popo, Piccolo may have come to the same realization that I have that in one year we shall both die."

"No Kami, you cannot be serious."

"I am sorry Mr Popo but this I had foreseen, I do not know the exact cause of our inevitable death whether Piccolo loses his life in the battle with the Saiyans or if I will simply succumb to my old age but the result is the same. My life force is forever bound with that of Piccolo, we are two halves of the same being, one cannot exist without the other. You might refer to that as the curse that comes with foresight, seeing the day of my own demise and yet being unable to prevent it. If Piccolo has sensed my mind then he may wish to pass on his knowledge before he meets his end, even if one of those two whom he does pass it on is the son of his most hated enemy."

"But what about the Dragon Balls?"

"They have the time for one final wish on them."

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Meanwhile, in Otherworld…

Goku and Yamcha were still running down Snake Way "You know I can't believe Gohan and Kai are both so strong, what they did today against Beets was totally amazing! I guess Gohan really is a chip off of the old block."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah and Kai is too, he takes after my sister in so many ways."

"You know I never even knew that you had a sister."

"Yeah… she passed away about a few months ago. It was natural causes so the Dragon Balls can't bring her back with the Dragon Balls."

"Oh… Yamcha I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Look Goku here's the thing, Scarlet was my big sister and I loved her more than anything in the world, and I love her kid and I'm happy to do anything I can for them."

"You know Yamcha I know I don't say this a lot, but you're a good guy."

"I guess I learn from the best."

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By this point, training had already begun.

Kai sat down with Gohan in the wasteland "Alright I'm gonna take this one step at a time so you can follow it alright?"

"Okay." Gohan sat down.

"Good, now the first thing we're gonna do is teach you how to use Ki. The first thing you have to do is quiet your mind and relax." he cupped his hands "When you're ready you start to slowly draw out the power from within your body." he formed a ball of Ki in his hands "What do you think, pretty cool right?"

"Woah…"

"Yeah my mom taught me how to use it about a year ago before she… Anyway do you wanna give it a shot for yourself?"

"I think so." Gohan slowly cupped his hands.

"Remember that you've gotta keep your cool or it's not gonna work."

"Right." he relaxed slightly as a light began pulsing slightly in his hands, and slowly but surely a small Ki sphere began to flicker into life in his hands.

"Yeah there you go, man you're a natural at this. It took me about an hour to learn how to do this and you did it in just a few minutes."

Gohan's ball of Ki disappeared and fell forward slightly, but he smiled "So what are we gonna do now?"

"Right now, fight off that thing." he pointed to the gigantic dinosaur drooling over them "I don't know about you but I sense dinner coming."

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Master Roshi's eyebrows shot up "What the heck do you mean that you couldn't tell Chichi what happened?"

Krillin let out a sigh "I'm sorry but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, I was gonna but I just, you know…"

"You mean you chickened out and didn't tell her a damn thing?" Launch (yellow hair) shot her a dirty look "You're seriously hopeless you know that, all you had to do was blurt it out and run before she could castrate you."

"You say that like it's easy, and sure for you it sounds easy enough as it is but you don't you go over to Chichi's and tell her that Goku is dead!"

"Well…" Master Roshi let out a sigh "All things considered I can't really say that I blame you you know."

"But it's not like we can just not tell her." Bulma pointed out.

"Yeah yeah I know so how about this, we'll write a letter to Chichi instead."

Krillin lit up at this "You mean I'm off the hook, oh man that's a great idea."

"Okay so what about the two Dragon Balls that Goku keeps at his place, at least tell me that you managed to snag those." Bulma told him.

"...Oh crap."

"Oh for f*ck's sake you're totally hopeless!"

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Nightfall came, and things had already settled down.

Kai had started a fire and was now roasting a slab of dinosaur meat that they had cut off of the tail of the dinosaur that had attacked them earlier "Word of warning I am probably a god awful cook."

Gohan let out a chuckle "Hey you know Kai I've really gotta thank you, something like this is something that really scares me but knowing that there's another kid out here with me that knows how to do this is actually pretty comforting."

"Save the thanks runt, your training is only getting started."

"What?"

"We've got 6 months until Piccolo comes back for us and I know for a fact that what you tapped into during training today isn't even scratching the surface of the surface of the power that you've got locked away in there. You pushed through one wall and now we're gonna push through the next. You can't tell me you're not curious, that you don't wanna know how strong you truly are. Don't settle for being pretty good when you could be the best there is. Like I've said we've got 6 months out here, let's put that time to good use." he held out his hand "Now do you wanna get stronger than Goku like I wanna get stronger than my uncle right?"

"...Stronger than my daddy?" Gohan slowly accepted the hand "Yeah I think so, now let's do this."

"Great minds think alike I guess."

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What neither of them realized was that Piccolo was actually watching them from afar ' _Well what do you know, the brats can learn. I guess they've got more potential and grit than even I had anticipated.'_

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Morning came, and shit was about to hit the fan.

Chichi was driving towards Kame House with her father the Ox King, intent on giving Goku literal hell "He kept Gohan out all night and didn't even bother to call me once! The nerve of that man!

Ox King let out a nervous chuckle "Well it's been so long since Goku has seen all of his friends I bet that that he probably just lost track of time and then they decided to spend the night with Master Roshi and the rest of them."

"Well that's still just poor parenting, Gohan has his school work to think about."

"Oh come on Chichi, missing one day isn't that big of a deal is it?"

"Yeah but where does it stop, first it's just a single day and then the next thing you know my son is a homeless bum!" and then she proceeded to floor it.

"CHICHI!"

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By this point in the day, the sun was shining over Kame House.

Bulma finally finished working on the Scouter that Raditz had given her "There that should be enough for it, hey guys come and take a look at this. Hop to, I think I finally got this bad boy working!" she scowled when she noticed that they were sleeping "Launch you mind?"

"Don't mind if I do." and so Launch preceded them to shoot them awake, drawing yelps of terror from Krillin and Master Roshi.

"Thank you. Listen up you two I have been up all night and I'm a little bit irritable right about now so you would be wise not to get on my bad side, now then we're gonna try this one again okay? Now hope to guys."

"Uh… hop where exactly?" asked Master Roshi.

"Come on just stand up so that I can put this baby through its paces and I even changed the characters in the display so that it would be easier to read." she scanned Master Roshi using the Scouter "Huh, you're at 139."

"139? Oh no Bulma I'm much older than that."

"It's not your age it's your strength, your power level or whatever it was that Raditz called the thing."

"It can tell you that just by looking at me? Wow that's an amazing device and 139 sounds tough to beat."

"Yeah I guess."

"Okay okay my turn!" Krillin bolted to his feet "What's my number Bulma?"

"Let's find out. Well what do you know, you're at 206."

"Hey check it out I'm stronger than you now, the student has surpassed the master! Oh yeah it's a new day for the Krill-Dog!" and then he fell off of the couch "Ow."

"You had that coming."

Master Roshi started sweating "Hold on a second, are you sure that you actually fixed that thing?"

"Not to brag but I am sort of a wiz at this stuff!"

"Hello is anyone there?" a voice called from outside "Hello?"

"Yeah yeah we're coming." Krillin went to answer it, only to find a muscular young man standing there with darker colored skin, beady eyes and a feather in his hair, someone that he recognized and his face lit up because of it "No way, Upa?!"

Sure enough, standing before him was Upa, the young warrior of the native tribe that lived underneath Korin Tower "Hi Krillin how's it going?"

"Holy crap you've gotten so big, what are you up to now?"

"I actually climbed Korin Tower and I've been training under Master Korin, it took me about 3 weeks to get the water from him and I've been living up there with him and Yajirobe ever since then. Anyway Master Korin wanted me to come and give you guys a message, he wants you to come to his tower for some special training."

"Wait a second, as in _the_ Korin?"

"The white cat with the staff, yes. He wants you to bring Yajirobe since he wouldn't want to come willingly, as well as two people called Tien and Chiaotzu."

"Wow uh, it sounds like a pretty big deal."

"Yes I know. Oh and also I have a message from Goku and Yamcha, they don't want you to wish them back to life with the Dragon Balls until the Saiyans arrive one year from now."

"Wait what but why?"

"From what I can tell they're undergoing some sort of special training in the afterlife with some sort of martial arts master, I think Fortuneteller Baba is meant to come by later on and give you more details. I would stay but I have to get back to Korin Tower before Yajirobe realizes that I took his car. See you them!" and then he took off.

"Wait a second, Baba is coming all the way here? So what the heck are Goku and Yamcha doing again exactly?"

"Don't bother asking me, I don't have a clue." Master Roshi muttered.

"That's helpful, and is it just me or is he coming back?" Krillin gestured to a vehicle approaching them in the distance.

"Wait what?"

As it turns out, it was just Ox King with Chichi "Hey there Master Roshi it's great to see you again, how are you everybody!" this unintentionally caused Master Roshi to pretty much lose his shit.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap, it's Ox King and he's with Chichi!"

Krillin was practically trying not to piss himself "Okay this is really really bad, what the heck are we supposed to do?"

"Well I guess it's too late to write that letter."

"And I don't know about you schmucks but I'm so out of here." Launch pulled a car out of a capsule, hopped into it and then suddenly took off across the ocean.

"Yep, we're screwed." this proved to be true when Ox King and Chichi finally pulled up onto the scene.

"Master Roshi it's been far too long!" Ox King hopped out of the car and started bowing in front of Master Roshi "How are you doing teacher, I hope that all of these years have been treating you well."

"Oh yes, so far so good I guess. For the next few minutes anyway."

Chichi was less than cordial as she hopped out of her car "Alright where the hell are the two of them? I know they're around here somewhere, now start talking!"

"Oh boy. Well the thing about that is… it's like this!" this prompted both of them to lean in as he explained the entire situation from the day before.

"...WHAT?!" this was a high pitched harpy like shriek that nearly made their ears bleed "You guys let that Piccolo monster take my son?!"

"Not like we had much of a choice, but yeah."

"And you're saying that Goku had to, I mean that he's…"

"Well, he and Yamcha are both kind of dead."

"..." Chichi then took the chance to faint on the spot.

"Oh crap Chichi, Krillin hurry up and get the smelling salts!"

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Nightfall came, and the full moon was shining brightly.

Gohan sat up and went to pee against a rock until he noticed "Why do I have a shadow when it's night time?"

"Probably just from the moon now piss quietly." Kai rolled over to try and go back to sleep, which failed miserably.

Gohan looked up and made direct eye contact with the full moon "Oh wow it's the biggest moon ever, and it's so bright! It must be a full moon, I've never seen one of those before-" he cut himself short when his heart began racing and his eyes started to turn red.

"And thus goes any chance of me getting any sleep tonight." Kai bolted into the air just in time to see Gohan transform into a full Great Ape "Or for the next week or so."

Now in his Great Ape form, Gohan was unable to control himself and started going on a rampage, shattering mountains around them left and right.

"And now it looks like I'm gonna f*cking die."

"Sad thing is I don't think you're that far off." Piccolo pulled him out of the way of a mouth blast from Gohan "If he keeps this up then the Earth will be destroyed before the Saiyans even get here!"

"Not to mention that he puts Donkey Kong to shame!"

"Enough with the references, we have to figure out some way to stop him!"

"Calm down green man I already figured it out, Raditz said that the full moon is the key to unlocking the true potential of a Saiyan, which means that… You know what I'm just gonna do it, Sailor Moon eat your heart out! **NAIL GUN!"** and so to prove that point, Kai fired a full power Nail Gun at the moon, blowing it to bits in an instant "I was able to figure out that they need the full moon to produce blutz waves to allow them to transform, sort of like a werewolf effect."

"...I'm honestly rather scared by you at some points." Piccolo glanced down to see Gohan change back to normal and pass out "So that's the secret of the Saiyan's power, it has to be that tail of theirs, somehow it gives them the ability to transform at a full moon."

"Again like a werewolf effect, but either way the fact that we destroyed it might be for the best at least until we get rid of the Saiyans and then we can bring it back with the Dragon Balls when this whole thing is over."

"But if the kid did this much damage then I would hate to think what the other two Saiyans would be able to do when they arrived."

"But now without the moon they won't receive the necessary blutz waves they need in order to transform which makes the playing field at least somewhat level."

"In fact we have an advantage now because we know that their tails can be a weak spot for them that we can exploit."

"Actually I think my uncle mentioned that Goku was able to train his tail so that it wasn't a weak spot anymore so the other Saiyans might have been able to."

"Well regardless this means that the kid's tail is only a liability." and so Piccolo grabbed Gohan's tail and ripped it clean off "There we go."

"The only problem now is that the kid is naked in the jungle, god this feels like an episode of Survivor on LSD."

"Yeah now he might need some new clothes and maybe a sword, I guess I can at least prove the kid with that much and now that I think about it you might need a sword too." so he then used his lethal attack Clothes Beam, equipping Gohan in a new gi similar to Piccolo's own, as well as giving both him and Kai their own swords "The clothes are like mine to show that he's for my camp."

"That is easily your most metro attack."

"Whatever, I've already done more for you brats than I had intended. I don't have time to babysit the two of you any longer, I have my own training to do so now you're gonna have to teach this brat how to survive. If the two of you are able to survive out here for six months by yourselves then you'll see me again, and then you'll both see what you're made of when your real training begins. Believe me when I tell you that once you both learn what I have in store for you then I promise that you'll wish that you had died." and with that, he took off into the night sky, leaving the two boys on their own.

' _Well we're one step closer to being prepared for the end of the world but it looks like a long hard road still lies ahead.'_

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The days kept on going by, and before anyone knew it 6 full months had passed.

Gohan was woken up by two things, one of them being the early morning sun and the other being his stomach "Food…"

"Way ahead of you!" Kai suddenly came running with a certain familiar dinosaur on his tail, but he swerved at the last second and made it crash head first into a mountain "Eat your heart out Meet the Robinsons."

"And now for my role!" Gohan drew his sword and cut off a piece of the dinosaur's tail, and then used a Ki blast to create a small fire "Looks like he's gonna be all out of tail pretty soon."

"Well it's been about six months so Piccolo oughta come back for us any day now." Kai then proceeded to start grilling the slab of dinosaur meat.

"Hey just remember that I like my meat golden brown."

"Yeah yeah I got it."

Piccolo observed the two of them from afar "Good it looks like the two of them are improving faster than I thought, I guess having two of them is accelerating their progress more than I had anticipated."

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At the same time, Goku and Yamcha were still running down Snake Way, panting heavily all the way ' _Oh come on, how much further is it to King Kai's place?'_

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By this point, Krillin, Upa, Tien, Chiaotzu and Yajirobe had all gathered up at Kami's Lookout to begin training "I'll tell you now guys, with all of us fighting together like this I doubt those Saiyans stand a ghost of a chance."

Tien nodded "You got that right Krillin, we'll be sure to be ready for them. Especially after we train with Kami."

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Piccolo took the first opportunity that he could to confront Gohan and Kai "Looks like the two of you managed to survive for six months, and I can see that the two of you learned a lot in that time. But your still not a fighter, now is when your real training is going to begin. Are you ready?"

"As if you had to ask!" Kai charged at Piccolo, with Gohan doing the same.

Piccolo proceeded to throw both of them to the ground without breaking a sweat "What's the matter, is that all you've got?"

"Far from it!" Gohan charged at him first, only to receive a kick to the face "Ow."

"You can never allow yourself to lose sight of your target."

"But I couldn't even see you, you were moving way too fast."

"Your eyes will deceive you on the battlefield, try to feel it."

"Yeah but I did feel it, that's the problem." he was promptly blasted by Piccolo using his Eye Beams, frying him and knocking him out cold.

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The days continued to pass, feeling longer for some than for others.

Goku and Yamcha climbed up a massive hurdle on Snake Way and stopped in order to catch their breath "Oh man this is insane."

"Hey Goku take a look at that!" Yamcha pointed to what he saw not far away "It looks like we finally reached the tail, and you said that this was never gonna end!"

"Yamcha you said that like 7 times every day but yay, we really did it!" they started sliding down the other side of the tail hill until he almost fell off into the clouds, only to be pulled back onto the path by Yamcha when they noticed something very off putting "Okay is it just me or is there nothing here?"

"Nope I'm not seeing anything, as far as I'm concerned this is a major ripoff."

"I know it's like- Wait what's that up there?" Goku pointed to a very small planet sitting high above them.

"You think that's where King Kai lives?"

"Oh yeah it's gotta be, it's just gotta be! Come on, let's go!" and so the two of them leapt as high as they could into the planet's gravitational pull, only to end up crashing onto the ground of the planet with a loud thud.

"Ow."

"...Hey Yamcha?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you move?"

"Not really no. You?"

"No. It feels like my body is completely made of led, I can't even get on my feet!"

"Hold on, let me try." Yamcha struggled a great deal, but eventually he was able to pull himself onto his feet "Okay it's pretty heavy but I think I'm getting it."

"Yeah well good for you." Goku wasn't anywhere near as successful "The more I try to fight against it the harder it seems to pull me back down!"

"Well your weighted clothes might not help that."

"Well either way it feels like my body is completely made of lead! Dammit!" he looked up to see a monkey staring at the two of them "Hey Yamcha do you think it would make sense for King Kai to be a cat?"

"Why in the name of hell would it make sense for a martial arts master to be a monkey?"

"Well to be fair Korin is a cat."

"...Yeah okay fair enough. Hey let's get something to eat from that tree over there."

"Good idea." the two of them started struggling towards a nearby tree " I mean King Kai is supposed to be the best and Korin was the best on Earth.

"Well unless you count Kami and Mr Popo, what the hell is he anyway?"

"Oh god don't even get me started, I fought him once after I beat King Piccolo and he wasted me."

"How bad?"

"I fired a Kamehameha wave at him and he literally swallowed it."

"...There's weird and then there's Mr Popo isn't there?"

"Truer words have never been spoken, hey how do you know Mr Popo anyway?"

"Well after you beat Piccolo in that tournament a few years back my sister Scarlet kind of tore into me for losing out to Kami in such a humiliating way."

"Oh you mean the way you hurt your balls on his head?"

"Yeah, anyway she beat me down for a few weeks and then sent me to meet Korin, who then sent me up to meet Kami and Mr Popo."

"...You have my sympathy."

"As do I for anyone who met King Yemma's wife." that was when a short blue figure came out of the house "Seriously have you seen her, it's like every single nightmare I ever had fused into one being, cloned itself, f*cked the clone and then made her!"

Yamcha nodded "I know right?"

"Yeah! Hey quick question, who the hell are you two?"

"Oh yeah right." he bowed and forced Goku to do the same "You must be the great master known as King Kai, my name is Yamcha and this is my good friend Son Goku and we've both travelled a great distance to meet with you-"

"Oh hang on, let me do my intro. If you're itching for a laugh- Oh yeah speaking of which I've got a killer." he tried to scratch an itch on his back "Dammit I can't-"

"I've got it." Yamcha summoned a Spirit Ball and rubbed it against King Kai's back "How does that work?"

"Like wonders, I already like you. Anyway I'm your guy, I'm King Kai and that over there is my pet monkey Bubbles."

"Who Goku here actually thought was you."

"Is that supposed to sound funny? Because that's just weird and believe me when I tell you that I know funny, I'm sure you gathered that from my clever little rhyme there. It's not too late to laugh if you need to."

"Hey I laughed at my sister's jokes all the time and they're in the same ballpark, I think I'm funnied out for now."

"Fair enough. Goku what about you, you need to laugh at it?"

"Laugh at what exactly?" asked Goku.

"...Yeah it's official, Yamcha is my favorite out of you two. I should know better than to lead with the high route stuff-"

"Goku doesn't get jokes." Yamcha told him "But trust me he's got his own set of issues in the head."

"...You're killing me man, what are you two doing here anyway?"

"Oh see we both died and were told that you were the best martial arts master that we could meet so we came to seek you out."

"Yeah I figured that much from you Yamcha, see about 6 months ago I got a new student and she wouldn't stop talking about you and her son."

"...Wait do you mean who I think you mean?"

"Let's find out, you can come out now!"

' _Is it…'_

That was when another figure emerged from the house, revealed to be a woman with brown hair in a ponytail, black eyes and a crimson red martial arts gi "Hey Yamcha, looks like you've bulked a little bit."

"Scarlet…"

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Training continued back on Earth.

In a surprising turn of events, Gohan was able to deal Piccolo a solid kick to the face, sending him stumbling backwards "You said that I'm worthless in battle if I can't control my energy so that's what I'm doing!"

"Take your own advice ponytail!" Kai dealt Gohan an uppercut kick to the jaw.

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"Come on he who doesn't have a sense of humor, let's give the two of them a chance to catch up a little bit." King Kai led Goku away, leaving Yamcha and Scarlet alone.

Yamcha sat down on the edge of King Kai's well "You know Kai's turning out really well even if he's so young."

"I see." Scarlet sat down next to him and gave him a gentle smile "It's good that you're looking out for him."

"Yeah." he wiped away a few tears "You know I've tried to be strong for him but what happened to you, it still really hurts. I just don't know when it's gonna stop, I keep thinking it's gonna go away but it doesn't, it just gets worse. I show him pictures of you all the time and I get this empty feeling like what happened to mom and dad all over again. I mean I feel like I could've done something."

"No Yamcha you heard what the doctor said, that disease that took me had no cure. Besides I know that feeling, both when we lost mom and dad and when I lost my husband. I don't think that feeling ever goes away, I'm so sorry that I put you through this and my son."

"I miss you sis, it's not easy for me to talk about."

"It hurts me too, the thought that I put you through so much pain and that I won't get to see my son grow up. But just know this if nothing else, I'll watch over you to to the best of my ability and be there when it really counts." the two of them hugged it out "Now why don't we go see your friend make an ass out of himself in front of King Kai."

"What does he have to do?"

"Well King Kai thinks he's a comedian but he has nothing on me."

"His sense of humor is exactly like yours."

"...I'm going to ignore that but in the meantime I want you to come at me." she stood and took on a combat stance "I hope you're as good at fighting these days as you are at running your mouth little brother."

"You got it." Yamcha got into a combat stance "Hey by the way why is it that ever since Goku and I got to this planet I've sort of been having a hard time moving?"

"That doesn't surprise me, I had a hard time with it too when I first got here. You see the gravity of this planet is 10 times stronger than it is on Earth, frankly I'm impressed that you can stand at all. Try this for example, jump as high as you can."

"Alright." Yamcha leapt into the air as high as he could, only to end up falling back down to the ground in a matter of seconds "Dammit it's no use, I can barely get myself off of the ground at all! At this rate I'm never gonna be ready."

"10 times your own gravity and you can still jump that high? That's impressive, I can tell that you're going to get even stronger than me when we're done."

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Training was continuing on Kami's Lookout, with Krillin, Tien and Upa in particular showing a great level of improvement.

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King Kai gathered both Goku and Yamcha to begin with their training "Before we get started we're going to have to work out your training regimen, how long do the two of you plan to stay here anyway?"

"Well I'm not really sure how long Goku and I were on Snake Way for but I doubt we have a lot of time left, see there are two Saiyans on their way to Earth right now and when they get there everyone is gonna be in a lot of trouble." Yamcha told him "Right now we're not strong enough to stop them yet so we have to get as strong as possible before they get here."

"The Saiyans huh? They're a nasty bunch that's for sure, I doubt even Scarlet here would want to tangle with them. But that being said we still need to come up with an estimate before they reach the Earth, so let me use these bad boys here to check out how much time we have and where they are right now." so he used his antenna to determine the locations of Vegeta and Nappa flying through space at the moment "Yeah no doubt about it, I can tell that's them. Judging by their speed and current location, I would say that they're due to arrive on Earth in 158 days."

"Man that's pretty soon, but how could you possible be able to tell that?" asked Goku.

"These antennas get all of the channels in the universe, TV be damned."

"Uh huh. Well if you're sure that they'll get to Earth in 158 days then I don't think we have enough time now do we?"

"Well it's not as much as I'd like but I think that with me and Scarlet teaching the two of you then we should be able to make it work. Think of it like the gravity on this planet, everything here is multiplied so 158 days here with me is worth years of training back on Earth."

"That's awesome!"

"But don't become complacent, even the best training doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to defeat the Saiyans. The two specific ones that are on their way to Earth are among the strongest and most ruthless warriors in the universe, to be perfectly frank these Saiyans are even more powerful than I am."

"Wait what, are you kidding?"

"No not this time, I mean there's a chance that Scarlet could defeat them but even then there's no guarantee. Regardless, that means that if the two of you wish to defeat me then that means that the two of you will have to be able to become even stronger than me before you leave or you won't stand a chance. But regardless of that now we'd better get started, Bubbles can you come over here and lend me a hand please?" he called Bubbles over to him "The first thing that you need is to get accustomed to the increase gravity of this planet, so your first training assignment is to catch Bubbles. Let me just warn you now that he's pretty quick, if you can't at least do that then you might as well just give up now."

"...Yeah sure works for me I guess."

"Okay Bubbles now get moving." and so King Kai sent Bubbles on his way.

"Oh man I've totally got this!" Yamcha took off after Bubbles at a somewhat reasonable level of speed, with Goku lagging far behind "Yeah you're going down monkey! And see Goku this is why wearing weighted clothes is more of a hindrance than a help!"

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Training had started early that morning.

Kai was taking an onslaught of punches and kicks from Piccolo, until he managed to block one punch and deal him a kick to the face "Now Gohan!"

"Right! **Kamehameha!"** Gohan charged at Piccolo and unleashed a weaker version of the Kamehameha, but it still sent Piccolo reeling a few feet.

"Yeah that's how we do it in our neck of the woods asshat!"

Piccolo wiped the blood from his lip "Good job you two, but don't let your guard down!"

"We're not!" Kai yanked Gohan out of the path of a Ki blast, only to stop and for his head to snap in a certain direction "Piccolo."

"I know." Piccolo glanced back to see two warriors by the names of Ginger and Nicky charging towards them in mid air "Get ready you two, something feels off about them."

"Wait are they running on air? That's so stupid, they're flying so why would they even need to-"

"Focus!"

"Yeah die mother f*cker!" Sansho burst up from the ground and decked the three of them, before he and the other two started laying a beating on them, ending the assault with a three way Ki blast "Yeah that's right, now Piccolo and Kami are one in body and spirit in Hell! Choke on that one mother f*cker! Now let's get those Dragon Balls!"

"Wait wait wait hold on a second." Kai and Gohan suddenly appeared in front of the three of them, with Piccolo hanging back "So you tried to kill Piccolo and Kami and then use the Dragon Balls?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You realize that if Piccolo and Kami are dead then the Dragon Balls are useless right?"

"...Oh shit."

"DAMMIT YOU IMBECILES I TOLD YOU TO TARGET KAMI AND THEN SUBDUE HIM, NOT KILL THE STRONG ONE!" that was when a small gremlin like figure in a robe appeared on the scene "Honestly it's times like this that I think minions are supposed to be incompetent."

"That sounds about right." Piccolo proceeded to off Ginger in an instant, leaving the other two for Kai and Gohan "You two got this?"

"Oh yeah we've totally got this." Kai blew Sansho's brains out with a quick Nail Gun to the head, with Gohan firing a Masenko and vaporizing Nicky, leaving only the gremlin left "You mind if me and Gohan double team this little freak?"

"Fine by me." and so he chose to hang back.

"Now then small blue and annoying, what's your name?"

"Such a mouth on you." the gremlin tutted "You see the reason why we're here is quite a simple one child, my name is Garlic Jr-" he was cut off by Kai snickering "What's so funny?"

"No no carry on. _Garlic though, seriously? Dammit now I want garlic bread.'_

"As I was _saying_ , my name is Garlic Jr and this planet will soon belong to me!"

"Okay so that's your objective, now what's your shtick?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think I know what he means, from what I understand no real villain is actually that intimidating unless they have a good backstory." Gohan told him.

"Oh, I see. Very well then, I suppose I might as well tell the two of you before I wipe you from the face of the Earth. It was before your time. 300 years ago my father Garlic (cue the snickering again) was in competition with the one you know as Kami for the role of Guardian of the Earth, but Kami had been chosen and then my father tried to claim the throne by force, only to be imprisoned and sealed away for all of eternity. For over three centuries I have been biding my time gathering my strength, and now I shall usurp that foolish guardian."

"By going after the stronger half?"

"As we've already agreed my henchmen are fools, but I suppose I could call this a preemptive strike. After all with Piccolo and Son Goku both dead then there won't be anyone left strong enough to stop me!"

"Brilliant plan Einstein, except there are two factors you're not considering." Kai told him.

"Which are what exactly?"

"Me and Gohan."

"Oh yes, you killed two of my henchmen during this conversation. I will admit that your skills are impressive, it's such a shame that the two of you are sacrificing yourselves for the inevitable."

"Yeah, your death."

"We'll see about that soon enough, boy! I guess it's like the old saying goes, if you want someone to be killed right then you have to kill them yourself!" and then with a mighty rage filled roar Garlic Jr transformed into his full power form, which basically looked like a blue gremlin version of the Hulk "Now do you see, this is what true power looks like!" he blitzed past Gohan and Kai and elbowed both of them in the backs before firing his Death Impact energy wave, destroying the plateau they were fighting on.

Kai took the chance to throw a pen and a notepad at Piccolo "Write down some of those lines, they could work out for you!" he then proceed to charge at Garlic Jr and fire off a barrage of punches and kicks, only for his attacks to not have any effect, forcing him on the defensive.

"Kai get down!" Gohan pulled him out of the way right before Garlic Jr hit them with another Death Impact, leaving him at the mercy of Garlic Jr as he got slammed against the side of a mountain.

Kai on the other hand to nurse his wrist ' _Dammit that bastard f*cked up my wrist, I mean it doesn't hurt a lot but it's definitely uncomfortable. Maybe I should have Piccolo conjure up a wrist brace or something-_

"PAIN TRAIN IS COMING!" having grabbed Gohan by the face, Garlic Jr then proceeded to do the same to Kai and then slammed both of them down to the ground "Next stop: ROCK BOTTOM!"

"I get it!"

"In case you little brats haven't figured it out yet then let me spell it out for you, you can't beat me!"

"We'll see about that."

"There has to be some day for us to stop him" Gohan muttered.

"Talking about it isn't gonna work, all we can do is beat the ever loving shit out of him before he does it to us anymore than he already has."

"You seem like you're serious, but with all of the power that I'm sensing from him we have to work together if we want to have any chance of defeating him."

"I hope you plan on taking your own advice."

"We've been training out here together for about 6 months, I think you already know the answer to that."

"Yeah I do." and so the two of them charged forward at full speed, with Kai taking the front as usual.

"Do you think that can stop me?" Garlic Jr blitzed through their charge, with Gohan and Kai blitzing through his attacks.

This ended when Gohan caught Garlic Jr and kicked him in the face, giving him and Kai the chance to begin their counterattack " **MASENKO!"** and with two simultaneous mighty roars of rage, they each fired a simultaneous Masenko, the combined power allowing them to complete vaporize Garlic Jr on the spot without even giving him time to scream.

Kai breathed a sigh of relief "Well that was fun."

"That was… exhausting…" Gohan fell to the ground on his back, panting heavily as he lost consciousness.

' _He's still not used to fighting on that level but all things considered he did well.'_

Piccolo lowered himself back to the ground "A little bit sloppy on your parts but all things considered not a bad job the two of you did, there might just be hope for you yet."

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Nightfall came, and things had finally settled down, with Kai already being fast asleep.

Piccolo had built a campfire and shot a smirk at Gohan "Well at least the last six months had knocked the crybaby out of you at the very least."

"Yeah I know, but you kind of have to when you're stuck alone with someone like Kai for that long." Gohan pointed out.

"True."

"Hey!" Kai let out an offended yelp.

"Well it's true."

Then Gohan thought of something "Hey Piccolo is it really true that you and my dad fought each other a long time ago before I was born?"

"Yes it is, and believe me when I tell you that that fight is far from over. Once the Saiyans are defeated, that is to say if they are defeated, then I intend to pick it up where we left off."

"Yeah but my dad used to tell me that ever since you got reborn you're not nearly as bad as you used to be, he said that now you're not as evil as you are grumpy. I don't know I think he wasn't that far off from being right."

"And losing interest in this conversation."

"And plus my mom is still totally scared of you."

"...Just stop blabbering and go to sleep, and if you think today's training was tough then wait until you see what I've got in store for the two of you tomorrow!"

"Um… okay." and then he rolled over and went to sleep.

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3 weeks of intense training and anime levels of hijinks later…

Yamcha broke away from a quick sparring session with Scarlet "Man I knew you'd paste me, I guess you haven't been wasting your time here."

"I've been dead, training is all that I can do with someone like King Kai." Scarlet pointed out dryly "Just be glad I talked King Kai into letting you spar with me instead of having to use that mallet on Gregory, you probably would've lost it and killed him."

"I don't think Goku is that far off."

"What do you mean?"

"OH THAT IS IT!" with a mallet in his hands, Goku started chasing a flying grasshopper around the planet, smashing everything in failed attempts to hit him "ENJOY IT NOW YOU LITTLE BASTARD BUT JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL I GET THIS THING WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF THAT SKULL!" and he even ended up smashing King Kai's car.

"...Well he's driven if nothing else, you've gotta give him that much. Still though you and he have been improving spectacularly since you've been here."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely, in fact I have no doubt in my mind that you and Goku will both be able to master the Kaioken technique."

"Is that a big deal?"

"Oh you have no idea."

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Krillin watched as Tien and Upa sparred ' _The two of them are getting more and more incredible by the day!_ Dammit Yajirobe will you take this seriously for once?!"

"Alright alright fine, just lose the metal pole up your ass." Yajirobe threw away the corn cob that he was eating and knocked Krillin to the ground, and then proceeded to literally bite him on the ass.

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Piccolo dealt Gohan a sharp kick to the face "Hey come on now what are you waiting for you little brat?"

Gohan managed to dodge a few punches "Yes I'm really getting there aren't I guys? Just admit it!"

"Don't get so carried away, dodging my attacks only once or twice doesn't give you the right to be cocky because YOU'RE STILL SOFT!" and to prove this point he blasted Gohan in the face, sending him falling down a cliff, kicking him off of it for good measure.

"Hey what the heck was that for?!"

"IF YOU CAN'T GET BACK UP HERE ON YOUR OWN THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST GIVE UP!" and then Piccolo sat down and began meditating, hearing Gohan's screams and failed attempts at getting back up the cliff ' _So what now Gohan, will you rise above it or cower in the face of a challenge?'_ and then he heard a voice.

"Hey Piccolo! PICCOLO! Are you still there?! Well listen up cause I've got something to say to you! I know what you're trying to do and I get it, you want me to learn to take care of myself in the same way that you and Kai do! Well fine I'll do your training or whatever else you say, my dad wouldn't give up and neither will I! But I'm not gonna quit! You hear me Piccolo?!"

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At the same time, Kami addressed Krillin, Tien, Yajirobe, Chiaotzu and Upa "I am pleased to confess that there is nothing left that I am able to teach all of you, there is no doubt in my mind that your abilities have far surpassed both Mr Popo and myself. Return now to your homes on the Earth below and hone the newfound skills that you have learned until that fated day arrives upon us. The future of this world is in your hands."

"So does that mean that we can get out of these heavy clothes now or what?" asked Yajirobe.

"Yes feel free to do what you wish with them."

Krillin glanced over at Tien and Chiaotzu "I say that we go and put the finishing touches on these new skills, at this rate I feel like we can keep on powering up forever! We have to be invincible!"

Tien nodded "Yeah I know what you mean, but if we're invincible then I can't wait to see what's become of Goku and Yamcha."

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King Kai watched as Goku finally managed to smash Gregory into the ground ' _Excellent and we still have 118 days left! Could they be the ones, the students that I've been waiting for that can master my techniques? Not only do both Goku and Yamcha possess the strength to master the Kaioken technique but Goku has the purity of heart required to wield my most powerful attack, the Spirit Bomb!'_

"So you're gonna keep your end of the bargain right?" Goku and Yamcha both made their way up to him.

"Make no mistake you two, this training will be more strenuous than you could possible begin to imagine! Are the two of you ready?!"

"Oh you bet we are!"

"Very well then you two, expect nothing less of yourselves than to be the best of the best! I want the two of you to aspire to greatness you hear?! GREATNESS!"

"You can count on that."

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The months continued to pass, and before anyone knew it the last day of training had at last arrived.

King Kai had Goku and Yamcha stand at attention "Well this is it boys, the last day of your training under me. I wish we could've had another month to hone your comedic skills but other than that I've been able to teach the two of you everything you'll need to know in order to succeed. Why don't we review what the two of you have learned just to be on the safe side you know?"

Goku nodded "Yeah that sounds about right."

"Alright then, Bubbles you're up first. Ready… GO!" he clocked it as Goku managed to catch the monkey "0.8 seconds, you've broken the record! Yamcha, you're up next!"

"Got it!" Yamcha got into position.

"Ready… GO!" he clocked it "1 solid second, that's remarkable!"

"So what's next?" Goku lined up next with a mallet in hand

"Next up is Gregory. Ready, and… GO!" he clocked it "1.2 seconds, that's unbelievable! Okay so, Yamcha's next! Ready… GO!" he clocked it "1.5 seconds, this is amazing!"

"So what do we do next?" asked Goku.

"Well rather than risk you blowing up my planet let's just make sure you understand the specific mechanics behind the Spirit Bomb, only then will you be able to use it correctly. Essentially you pull a small amount of energy from the grass, trees, people, animals, every living thing on the planet and the air itself, and then it releases all of that energy in one giant burst."

"Oh yeah it's a pretty awesome technique alright."

"Even here on a planet as small as this one we're on right now you know exactly just how capable it is, you can only begin to imagine how powerful it will be on a planet as large as the Earth, which has that much more life energy to draw from, not to mention the energy you'll be able to pull from the sun. But at the same time you must be extremely careful, the raw power of your Spirit Bomb could easily become too much for you to control alone. One small mistake and you could destroy your home and all of the friends that you're fighting to protect."

"Yeah, I know."

"For that reason that you must promise me that you won't use it unless you have absolutely no other choice and even then only once. Do you understand me?"

"All too well King Kai, all too well. Besides, with everything else me and Yamcha learned from you we probably won't even need it."

"I hope you're right, I really do. Now I'm afraid that we don't have the time we need to put the final touches on your training, the Saiyans should arrive on Earth in about 24 hours."

"Right, so we'd better get back to Earth then."

"...OH CRAP!" King Kai suddenly screamed "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"

"Woah man take it easy, what's the matter?" asked Yamcha.

"Okay so try to stay calm but the thing is that I may have forgotten to factor in how long it would take the two of you to get back to Earth."

"Wait what? But I thought you were gonna send me back home, Goku and I thought you were just gonna teleport us there or something."

"Uh…"

"...YOU MEAN WE'VE GOTTA TAKE SNAKE WAY ALL THE WAY BACK! GOKU AND I TOOK SIX MONTHS JUST TO GET HERE, WE CAN'T MAKE IT BY TOMORROW!"

"I know but you're faster now and it won't take you as long, maybe 2 days at the most, and then I'll have Kami meet you guys at the end to meet you the rest of the way!"

"No we don't have two days, they're almost there now! If me and Goku aren't there then everyone is gonna die!"

"Quit being such a baby will you! I messed up and I admit it, don't you think I feel bad enough as it is?! Now listen it's important that we get in touch with your friends back on Earth and fast so you can tell them to wish you back with the Dragon Balls right away!"

"But how?" asked Goku "I know you don't have a phone unless we missed it somewhere!"

"There's no phone now listen carefully, one of you is gonna put your hand on my back and then think as hard as you can and then your friends should be able to hear you."

"Wait are you serious?" Yamcha put his hand on King Kai's back "You mean like here?"

"Yes whatever that's fine, now hurry up and think!"

"Alright alright. _Hey Bulma, Bulma can you hear me? It's me Yamcha, if you can hear me then say something! Bulma are you there? Please say something!'_

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Bulma was sitting on the couch at Kame House reading a certain magazine ' _You've been one hell of a naughty boy haven't you?'_

" _Bulma, Bulma are you there?"_

"What I wasn't reading male pron!" Bulma threw the magazine out the window, only to suddenly freeze "Wait Yamcha is that you? Where are you?"

" _Oh man this is awesome, you can really hear me! I'm in Otherworld with King Kai, Kami sent me to him he's actually the one that Goku and I have been training with for the past few months once we actually found him. He's helping me talk to you using my thoughts.'_

"What like some kind of interdimensional phone?"

" _Something like that. So how's it going with the Dragon Balls, have you guys managed to track down all 7 of them yet?"_

"Y-Yeah we found all 7 a few months ago, we didn't rest until we found them because we wanted to be ready in case you and Goku wanted to be brought back early."

" _That's perfect because we kind of are! You see Goku and I need to be brought back to life by the Dragon Balls right away! The Saiyans are close and moving fast, if my source is correct then they're gonna be there tomorrow!"_

"Wait a second, TOMORROW?! But it hasn't been a year yet, I thought they weren't supposed to get here for another month!"

" _Looks like what we were told was a little bit off, now I don't have the time to explain but the thing is that me and Goku are gonna be a little bit late. Tell Tien and Piccolo and the others to stall them for as long as they can."_

"We can bring you back right away, and you say that you and Goku have been training? You know it's kind of funny, Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu have been training with Kami up on the Lookout along with, get this: Upa!"

" _You mean the little Indian kid? Good for him!"_

"So how's it going, do you think you and Goku are gonna be ready to take on the Saiyans and beat their assed into the sun?"

" _You bet we are, and you know I even got to see Scarlet up here. She's been helping me with my training too."_

"Oh wow great, tell her I said hi. _Man I just wish I could tell him that Kai and Gohan were taken away by Piccolo.'_

" _Bulma you know that I can hear your thoughts right?"_

"...Oh look at the time, gotta go bye!"

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Yamcha lifted his hand off of King Kai's back "Well I'm gonna have hell to go through after this is over but it was still great to get to talk to Bulma, thanks for that. Not only that but Goku and I get to be alive again."

King Kai nodded "Yeah you got that right, now while we wait for your friends to get the Dragon Balls ready what do you say we do something about those worn out training clothes for the two of you?"

"Yeah sure go for it." Goku told him.

"Just watch and learn boys." with a flick of his antennas King Kai gave both Goku and Yamcha brand new martial arts gis exactly identical to what they had before, only with his symbol on the back instead of the Turtle School symbol.

"Hey thanks, it's really light!"

"You know I had a feeling you might appreciate that but it's not just light, it's made of incredibly strong fabric. It can even repel minor attacks."

"Thank you King Kai you're the greatest and I love how you put the Turtle School mark right in the same place as it was before, you know I was actually pretty worried that we'd end up getting stuck in some stupid outfit like what you're wearing but I won't be embarrassed to be seen in this!"

"...You're welcome. I think. Anyway I think you'll agree that the mark on the back gives it an extra touch of pizzazz!"

"Oh hell yeah!"

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Training was still going strong back on Earth.

"Come on and get a grip!" Piccolo was attacking Gohan and Kai with a rapid barrage of Ki blasts in a frenzy "Stand your ground! You have to counterattack, don't just evade!"

"You want a counterattack?! Well fine!" Gohan suddenly burst forward faster than either Piccolo or Kai could react and decked the former in the jaw before aiming for a kick at the knees, only for him to be caught by the leg and hit with the Eye Beams by Piccolo, frying him and knocking him to the ground.

"Oh. Oh shit are you alright? I might have gotten a little bit carried away there, you're not gonna die on my are you?" he was hit with a Ki blast to the knee, blowing a hole through it "Ow."

Gohan pulled himself to his feet "That was cheap for both of us only mine was payback, you promised us you weren't gonna use those eye beams things of yours."

"And what if I did?! You can never trust your enemies, especially in a real fight!"

"Well yeah I know that but…"

"But what?"

"But you're not the enemy." this caused Piccolo to fall silent.

"Okay you know what hold that thought for a little bit you guys." Kai butted his way into the conversation "Let's try and give Gohan a quick haircut, it's getting pretty wild up there and the last thing we need is for the Saiyans to pull any cheap moves and grab him by the hair."

"Um… okay." then Gohan looked up and noticed the skies growing dark "Hey guys why is it getting so dark when it's still the middle of the afternoon

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At the same time, Master Roshi had prepared to summon Shenron using the Dragon Balls in order to bring Goku and Yamcha back to life "Now then, Shenron come forth!"

The Dragon Balls glowed, the skies darkened, and then Shenron appeared " **You who have gathered the seven Dragon Balls, state your wish and I shall grant it."**

And then Oolong spoke up "Okay so just a thought here, but what if we wished for Shenron to destroy the Saiyans before they even got here? That way we wouldn't have to even fight them or anything."

"What are you kidding me?!" Bulma rounded on him "What kind of stupid idea is that? What about Goku and Yamcha, do you just want them to stay dead forever?!"

"No that's not what I meant, I mean I just figured that it could be easier and besides we can always bring Goku and Yamcha back next time can't we?"

" **You have requested a wish that is beyond my power. I was created by the Guardian of the Earth known as Kami, I cannot grant a wish that exceeds his power."**

"Well in that case forget about the Saiyans and just bring Goku and Yamcha back!" Bulma told him.

" **Very well young one, that wish shall be granted."** Shenron's eyes glowed as he granted the wish.

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"Looks like they're bringing Goku and Yamcha back to life early." Piccolo suddenly started sweating.

"But then that means that the Saiyans are gonna get to Earth a lot sooner than anyone thought they would." Kai noted "I guess that means we're f*cked."

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King Kai lit up when he noticed that Goku and Yamcha's halos were gone "Yes your halos have disappeared, that means that you're both alive again!"

"ALRIGHT!" Goku and Yamcha caught each other in a high five.

"Now there's no time to lose, keep in mind that these two Saiyans are as evil as they are powerful. Don't underestimate them, you must never let your guard down even for a fraction of a second. And make sure you don't end up back here again, next time will be forever."

"Yeah we know that, you don't have to worry. I know that the Dragon Balls can't bring us back to life twice so I guess we're just gonna have to win. Thanks again for everything that you've done for us King Kai, I'll be sure to visit the next time that I'm dead but let's hope that this isn't for awhile."

Yamcha nodded and turned to Scarlet "Well sis I guess this is it then."

Scarlet nodded "Yeah I know, sorry I can't go with you Yamcha but my place is here in Otherworld now. I can't go with you this time, I just wish I could be there to watch you grow as a warrior and to see my son grow up."

"Yeah I know, I'll say hi to him for you."

"Thanks. It's sad really, this is the last time I'll get to see you before your time really does come for you to join me here one day. Good luck little brother, show those Saiyans what you're made of and give them exactly what they deserve." they shared a loving hug.

"Until we meet again big sister." and with that, Yamcha took off, with Goku right behind him as they leapt off of the planet and down onto Snake Way as they began the 1 million mile trip back to Earth.

' _Until we meet again little brother.'_

"It's hard to believe." King Kai commented "I would never have believed that someone of their levels of strength existed, or that someone like Goku could have such a pure heart if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I doubt we'll run into anyone like them again anytime soon."

"Yeah, and I have no doubt in my mind that Yamcha and Kai will both surpass me. It's only a matter of time now."

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"Man this is awesome!" Goku and Yamcha were running down Snake Way like they didn't have a care in the world "I still can't believe how light these clothes are, it's totally amazing!"

"Goku come on we've gotta focus!" Yamcha took off flying down Snake Way, with Goku soon doing the same "This is no time to be goofing off, we've gotta hurry and get back to Earth as fast as we can!"

"Yeah, yeah you're right."

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 **Even as Goku and Yamcha began their return journey along the 1 million mile Snake Way, elsewhere the year long journey of the Saiyans across the galaxy across the galaxy was about to come to an end, and the following day at 11:43 am terror would descend upon the Earth.**

 **At long last, the day of reckoning has come and the Saiyans have arrived. The fight for the survival of the Earth is about to begin, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **The gi that Gohan wears is basically the one that he wears during the Cell Games, only minus the cape. I always thought it looked so badass so I decided to give it to him early. I also gave him that haircut too, in order to replace the one that he had during the Namek Saga, which I always thought was horrendous.**

 **I added in Upa based on something I saw in this one fic called the Earthling Chronicles, I would've added in Chichi too but then it would just be copying that guy's work. The title of this fic is The Next Generation, meant to give the kids of the main characters from the original Dragon Ball series their chance to shine, and since Videl and the others of Gohan's age group are still too young I figured why not do someone who's actually old enough and already knows Goku. In this case, Upa is the best candidate.**

 **The appearance of Scarlet on King Kai's planet was meant to delve into her character and give Yamcha some bonus character development in terms of coping with her death. That's actually inspired by the Jesse and Danny scene from the Thanksgiving episode of Full House.**

 **This chapter basically covers the events of Dead Zone in this fic, partially to avoid the events of the Garlic Jr saga and partially to show how strong Gohan, Kai and Piccolo are now. So to put it simply, they're training fodder and meant to up the word count.**

 **Next chapter is when the battle with Vegeta and Nappa begins, with Gohan, Kai, Upa, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu stalling for time until Goku and Yamcha can arrive. There will be at least a few noteworthy divergences from canon so be prepared.**

 **Power levels:**

Scarlet (suppressed): 5,000

Gohan (Great Ape): 30,000

King Kai: 3,500

Upa: 105

Krillin: 206

Tien: 300

Chiaotzu: 145

Yajirobe: 183

Gohan (6 months later): 700

Kai (6 months later): 650

Piccolo (6 months later): 2,000

Garlic Jr: 1,000

Ginger: 530

Nicky: 455

Sansho: 480


	3. Brutal Battle, Heroes Arrival

Having landed in East City, Vegeta and Nappa observed what Earth was like "You know it's not as bad as I had been expecting."

Nappa nodded "Yeah but before we start sight seeing how about we try and say hello to some of the locals."

"Fine by me, just go easy on them."

"Whatever you say." and so Nappa unleashed his Giant Storm, vaporizing the city and everyone in it in a blinding explosion that covered the entire planet.

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Upa observed the explosion from afar in the middle of a jungle "This is unbelievable, to think that they could be this powerful.

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Nappa observed the crater left behind by his blast "Hey you know I don't think I made a big enough impression, maybe I should give it another try."

"Nappa I believe that it would be best if we left it at that." Vegeta told him "The more damage that we do now the less we'll be able to sell this planet for once it's all said and done."

"Oh yeah right well that's fine anyway, we should probably start looking for those whatever you call them balls that grant those wishes."

"They're called Dragon Balls and the first thing that we have to do is find the one that was responsible for killing Beets and extract a tiny bit of information from him about where they are."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense."

"Now of course if the Dragon Balls were being held somewhere in this vicinity then our chance to wish for eternal life just went up in smoke now didn't it? All because you had to say hello like your usual incompetent self."

"...Oh crap. Sorry Vegeta I guess I wasn't thinking, it won't happen again."

"Forget about it, what's done is done and there's no use fretting over it now. Now let's try to scope out the highest power level on this planet, finding the one who killed Beets should be as simple as that."

"Makes sense I guess." Nappa checked out his Scouter "Well that's kind of weird, according to my Scouter there are multiple readings for power levels over 1,000. But why would there be so many of them?"

"Just don't lose your head, there's no reason for us to be alarmed. As I said before we'll simply find the one with the highest power level and then go after him."

"Yeah that makes sense, and from what I can gather there are three fairly high readings are right next to each other."

"Yes it seems that you're right, what do you say that we go and have some fun?" and with that being said, the two of them took off.

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At the same time, Goku and Yamcha were making their way down Snake Way as fast as they were able to ' _Just hang on guys, we're coming as fast as we can!'_

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"Gohan, Kai, they Saiyans are coming right for us aren't they?" Piccolo threw away his weighted cape and turban.

Gohan and Kai shared a look and nodded "Right!"

"There's nothing for us to fear, remember that compared to a year ago the three of us have managed to increase our powers ten fold."

"Yeah I know Piccolo, we're ready."

"Good thing too because it feels like we're surrounded." Kai pointed out "Seriously I can feel a bunch of guys closing in from that direction, but they feel kind of familiar."

"What does that mean then?"

"My guess is the cavalry, or what they think is the cavalry but is actually fodder."

"I kind of resent that." that was when Krillin dropped down onto the scene "Hey Piccolo it's been awhile hasn't it?"

"Oh it's just you." Piccolo shot him a smirk "And what the hell do you think you're doing here anyway? You do realize that you're just gonna get in the way, then again I'm guessing you won't be the only piece of fodder taking part in this fight."

"Yeah you got that right, the whole gang is coming along with someone that you haven't met before but I just happened to be the one that was the closest to here."

And then Gohan recognized him "I remember you now, you're one of the ones that I saw before at Master Roshi's right?"

"Oh yeah the name is Krillin, looks like the two of you have bulked up since the last time I saw you. You look almost exactly like Goku when he was that short, the only difference is the clothes."

"And you grew up with my dad before didn't you, he told me a lot of stories that he went through back then. So you're the one that used to train in order to make up for being short!"

"Hold on a second, Goku told you what now?"

"Hey Golden Girls 1 and 2, we've got company." Kai pointed a thumb upwards.

Sure enough, Nappa and Vegeta were hovering above them menacingly "Well what do we have here, a bunch of pathetic insects doing their best to look tough."

"Perhaps they are pathetic but you can give these four credit for one thing, they at least seem to know who we are." Vegeta noted.

"Fair enough." the two of them lowered themselves to the ground.

"It looks like they've been waiting for us."

"I'm gonna say this once Golden Girls 3 and 4, screw whatever business you have on this planet and go shoot yourselves into the sun before I get mad." Kai told him "I'm giving you guys a chance to get out of this alive, your first and last chance by the way."

"That voice, so that would mean that you're the lucky one who was able to kill Beets a year ago now weren't you?"

"Yeah Raditz said that the Scouters were able to double as communicators or something didn't he?"

"Smart little brat now aren't you?"

And then Nappa noticed something "Hey check it out Vegeta, I think that green one over there might be a Namekian."

"Yes no doubt about it, now it almost makes sense in a way that Beets would've had a hard time with the likes of these fools if they had a Namekian amongst their ranks."

Piccolo blinked "Okay so then what is a Namekian exactly?"

"What you don't know? Not only are they known to have above average power levels but the people of the Namekian race are said to have mysterious hidden abilities as well."

' _So then I'm one of these… Namekians?'_

"I've also heard that a chosen few are capable of performing tricks, almost like what you might refer to as a magician. So that would explain it then, you must be the one who created these so called Dragon Balls aren't you?"

"And what the hell do the two of you know about the Dragon Balls exactly?" asked Kai.

"Not only do we know about them, they're the main reason we're here." Nappa told him "Now just hand them over nice and easy, your friend here may be a Namekian but you're nothing but insects to us and you're going to be crushed by our superior Saiyan power."

"Is that really what you believe?" Piccolo got into his own combat stance "Well I guess it's only right for me to start by thanking you for teaching me about my ancestry, but on the other hand you're wrong about two things. First of all I had no hand in creating the Dragon Balls, as you can see I'm not so much of a simple magician as I am a warrior and you're dead wrong if you think your Saiyan power will save you from me."

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Mr Popo could only look at Kami in awe "Oh my dear Kami…"

"I… I had no idea." Kami muttered "For the first time in my life I have been made aware of my origins, and now I am aware of why I had always possessed such special powers yes. It is true that I am the one who created the Dragon Balls on this planet so many years ago. It all makes sense now, I attempted to create the Dragon Balls in order to answer a deep yearning that I had previously held. When I had finally succeeded I felt as if I had managed to make it home, or rather as if a very small piece of home had found its way to me."

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"Oh and one more thing Nappa, take off your Scouter." Vegeta took off his Scouter "Keep in mind that these pests are able to raise and lower their power levels in response to the opponents that they face which makes our Scouters completely unreliable."

"Oh yeah you got that right Vegeta, good thinking." Nappa threw off his Scouter "Now I remember, that's how that weakling Beets went and got himself killed, he got fooled by the readings that his Scouter was giving him and then he lowered his guard."

"But we're not so foolish. Okay then, I'm not so foolish."

Krillin glanced up at Piccolo "Wait a second, Beets? Isn't he that one Saiyan that was so tough that you, Goku, Yamcha and Goku's brother had to team up on him and even then you were still just barely able to beat him? They're calling him weak? Oh man we're screwed."

"These guys are smarter than the last one." Kai noted "They actually know that those readings are useless, like YouTube."

"But I have hundreds of YouTube friends!"

"Exactly."

"Alright that's enough talk, let's see how these pests can handle themselves in action when things heat up." Vegeta shot a glance up at Nappa "Tell me something Nappa, we still have seven of those Saibamen left don't we? Get them ready would you?"

"You know Vegeta I always thought you had a twisted sense of humor." Nappa pointed out dryly.

"Yes, and?"

"I like it!" Nappa pulled out a small bottle with some small seeds "Yep you were right, we've still got six of these little bastards. This soil should do very nicely, soon you'll be telling us everything that we want to hear." he planted the seeds in the ground and poured a strange green liquid onto them, and in only a few moments it sprouted up several green plant like creatures from the ground.

"Those things are gross." Krillin muttered "But at least they're shorter than I am- Kai what are you doing?"

"What the hell do you think?" Kai was writing something down on a notepad "This could be an amazing conspiracy theory for the Walking Dead, a liquid virus that brings the dead back to life as Walkers!"

"...Putting aside your lack of mental stability, I say we go on the offensive before those things try and get the jump on us."

"Hey Krillin!" that was when Tien and Chiaotzu dropped down onto the scene, raring and ready to fight.

"Alright Tien and Chiaotzu, I was wondering when you guys would get here."

"I was under the impression that there were only two Saiyans." Tien pointed out.

"Well a lot has happened in the past two minutes and now there's eight."

"Not like it makes that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. So who are the kids, I assume that one of them is Goku's son and the other is Yamcha's nephew?"

"Yep you got that right, Piccolo did a pretty good job of training the two of them by the looks of things."

And then Upa showed up on the scene "Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to get here but now I am."

"And we're glad to have you Upa."

"It looks like everyone is here except for Goku and Yamcha then."

"But they'll be here soon."

Vegeta studied the group in front of them "Looks like they have about 7 warriors on their side right now, quite interesting since that's the exact same number of Saibamen that we have here with us. What would all of you say to a game of sorts, each one of you can take turns fighting one of our Saibamen and then we can see what happens."

"Spare me." Piccolo outright snarled "We're not here to play some stupid games and we're not fighting on your terms, we'll take you all on at once!"

"Chill the f*ck out Jolly Green Jackass." Kai tried to call him off "We've gotta play this smart for now as long as these things are around, besides going along with this little game of his might be able to buy us some time until Goku and Yamcha get here."

"I think the boy is correct." Upa was the first one to step forward "I'll go first, these tiny creatures don't scare me and besides I could use a good warmup."

Nappa barked out a laugh "That's the spirit Triclops, fresh meat for the grinder. But just give it a minute, you won't be acting so cocky once you've seen what these little bastards are really capable of!"

"We'll see about that."

Vegeta glanced over at one of the Saibamen "You'll be going first, hit him as hard as you can you got that?" this prompted the Saibamen to charge forward.

Upa quickly sent the Saibaman flying with one hit and prepared to follow up with another attack, but was forced to dodge a stream of acid, as well as everyone else, and so Upa followed up with a sharp elbow to the torso, knocking the Saibaman to the ground, much to the joy of everyone else "You were saying?"

"Not bad by your standards I'll give you that much."

Nappa was far more taken aback by this "But there's no way, a Saibamen's power is a solid 1,200! Every one of these little bastards is supposed to be almost as strong as Raditz!"

"Well then it's simple, all that means is that the three eyed freak here is even stronger than that right?"

"But-"

"We just miscalculated, that's all there is to it."

"But the data says that-"

"Don't worry about it Nappa, if anything it should make our little game that much more entertaining." and then he proceeded to kill that Saibaman as it tried to get back up, much to the horror of almost everyone present.

"Vegeta wh-what did you do that for?"

"It's simple Nappa, he made the grave mistake of underestimating his opponent and I believe that I specifically told him to hold nothing back."

Piccolo studied Vegeta intently ' _He's quite the ruthless one, if this is the way that he treats his allies then I don't expect that he'll be showing any mercy to his enemies.'_

"Now then, who wants to be the next one to go at it with one of the Saibamen?"

"How about I have a crack at them." that was when Krillin stepped forward "I think it's about time I show you guys exactly why no one comes to Earth and just pushes us around like we're nobody. You guys just hang back a little bit, I'll take care of this and wipe out all six of them at once."

"Oh look at the little tough guy, how precious." Nappa glanced down at one of the Saibamen in front of him "Well what the hell are you waiting for, go already!"

"Alright come on ugly, let's get this over with."

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Goku and Yamcha were racing their way down Snake way, their minds racing ' _I don't know why but I've got a bad feeling all of a sudden. Just make sure you and the others hold out for as long as you can Piccolo, we're on our way and we won't slow down until we're there.'_

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Gohan was surprised as he watched Krillin and the Saibaman disappear from sight ' _Did they vanish? No wait they're just moving faster than normal eyes are able to see. I've gotta feel out their Ki signatures just like Kai and Piccolo taught me. Concentrate Gohan, let your body take in your surroundings. See with your body and not your eyes.'_ he concentrated on sensing out the Ki signatures and found Krillin and the Saibaman duking it out not far away "Yes I see them, they're up there!"

"It's about time." Piccolo just let out a grunt and turned away, trying to hide the small smile of pride that he was feeling ' _Good job kid.'_

"And what do we have here?" it turns out that Kai had seen him.

"Your smoking corpse if you utter one word about this." he received only a grin "I'm serious you little shit."

Krillin was managing to overtake the Saibaman for the most part until he got launched high into the air "You wanna play rough?! Well FINE! IT'S KRILLER TIME!" and he hit the Saibaman dead on using a full power Kamehameha, sending it slamming into the ground and leaving it in a smoking crater, much to the joy of all of those that were present.

"God dammit not again." Nappa muttered.

"Looks like these little guys aren't anywhere near as tough as you made them out to be now are they?"

"What's that you bald little son of a-"

"Yeah you heard me."

"Take it easy Nappa." Vegeta was quick to call him off.

"How about this, I'll save the rest of my friends the trouble and take care of the last five of them all by myself."

"Now that's something I'd honestly love to see, too bad I'll never get the chance."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Krillin was answered by the Saibaman suddenly grabbing onto him from behind "What the hell?! Get off of me!" he tried to break free but to no avail, and the last thing he saw was the Saibaman giving him a malicious grin before they both went up in a powerful explosion.

"There we go, now that's more like it."

"The thing is insane." Piccolo muttered "It just blew himself up, he had no way to defend himself."

"Is he…?" Gohan trailed off.

"Don't get your hopes up, that was a point blank explosion and he couldn't even defend himself so the chances of him surviving are slim to none."

"Krillin!" Upa rushed over to check on him, only to slowly turn back to face the others after a tense moment "Guys… he didn't make it." he slammed his fist into the ground "I should've known something like this would happen, I should've gone in his place! At least then I can be revived with the Dragon Balls! Dammit!"

Nappa on the other hand was pissed "What in the name of hell was that idiot Saibaman thinking huh?! I don't wanna see a draw, I wanna see a win!"

"Calm down Nappa, there's no need for you to lose your head." Vegeta called him off "Let's just give them a moment to clear that piece of trash off of the battlefield."

"...You called him trash?" Upa rounded on Vegeta, the vein in his forehead throbbing "How dare you… How dare you! Everyone stand back! Okay Krillin this one's for you, I promise I won't let you down my friend. I'm going to make you pay for what you did to him!" he spread out his hands and began charging energy "Now you're going to see what happens to people who hurt my friends, I'm not the same little kid that I used to be and now I'm going to give you a taste of your own medicine! **Karinga Bomber!"** he fired a barrage of Ki blasts into the air and then rained them down on the area, engulfing Vegeta, Nappa and the Saibamen in a powerful explosion, with the exception of one Saibaman.

Tien nodded in approval "Nice work Upa, pretty impressive move."

"Thank you but I won't be satisfied until we finish of the last one." this was followed by the last Saibaman charging at him from behind.

"Look out!" Gohan charged at the Saibaman and hit it with a full power Ki blast, annihilating it on the spot "That was close, are you alright?"

"Yes thank you, you're Goku's son right?"

"Yeah but we can't talk right now, we've still got a fight on our hands."

Sure enough, a laugh from Vegeta broke through the smoke "If that's the best that they can muster then this going to be quite the breeze." and then he and Nappa emerged without so much as a scratch "If you're finished warming up then why don't we just get started already? There's no need for us to drag this out."

' _Now they're about to bring out the big gun's aren't they? They took a hit like that without even getting so much as a simple scratch.'_ Gohan shared a look with Kai and nodded ' _I guess that means that we can't hold back against him.'_

"So how shall we go about this then?"

"Hey Vegeta how about you let me go at them." Nappa told him "I'm tired of just screwing around."

"Sure Nappa knock yourself out, but I'm not finished with the Namekian yet so let him live for the time being. You can have your way with him once he tells us what we want to know about the Dragon Balls."

"Well if that's the case then I might as well take my time and enjoy myself, so I think I'll start with… YOU YOU LITTLE SHIT!" he charged at Kai in a rage.

"Not so fast!" Gohan and Kai both suddenly charged at Nappa, the former firing a Ki blast and the latter hitting him in the shoulder with a Nail Gun, only for it to bounce off but not without leaving a burn on his right arm, which led to Kai being kicked into a nearby plateau, smashing clear through it.

"Well what the hell do you know, it looks like this is gonna be more fun than I thought." he started powering up, shaking the very Earth itself.

"Dammit, I've never felt a power like this before." Tien muttered.

Chiaotzu seemed to have his own problem in regards to his psychic powers "Tien it's no use, I tried to hypnotize him but he didn't even blink!"

Piccolo had to brace himself ' _This is bad, I expected these Saiyans to be strong but this is just insane!'_

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Goku and Yamcha were still flying across the skies of Otherworld in a desperate attempt to get back to Earth ' _Hang on just a little bit longer you guys, we're on our way!'_

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Nappa finished powering up, his body crackling with electricity in the form of an aura of lightning like armor, only to notice Chiaotzu trying to use his psychic powers on him "Well what do we have here?" and then he hit Chiaotzu with a Ki blast, sending him crashing into a plateau before setting his sights on Tien.

' _He's coming right at me, I have to be ready!'_ realizing how powerful Nappa was and the damage that he could sustain, Tien did the tactical thing and retreated from Nappa before he could be hit and took to the air.

"You're not going anywhere!" Nappa charged at Tien and prepared to deal him a kick to the head.

" **Solar Flare!"** Tien dealt Nappa a Solar Flare before he was able to attack him, thus blinding him as a result.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT! YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE FOR THAT!" enraged and blinded both figuratively and literally, Nappa unleashed a Blazing Storm attack, leaving an extremely deep crater that nearly blew everyone away in a blinding explosion.

Tien was nearly frozen in awe at the display of power ' _He left a crater so deep that I can't even see the bottom, to think that the amount of power that must have taken!'_

"Now do you see you little shit, do you see what we're capable of?!"

"Hey Nappa you might want to look behind you for a second." Vegeta nonchalantly gestured to where Chiaotzu had clung onto Nappa's back and then began glowing.

"What the hell, get off of me you little shit!" Nappa tried several things to get Chiaotzu off of him, including slamming him into a mountain.

Tien could only look on in horror "Chiaotzu let go, stop it! Just get off of him before you get yourself killed! Please just get out of the way!" and then he was contacted by Chiaotzu using his telepathy.

" _Tien, listen to me! I just want to thank you for being such a great friend."_ Chiaotzu started glowing.

"What- What the hell are you talking about? Just get out of there now while you still can! Please!"

" _Please Tien, just don't forget about me."_ he started glowing brighter " _I'm really gonna miss you."_

"W- Wait What? Chiaotzu please tell me you're not gonna do something that you're gonna regret!"

" _Goodbye Tien, whatever you do just try to stay alive for my sake okay?"_

"CHIAOTZU NO DON'T!"

" _Goodbye Tien!"_ and with that, Chiaotzu finally self destructed, apparently taking Nappa with him.

Frozen in despair at the sight of Chiaotzu dying again, Tien could do little more than let out a blood curdling scream of grief.

Piccolo on the other hand was actually impressed "Not a bad strategy, sacrificing himself in order to kill the Saiyans. I mean granted it was a little bit extreme but it got results."

Kai forced Gohan to look at the scene "Don't look away from this, honor the bravery of that small Pokemon. Don't make his sacrifice to save all of us something to be ashamed of, give him the respect that Team Rocket has been denied."

"...Did you just call Chiaotzu a Pokemon?" asked Gohan.

"Isn't that what he is?"

"NO!"

"Well what else could he be, and besides as far as I know people from this planet don't have three eyes so Tien and Chiaotzu are Pokemon!"

"No they're not!"

"Fine then I'll prove it!" he pulled out a Pokeball out of nowhere and then he and Gohan started wrestling over it.

This was still going on when the smoke cleared to reveal Nappa, alive and well and completely unharmed "Well that's one less Pokemon like pest that we have to worry about killing now isn't it?"

"See?! Even the Saiyan version of Red Hulk minus the awesomeness thinks Chiaotzu was a Pokemon!"

"Well yeah, it's a universal thing."

Upa was horrified by the more important revelation "But that shouldn't be possible, he's not even scratched. So then that means… that means that Chiaotzu killed himself and even blew himself up for nothing!"

"Yep, just gonna let that pointless shabang drag out a little bit."

Tien was outright snarling like an angry animal "He's really gone, he's gone forever! He's already been wished back to life once before so now nothing can bring him back, not even the Dragon Balls! I swear you're going to pay for this, I'll make sure of that if it's the last thing that I ever do!"

"Well fine then triclops, if you still don't realize how pointless it is to try and battle a Saiyan elite like me then I'll give you one last demonstration! Unfortunately for you though, it's gonna be the last thing that you ever see in this world!"

Tien said nothing, he just fell to his knees in his grief ' _Chiaotzu…'_

"If you think your friend will be lonely in Hell then you don't have to worry about that because you'll be joining him soon enough!"

"Chiaotzu… I'll… I'LL KILL YOU! I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY WITH WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" now fueled by grief, Tien charged at Nappa in a blind rage and started attacking him in a frenzy of randomized punches and kicks.

Nappa quickly ended this barrage when he dealt Tien a sharp knee to the gut, but even that didn't stop Tien, which led to Nappa brutalizing him even further.

"This is bad, at this rate Tien isn't going to be able to hold out for much longer unless I help him even the odds." Upa prepared to jump in and help Tien.

"No Upa, not yet at least." Piccolo was quick to stop him "We all have to strike together when he moves to make an attack and not before, it's the best chance that we had, do you two understand that?"

Gohan snapped out of his stupor and shared a glance with Kai "R-Right, I understand."

"You'd better."

"You know that plan sounds like it might actually work." Vegeta called over to them "I hope for your sake that it does. And you had best keep your eyes on the battlefield, you're only going to have one shot at this."

"So you think but let me just tell you this now, it's not going to be too much longer before Goku and Yamcha get here and the two of them will no doubt wipe that smirk off of your face."

"Oh is that so, I'm both terrified and curious at the same time. So tell me, are these two your aces in the hole?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"I would but I assume you're not going to tell me, also what exactly are those two brats doing over there?" he pointed at where Kai and Gohan were still wrestling over the Pokeball.

"...I honestly have no idea."

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Nappa dealt Tien a devastating blow to the gut, sending him crashing to his knees and causing him to cough up a large amount of blood "You know I'm starting to get kind of bored just throwing you around like some kind of worthless rag doll aren't you? I'm thinking that we should just end this little charade already. AND NOW YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" he rose high into the air.

"NOW IS OUR CHANCE EVERYONE! GO! SCATTER!" Piccolo barked out at the top of his lungs.

"SAY HI TO YOUR LITTLE FRIEND FOR ME!"

"You can say hi for him!" Piccolo blitzed behind Nappa and dealt him a vicious claw attack to the face, with Upa following up with a devastating smash attack, sending him hurtling towards the ground "GOHAN, KAI, DO IT! HIT HIM NOW!"

"Right!" Gohan shared a look with Kai from where he was perched on top of a nearby plateau, and so the former of the two cupped his hands at his side ' _I'm just playing this off of memories of dad showing it to me that one time, but he, Kai and Piccolo wouldn't give up so I can't give up either!_ **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a Kamehameha to the best of his ability, engulfing Nappa in the explosion that followed when it hit him point blank.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed that Nappa received some minor burns and that his armor was pretty much wrecked, and he was pissed and amused at the same time "Well I'll give you little f*cks some credit for that one, it wasn't that bad of a move all things considered. So now I've decided to chance up the order in which I'm gonna kill all of you, so say your prayers or whatever because you've got 5 minutes at the most."

"Yeah about that." Kai suddenly blasted Nappa through the shoulder with another Nail Gun, sending him spiralling through the air with blood just pouring out of the new hole "Yeah like we even need Goku now!" he received several incredulous stares "What?"

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Mr Popo glanced up worriedly at Kami "Please tell me Kami, what is it that is bothering you so much?"

Kami let out a sigh "My Popo my dear friend it would seem that my life soon to come to an end, for I can sense that my death is at last upon me."

"But if that is true then that would mean…"

"Yes, Piccolo will be killed in this battle, and the Dragon Balls shall disappear with us."

"But then… what about Goku and Yamcha?"

"I still cannot sense their presence and they are running out of time."

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Tien was still on the ground grieving over the sacrifice of Chiaotzu, which had turned out to be in vain "Chiaotzu… we've faced so many challenges together and we've always been able to come through them together! But this time… this time… Goku, Yamcha, please hurry…"

Vegeta frowned when he heard this "Goku, that name again… I wonder…"

"OH THAT IS IT!" Nappa pretty much exploded high into the air "Now you're all gonna die nice and slow, so who wants to be my first victim? Anyone but the Namekian, I'm not allowed to make him suffer until we've gotten what we need out of him regarding those magic dragon testicles that can give us eternal life. Seriously though if you guys wanna fight back or something then now would be the time to do it."

"We need to get him back on the ground." Piccolo muttered "If we fight him in the air then he clearly has the advantage."

"Oh please Namekian, do you really think that's gonna make any difference? But if that's how you want to die then fine, I'll play along."

Piccolo slowly lowered himself to the ground, with Upa doing the same as the two of the regrouped with Gohan, Kai and Tien.

"NOW DIE!" Nappa prepared to charge at them again.

"NAPPA WAIT, STOP RIGHT THERE!" Vegeta barked, stopping Nappa in mid air, much to the surprise of him and everyone else.

"Hey why the hell did you stop me? Let me at them!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to be patient, there's something that I want to ask these peons first. This Goku and Yamcha that you keep on babbling on about, one of them is Kakarot isn't it?"

"Don't call him that, he's Goku now and he's a better man than any of you monsters could ever hope to be!" Upa snarled.

"To think that Kakarot would be the only chance that you have, he died fighting against someone like Beets and Beets wasn't half the fighter that Nappa is let alone myself. What could he possibly hope to do against the two of us?"

"Goku is far stronger than he was before, I know as well as anyone else that when he gets here you'll have as good as lost! He's the last person you want to underestimate!"

"Oh is that right?" Nappa let out a scoff "You know I might actually believe you if these two weren't too scared to show their faces, are you sure these precious trump cards didn't just abandon you?"

"Shut up!" Gohan snarled "Son Goku is my dad and when he gets here he'll make you eat those words, he'll make you look like the insects that you are! How's that for trash talk!"

"6/10." Kai noted dryly.

"Oh come on I worked really hard on that!"

"For like 3 hours."

"3 hours huh?" Vegeta pondered this for a moment "Well I'll admit that that does sound quite interesting, I suppose we could give our heroes a little bit more time to make their so called grand entrance."

"Oh come on, what the hell is the point of that?" Nappa protested "Can I at least finish off the rest of these guys while we're waiting?"

"Give the two of them 3 hours but that's all they get, after that these peons are yours to do with whatever you want."

"That's ridiculous, no way in hell I'm waiting for anybody!" Nappa charged at the others even further, until…

"NAPPA! ARE YOU DISOBEYING A DIRECT ORDER FROM YOUR PRINCE?!"

Nappa suddenly froze in place "No sorry Vegeta, I just got carried away there for a second that's all."

"Well hope for your sake that it doesn't happen again." he turned to the rest of them "And as for you, Kakarot won't be able to save you but he did just prolong your meaningless lives by three hours."

"We'll see about that soon enough." Piccolo regrouped with the others in the far corner of the wasteland, his mind racing ' _This is a real problem, with the way that the big guy was cowering before does that mean that little runt Vegeta is even more powerful than he is? If that's the case then even if we do beat the big guy we're in trouble.'_

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On the other side of the wasteland, Nappa was trying to get some answers out of Vegeta in regards to his motives "How the hell can you just sit there, don't you wanna kill these guys as much as I do?"

"Of course I do but we have to be patient." Vegeta told him "We've waited an entire year up to this point, 3 more hours won't kill us and then the real fun will begin."

"Well I already hate standing around like this, why the hell should we have to wait for Kakarot of all people?"

"Because as a traitor to the Saiyan race he gets a special sort of treatment, you and I are going to savor doling out punishment on that fugitive by making him watch his friends and family and the rest of his loved ones die right in front of his eyes as he writes on the ground in agony. And that will be just a taste of what is to come because he'll follow their lead, only his death will be much much slower. He'll remember what it means to be a Saiyan as he writhes in agony, surely three hours isn't too long to wait for that kind of entertainment now is it?"

"Okay now I get what you're going for, this is gonna be awesome!"

"That is to say if he's brave enough to show his face in the next three hours."

"If he does then how about this, why don't you take Kakarot and then I'll sink my teeth into the five over there!"

"Suit yourself but first things first make sure you get the Namekian to tell us what we need to know about the Dragon Balls before you kill him."

"Oh yeah this is gonna be one hell of a party!"

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Upa glanced over at Piccolo and the others "Hey I was thinking, maybe it's best if we get out of here while we still have the chance. We can't defeat them until Goku and Yamcha get here so I think we should live to fight another day."

"Are you really that foolish?" Piccolo let out a scoff "Don't you get it? There won't be another day for us or for anyone else to fight these monsters, these freaks intend to eradicate this entire planet."

"...Oh, I see." Upa could only grit his teeth in frustration ' _This is bad, come Goku and Yamcha you have to get here already! You have to show these two monsters just how much stronger you've gotten before it's too late, now hurry!_ Tell me something Piccolo, will Goku and Yamcha be able to get here before the three hours are up?"

"In all honesty there's no way to tell just yet, but in any case I suggest that we use this time in order to come up with a strategy that will allow us to inflict a little bit of damage on them ourselves."

"Well let's just hope it works out for us better than it did for those guys." Kai just nonchalantly gestured to where Nappa was chasing after a car full of reporters and then blowing up a nearby news team camp.

"Yeah well frankly I don't blame him, I hate the media too." Piccolo received several odd stares from everyone present "What?"

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King Kai and Scarlet on the other hand were running out of patience "They're taking forever to get there, what are all the people on Earth some race of snail people or something?"

"You realize that this is a terrible time to make jokes." Scarlet pointed out.

"Of course I do, why do you think I left out my portable laugh track? The fate of the Earth is hanging on by a thread! Come on Goku, Yamcha, just hurry up already! They're all counting on you down there!"

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Goku and Yamcha were continuing their race down Snake Way, with the Check In Station now visible to them "I see it, yes we're almost there!" and they picked up the pace as much as they could.

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Kami's head snapped up as he sensed the presence of Goku and Yamcha "They're getting closer…"

"You can sense them sir?" asked Mr Popo.

"Just barely but yes, at this rate they might just make it in time if they hurry. But at this rate it will be cutting it close."

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The sun was beginning to set on that fateful day.

Vegeta received a timer alert on his Scouter "We only have one more hour to go, if Kakarot and his friend decide not to show their faces then I'll be very disappointed and when that happens people die. More people than usual."

Piccolo felt the same, to a certain extent ' _We don't have any other options, at this point it's all or nothing.'_

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Kami's head snapped up as he sensed Goku and Yamcha approaching "Yes that's it, they've made it to the end! I have to hurry, there isn't a second to lose!" and then he quickly disappeared into Otherworld using his Instantaneous Movement technique.

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"Come on feet don't fail us now!" Goku and Yamcha finally reached the end of the path of Snake Way and instantly continued on towards the Check In Station.

"Wow so that's the Saiyans huh?" Yamcha muttered "Man their power is so intense I can already sense it from here. But at the same time I don't really feel nervous, for the first time since I met you Goku I actually feel prepared for a big fight like this. I guess that means that you've rubbed off on me a little bit."

"I don't think about being prepared, sometimes I just feel like I go with the flow of things in life."

"Wow. That's deep coming from you."

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Three hours had come and gone, and there was still no sign of either Goku or Yamcha's presence on the battlefield.

"Alright time's up, time for you to die." Vegeta threw off his Scouter "I guess these so called mighty champions of yours aren't going to be coming to your rescue."

Nappa gained a cold scowl at this "What are they afraid or something?"

"That would be the long and short of it from what I can tell."

"No way, there's no way he's afraid!" Gohan snarled "My dad and Kai's uncle are gonna be here any minute and then they'll beat you both into the ground!"

"Dammit." Tien muttered "Goku, Yamcha, now is definitely not the time for a flashy entrance or anything! We need them here now! _Come on you two don't do this to us!'_

Nappa dropped his busted armor to the ground with a loud thud "Well I don't know about you guys but all of that waiting definitely got my blood lust through the roof, too bad the five of you are all that I have to take it out on."

"Listen up all of you." Piccolo got the attention of the other four, his voice low "We have one shot against him and that's assuming that things go our way, we're playing for keeps here so listen and listen well. Upa, Tien, the two of you will be the decoys and do whatever it takes to draw his attention away from me, and when the opportunity presents itself I'll go for that Saiyan brute's only weak spot: his tail. If that works then when I grab hold of him he won't be able to move. Gohan, Kai, that's when I want the two of you to charge him with everything that you've got. And Gohan don't doubt yourself, keep in mind that the fate of the world and its people rests in our hands. You have to have faith in yourself and your teachings, brush aside whatever doubts you have and then you'll tap into a power greater than any of ours."

Gohan looked around at Kai, Piccolo and the others, and he hardened his resolve ' _He's right, I can do this. I have to do this.'_

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Goku and Yamcha both suddenly sped into the Check In Station "We made it!"

"There's no time to lose!" Kami suddenly appeared in front of them and held out one of his arms to them "Quickly grab on!"

"As if you have to ask!" the two of them grabbed on and then the three of them were gone in a flash.

King Yemma was taken aback by the sudden events "Well I never, or rather that is to say that I never would've put money on the two of them being able to make it back here in one piece. I guess they're more talented than I gave them credit for."

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Goku and Yamcha both dropped down back on the Lookout with Kami, tired but nearly triumphant "Alright now it's time to meet those Saiyans, this is what me and Yamcha have been training for."

"Hurry now, there's no time to waste." Kami told him "Good luck down there you two, and make us proud."

"You got it!" so Goku and Yamcha took off running and leapt straight off of the edge of the Lookout, diving down towards the Earth below ' _Gohan, Kai, everybody, you all better still be in one piece!_

Korin could see them from the edge of his tower "Here they come, I can only imagine just how worn out the poor guys must be feeling right now."

"HEY KORIN!"

"HI!"

"You think you can help a brother out?"

"Yeah of course, how about my last three Senzu Beans? HEADS UP!" Korin threw the last three Senzu Beans as hard as he could.

Yamcha was the one that was able to catch them "You're the best Korin, thanks a ton!"

"No problem, now be sure to give those Saiyans a good thrashing for me!"

"Gotcha! Alright that's a half of one for each of us." Yamcha split the Senzu Bean in half and he and Goku each ate one, revitalizing them in an instant.

"Oh hell yeah now that's the stuff! NIMBUS!" Goku summoned his Flying Nimbus and landed on it feet first, with Yamcha just choosing to fly normally "Hey Nimbus it's been awhile, sorry we don't have a lot of time to talk but we have to get down to the battlefield!"

"Just hang in there for a little while longer you guys, we're almost there!"

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A stalemate had sprouted into life on the battlefield, which was about to come to a quick conclusion.

"Right, here goes nothing!" Upa charged forward towards Nappa, with Tien following not far behind.

Piccolo felt himself sweating ' _Please take the bait, please take the bait!'_

"You think you've got what it takes to beat both of us at once?"

"Looks like you two little bastards have gained some nerve." Nappa noted.

"It's called fighting spirit!" Upa blasted himself into the air, with Tien attempting to distract him using the Volleyball Fist.

Nappa hit the ground with a thud, though he was more pissed than hurt.

' _Now's my chance!'_ seizing the opportunity that Upa and Tien had opened up, Piccolo quickly blitzed behind Nappa and grabbed him by the tail, pissing him off even further.

"You arrogant little son of a-"

"GOHAN! KAI! DO IT NOW!"

"RIGHT!" Gohan and Kai both charged towards Nappa at full speed, only to encounter a nasty surprise.

"Nice try!" totally unfazed, Nappa dealt Piccolo a devastating elbow to the skull, causing him to fall to the ground "Hey I don't need you dying on me yet, you'll need to stick around for just a little bit longer alright? You've got answers to our questions about those wish granting dragon testicles."

"Well we're right f*cked." Kai muttered "I should've figured that they'd figure out to train their tails, after all they're elite warriors not morons. Okay one of them isn't a moron."

"So the Namekian was your best huh? Well that's a damn shame, it sure didn't take too much to make him buckle now did it?" he tossed Piccolo's unconscious form aside.

"Piccolo!" Gohan rushed over to him to try and wake him up "Come on get up, Piccolo you've gotta get up!"

"Yeah you might wanna forget about him for the time being kid, I hate to break it to you but I think he's beyond pep talks. As for you on the other hand, well I think it goes without saying that I've got some major plans for you next. Don't bother to sell yourself short, you're the son of that traitor Kakarot and that my friend means that you've got Saiyan blood coursing through those veins of yours. That means that I'm counting on you to give me a run for my money, you get what I'm saying kid?"

"Loud and clear!" Kai blitzed in front of him and dealt him a kick across the face, skillfully dodging his counterattacks in the process "Yeah I think you'll find that I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, how about I bring back a favorite that you already know and love. Choke on this one asshole! **NAIL GUN!"** he fired off a Nail Gun at full speed, fully intent on blowing Nappa's head off with the attack.

Nappa was barely able to get out of the way, receiving a deep gash across his bicep as the Nail Gun blew clear through a mountain behind him, but if anything that only made him that much more enraged.

"What an imbecile." Vegeta grumbled "He would've lost his head, it's like he wanted to catch it with his teeth! Has he gone blind?"

Nappa set his furious sights on Kai in his rage "How… How… HOW DARE YOU! NO ONE CUTS THIS BODY, NOT UNLESS THEY WANT TO SPEND THE LAST FEW MINUTES OF THEIR LIFE IN TOTAL AGONY!"

"I have to look at you, as far as I'm concerned that's agony enough." Kai pointed out dryly, enraging Nappa even more.

"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE SHIT! TRY AND COUNTER THIS!" now losing it, Nappa fired off his Bomber DX.

Kai tried to jump out of the way of the attack and managed to for the most part, only for his leg to be badly burnt in the attack, leaving him lying on the ground wounded.

"And now it's time for you to die!" Nappa prepared to fire a follow up attack in order to finish off Kai once and for all.

That is, until he was stopped by a Dodon Ray to the back, courtesy of Tien, leaving him panting heavily ' _That was too close.'_

"You… You scorched my back! HOW DARE YOU!"

Vegeta just burst out laughing "Oh come on what's the matter Nappa, did you bite off more than you can chew?"

"Hey!"

"Saiyan trash…" that was when Piccolo stumbled back to his feet, still with a gigantic bruise on his forehead "It would not be smart of you to underestimate any of us, especially not me!"

"Don't think you can tell me who I can and can't underestimate, I was gonna be nice since we needed to pry the whole Dragon Ball secret out of you but you can forget about that now you cocky green antenna having son of a bitch!"

"Cocky, me? Who the hell you to think you're talking to?" and then he was able to get a quick feel of Goku and Yamcha approaching the battlefield "What the hell are those powers, they're tremendous! And yet it's coming from such a great distance how the hell could they possibly so strong?"

Gohan lit up with tears brimming in his eyes "I can feel it too, that's my dad and Yamcha I just know it, they're finally here! There's no doubt about it, they're really coming!"

"And most importantly of all, those two will be ready."

"Whoop de f*cking doo." Kai grumbled from where he was sprawled out on the ground, his right leg badly scorched from Nappa's earlier attack "You know it's about damn time, another minute and I would've ripped off my leg and started beating the big guy with it like those old hags in Disney movies! No one ever said that punctuality was Yamcha's strongpoint but I oughta wreck his shit for making us wait like this!"

"Well I must admit that this is quite interesting." Vegeta picked up his Scouter "Tell me something, is it somehow possible for the lot of you to detect the presence of Kakarot without using a Scouter or are you just bluffing me? Well I suppose there's only one way to find that out." he checked out the readings on his Scouter and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head at what he was seeing.

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Goku and Yamcha were still racing towards the battlefield "Okay I can feel them all out from here! There are three big power levels, two that are even bigger, and then there's two smaller ones!"

"But something feels off about that." Yamcha pointed out "I mean shouldn't there be more than seven down there? You don't think this means that…"

"I don't know Yamcha and frankly I don't wanna think about that, all I know is that we've gotta pick up the pace and we've gotta do it now!"

"Agreed!" and they made their way to the battlefield even faster than before, which was already pretty damn fast to begin with.

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Vegeta was taken aback by what he was seeing ' _No, it couldn't be…'_

"Hey Vegeta what's the deal?" asked Nappa "Are they just trying to buy some time or are we finally gonna see some real action? Come on let's have some good news for a change, I've been chomping at the bit all day here!"

"I don't know for sure whether or not it's Kakarot but there are definitely two power levels approaching this location at high speed, whatever it is we'll know for sure in approximately four minutes."

"And?"

"And regardless of which one of them his him both power levels exceed 5,000."

"5,000?! But that's impossible!"

"Enough of this crap! Playtime is over so just kill all of them right now! We can't risk having all 6 of them teaming up on us or it could prove to be an issue! I want their mangled corpses to be the first thing he sees when he gets here!"

"Wait what? But what about the Dragon Balls? I thought that-"

"The Namekian is of no use to us anymore, let's just say that I have a hunch that if we put the homeworld of our big green friend here next on the list of planets to conquer we'll get the answers that we need. You know it's kind of funny, until today I had always assumed that the Dragon Balls were just a fairy tale but if Kakarot has been brought back to life then that's all the confirmation that we need in order to conclude that they're far more than just a simple rumor now don't we?"

"Oh yeah you bet we do, so green guy do you wanna be first?"

"Not a chance!" Gohan got everyone's attention as he dropped into a combat stance "Let me do it Piccolo, you just take Kai and the others and get out of here while I hold him off until my dad and Yamcha get here!"

"Say what now?!" Piccolo's head snapped in the direction of Gohan "Are you insane? You can't fight him by yourself!"

"Like we have a choice, Kai is hurt too badly to fight and Tien and Upa aren't strong enough to fight him! If you die then Kami dies too and the Dragon Balls will be useless! We can't let that happen!"

"Now what kind of nonsense is that?"

"The kind that you would come up with!"

"Nevertheless do you really expect me to let you go head to head with this oaf all on your own like that?"

"Do you really expect me to let you stop me?"

"ENOUGH! IF THAT'S WHAT THE BRAT WANTS THEN LET'S GO!" and so Nappa then charged towards Gohan at full speed.

' _Focus, don't lose your nerve, keep your eyes on your opponent, and have faith in the power inside of you!'_ with a might roar and an internal voice filling him to the brim with newfound determination, Gohan pounced at Nappa and dealt him a devastating Masenko at point blank range, sending him flying and exploding into a nearby plateau, which was almost instantly demolished upon impact "How do you like them apples you insufferable oaf!"

Unfortunately that little taunt turned into some seriously bad karma as Nappa burst out of the rubble, covered in wounds and mad as hell "AND NOW YOU'RE GONNA DIE FOR THAT YOU LITTLE SHIT!" and he fired another Bomber XD faster than Gohan was able to react to the attack.

' _No!'_ realizing that Gohan wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time, Piccolo shocked everyone present by using his own body to shield him from Nappa's attack, taking the full brunt of the explosion that followed, and when the smoke finally cleared he was barely able to stand at all.

Gohan slowly looked up at him in pure terror "Why… Why did you do that…? Why did you save me like that…?"

"Just run… Gohan… before…" Piccolo then dropped to the ground in the crater, much to the horror of everyone else.

"Piccolo no! You can't die like this, not by saving me! Piccolo!"

"Dammit Gohan… just take Kai… and run… while you still… have time…"

"No way forget about it! I'm not gonna run away, not if it means that I'll have to leave you here like this! My dad and Yamcha are coming, just hang in there for a little bit longer!"

"Aw dammit." Nappa muttered "I had intended to save that one for last but oh well, I guess it's all the same in the end."

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Things were looking grim on the horizon.

Goku and Yamcha could both feel Piccolo's Ki beginning to disappear as they drew closer to the battlefield ' _Someone's Ki is fading rapidly, that must mean that someone is dying!'_

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At the same time on the Lookout, Kami himself was struggling not to fade away, but he could feel himself slipping "So this is how my story ends after all… Goku and Yamcha weren't able to make it in time to prevent Piccolo's death… but in his last moments my dark counterpart was able to outshine… such a thought is quite encouraging…"

Mr Popo could only look on in horror "Kami, no…"

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Piccolo let out a weak cough "What a sorry excuse… I've become… me, Piccolo, the proud Demon King… laying down his life in order to protect some whiny little pipsqueak… It's just pathetic…"

"Piccolo… no…" Gohan had tears streaming down his face.

"Gohan… you and Kai… you're the only two people… that I've ever known… who didn't treat me… like I was a monster… Truth be told… this last year… with the two of you… wasn't half bad…"

"Piccolo please, just hang on!"

"Thank you… Gohan… you and Kai… look out for each other… you'll both do great things together… I know you will…" and with that, Piccolo passed away with a smile on his face.

"PICCOLO!" Gohan could only let out a blood curdling scream.

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"Take care old friend, I leave the rest to you." Kami at last faded away before Mr Popo's eyes.

"Kami! KAMI!" Mr Popo could only cry out his name in despair.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nappa lit up when he saw Gohan level his furious gaze on him "Oh hell yeah now we're talking kid, bring it on with everything you've got!"

"DIE!" before anyone else was able to react Gohan had fired a one handed Masenko that instantly blew Nappa off of his feet, as well as something else that caught the eyes of everyone present.

Vegeta was especially taken aback by this ' _The Earthlings are able to hide their true strength, in just one instant I could see the little one's power level rise to 8,000 before it started to drop like a stone. Did he use all of it in one shot? No that's not it, he simply can't control that power. I wonder…'_

Gohan fell to one knee ' _Dammit, all of that power and I still can't control any of it!'_

Nappa slowly pulled himself back to his feet, only now with a blood covered stump where his right arm used to be, but rather than attack Gohan in a blind rage he just let out a chuckle filled to the brim with malice "Well well well what the f*ck do you know kid, you're just full of surprises now aren't you?"

' _Dammit… I'm sorry Piccolo… I tried to avenge you… to honor what you taught me… but I failed you…'_

"Well it's been fun kid, but now you're gonna have to tell those dead friends of yours that I told them to choke on it."

' _I can't even feel my legs anymore…'_ Gohan fell to his knees as he felt Nappa looming over him menacingly.

"Oh don't worry about it you little bastard, when your dad and his friend see you crushed into a bloody pulp I'll be sure to tell him that this new stump was all because of YOU!" now letting his rage loose, Nappa stomped down in an attempt to crush Gohan to death, only for Gohan to suddenly disappear in the blink of an eye "What the hell?!"

Gohan opened his eyes and found himself floating on top of a familiar yellow cloud "Wait a second, Nimbus?" he looked up and his face lit up "Dad! Yamcha!"

Sure enough, Goku and Yamcha lowered themselves to the ground "Looks like we're a little bit late."

"So nice of you to finally drop by, still though I have to admit that I feel a little bit embarrassed for the two of you. I mean I sincerely hope the two of you didn't come all this way, back from the dead even, believing that the two of you stood any change against the likes of us. That would be a shame." Vegeta taunted.

Yamcha and Goku ignored them and then proceeded to go over to Piccolo's corpse and check for some kind of pulse, only to find nothing "What happened to him?"

"He died trying to protect me from the big one." Gohan muttered.

"And the big guy's are or lack thereof in this case?"

"I might have lost my cool and then did that to him."

"I see." Goku and Yamcha shared a look and glanced over to where Krillin's body lay in the same crater ' _Piccolo… and Krillin…'_

"Well how does it feel?" Nappa let out a malicious chuckle "Does seeing those two losers dead send your blood pressure through the nonexistent roof? There was another one around here somewhere but I doubt there would actually be that much left of him now. He was a pretty strong little runt too, you might say that he went out with a bit of a bang."

' _Those bastards, they even killed Chiaotzu and now Kami and the Dragon Balls are gone for good too? Dammit!'_

"Hey look on the bright side there's no need for either of you to grieve, you're all about to be reunited and even after the two of you went through all of the trouble of coming back to life to come and face us!"

Vegeta studied both Goku and Yamcha using his Scouter "Both of their power levels are increasing exponentially."

"Well well it looks like the two of you are eager! Well if you really miss them that much then I might as well oblige you! As if I'm gonna argue with the two of you over that!" Nappa then pounced at the two of them, only for them both to disappear.

' _And they're both fast too.'_

"Come on guys, let's take it this way." Yamcha blitzed over to Tien and Upa and helped them over to where Kai lay sprawled out on the grass, with Goku guiding Gohan over on top of the Flying Nimbus "Hey guys."

"You took your sweet time getting back." Kai grumbled.

"Yeah I know, sorry it took us as long as it did but I've gotta admit that from the look of things you guys did a pretty good job holding your own."

Goku nodded "Yeah I know, I was able to catch a quick glance of what Gohan did to the big guy and it was awesome."

"No time for that though, I want each of you to take half." Yamcha held out a Senzu Bean that he had split in half.

Upa blinked "A Senzu Bean? I didn't think that Korin had any left."

"This is one of the last two, me and Goku split on already. I want you and Tien to split one and I want Kai and Gohan to split the other."

"Alright I guess, I doubt it'll do much good though but if you insist." Upa downed one half the Senzu Bean, with Tien downing the other half.

"Alright I want you guys to follow their lead alright?" Goku fed Gohan and Kai each one half of the other Senzu Bean, bringing them back to full strength "You know Upa I was pretty surprised to see you here, you've gotten pretty strong since the last time I was here. It's pretty impressive, and what you're 16 now? Nice."

"I thought so too at first Goku but then we actually started fighting, I mean I took out most of those little green things but aside from that I was pretty much useless. The others all died on us in this fight, I see it as a miracle that any of us even survived at all."

"Well won't sell yourself short, you'll get even stronger. I just know it." then Goku looked over towards Gohan "You know I barely recognized you at first, you've been training pretty hard haven't you?"

Gohan nodded "Yeah that's right, I've spent the last year training with Piccolo and Kai trying to learn to be strong like you and them. But now he's gone and that means that we can't use the Dragon Balls to bring him or anyone else back to life."

"Yeah, I know son."

"Well I say it's payback time." Kai bolted to his feet "There's six of us and two of those mother f*ckers and with as strong as the two of you have gotten those two bags of monkey meat don't stand a chance!"

"As much I love the enthusiasm I'm gonna have to ask you to pull it back a little bit for the time being." Yamcha called him off "You guys aren't part of the equation, this is mine and Goku's own fight from here on out. Don't try to interfere, just sit on the sidelines for the time being alright?"

"Bullshit! I don't care how OP the two of you are now, I'm not getting screwed over like this in a battle to save the f*cking world-" he suddenly fell over.

"Uh…"

As it turns out, Gohan had hit him with a Ki blast, receiving a number of odd looks from everyone present "You have to learn how this guy works in order to survive with him for as long as I had to, so which one of you is gonna fight the big guy?"

"I'm gonna have that privilege for myself." Yamcha held up a hand to Goku in order to stop him from complaining "Look Goku I think it goes without saying that the little one is the stronger of the two, you'd better conserve your energy. I'll take it from here for now alright?" and then he got serious, his body just radiating energy as he walked towards his opponent.

Goku held out a hand to stop the others "Believe me when I tell you that I've never seen Yamcha as angry as he is right now, believe me when I tell you that there isn't a place for you guys in this fight now."

So with all of that being said, Yamcha stepped his way up to Nappa "Alright, let's get this over with."

Nappa let out a cocky smirk "Oh no you don't wanna make a face like that at me pretty boy, not unless that's the look that you wanna have when you see your friends after I rip you apart piece by piece."

"This ends now, and you're gonna pay!" Yamcha began powering up, his aura flaring and shaking the ground beneath him.

Tien and the others had to brace themselves, with the exception of Goku "Yamcha's power, it's unlike anything I've ever felt before!"

Vegeta tracked Yamcha's power level using his Scouter "6,000… 7,000… no this shouldn't be possible, he's only a mere Earthling!"

With a mighty roar, Yamcha finished powering up and let his aura subside "So what do you have to say about that?"

"Vegeta? Dammit Vegeta what the hell is the matter with you, tell me what his power level is already!" Nappa barked.

"It's… It's over 7,000!" Vegeta crushed the Scouter in his hand, his tone laced with anger and frustration.

"What?! You've gotta be kidding me, that stupid Scouter is nothing but a worthless piece of junk!"

"You're going down for what you did to my friends." Yamcha snarled "I doubt I'll even have to use the Kaioken against you, not that you'll live long enough to see what."

"YOU DON'T SCARE ME!" Nappa charged at Yamcha "NOBODY BUT NOBODY INTIMIDATES THE MIGHTY NAPPA!"

"And yet here I am kicking your ass." in order to prove this point, Yamcha blitzed behind Nappa and dealt him a sharp kick to the back of the head, leaving everyone except for Goku totally speechless.

"What the hell, how did you get back there?! Why you little son of a-"

"You know as much as you made yourself out to be a tough guy I'm kind of disappointed with the end result."

"What the hell did you say?! Are you trying to tell me that I'm all bark and no bite?!"

"If charging me like a crazed bull was your idea of an attack then yeah."

"Oh is that right?" Nappa began flaring his aura "Then what do you say you teach me a thing or two?!" and he charged at Yamcha in another rage.

Yamcha began swiftly dodging all of Nappa's attacks without dropping so much as a single bead of sweat, a smile on his face as he did so.

Vegeta observed this from afar with a trace of curiosity "It's quite strange, to think that this is one of the humans that was heavily outclassed by Beets and yet he's been able to increase his power so significantly since then."

"AND NOW YOU DIE!" Nappa fired another fist at Yamcha, only for him to disappear from sight "What the-?!"

"Over here big guy!" as it turns out Yamcha had appeared a fair distance away, taking almost everyone by surprise, with the exception of Goku and Vegeta.

"Okay that I didn't even see." Upa muttered, with the others nodding in agreement over how surprisingly fast Yamcha was.

Vegeta's scowl deepened ' _I refuse to believe this, how could anyone possibly gain such power in such a short amount of time, especially someone who's not even a Saiyan?'_

"And now it's my turn." Yamcha suddenly blitzed forward faster than Nappa was able to react and dealt him a devastating fist to the gut, causing him to nearly topple over in pain "Just so you know, that one was for Chiaotzu."

"Damn you… DAMN YOU!" Nappa started attacking Yamcha in a blind rage again, only to miss with every single attack.

"And THIS one is for Krillin!" Yamcha dealt him a fist to the spine, sending him crashing into several boulders along the ground.

Nappa rebounded into the air, snarling like an angry animal "You filthy, arrogant, wretched little… SCUM SUCKING PIG!" he fired a Bomber XD at Yamcha, intent on incinerating him on the spot.

"Are you serious?" with a mighty roar, Yamcha used his Spirit Boost technique to cancel out the attack using his aura alone, the shockwave covering the entire battlefield, but the smoke cleared to reveal him not having so much as a scratch "So what is it you were saying before?"

"WHAT THE F*CK?!"

Vegeta was almost taken aback as much as Nappa was "Is it possible that he stopped it with just his energy alone?"

"THAT… THAT WAS JUST PURE LUCK!" Nappa prepared to fire off a follow up attack to finish him.

"This one is for PICCOLO!" Yamcha blitzed above Nappa and dealt him a heavy smash attack, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with me?! How the hell could one earthling be so much more powerful than me?!"

"And this one is for everyone else that you killed!" Yamcha blitzed down to the ground and quickly dealt Nappa a kick to the spine, sending him crashing into a nearby mountain as Yamcha himself returned to the ground.

Tien could only look on in awe, with the rest of them being pretty much the same "I never thought I would be able to say this but Yamcha is so much stronger than me it's just completely unbelievable! Keep it up Yamcha!"

"I plan to, but it's not over yet."

Sure enough, with a roar of pure fury, Nappa burst out from within the rubble, snarling like an angry beast with veins throbbing all over his body "YOU LITTLE SHIT, NOW YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" he threw a piece of rubble.

Yamcha cranked his neck to the side and dodged it with ease "That's some strength but it would be more impressive if you know how to use it more effectively."

"I AM A MEMBER OF AN ELITE WARRIOR CLASS, I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF MY SOME WORTHLESS EARTHLING SCUM!"

"You're doing that all to yourself big guy."

"SHUT UP! You'll be begging for death by the time that I get done with you!"

"NAPPA USE YOUR HEAD!" Vegeta barked "Don't let his nonchalant attitude get under your skin, that's what's giving him the advantage! Calm down and think for a minute!"

Nappa did so, and the veins throbbing all over subsided considerably "Yeah you're right, thanks for that Vegeta. I have to stay level headed against a guy like this, especially since that little brat took my arm. I almost lost my composure."

"Almost?" Yamcha let out an audible snort.

"Yep, almost. Don't push it."

Vegeta suppressed a loud growl ' _That brick headed spastic, the way things are going I'll have to step in and finish this earthling myself, and we haven't even gotten to Kakarot yet.'_

"I've gotta give you credit where it's due, getting me all worked up like that was a pretty sneaky move on your part. But that's not gonna fly from here on out though, starting right now I'm a fighting machine."

"Okay that sounds a lot more interesting than an alien version of the Hulk." Yamcha dropped into a combat stance "How about you show me what you've got."

"You sure like to talk big now don't you?"

Vegeta suppressed another growl ' _It's far more than just talk you imbecile, any halfwit should be able to see that he has the confidence to back it up.'_

"I think it's time for you to see what happens when I get serious." Nappa started powerup up to as close to his maximum as he could go, which wasn't as high as he would've like due to Gohan blowing off one of his arms, but it was still powerful enough to shake the ground beneath everyone present. When he finished powering up he immediately unleashed a Volcano Explosion, engulfing Yamcha in the blast that followed.

Yamcha burst upwards into the air using the smoke as cover ' _He's definitely doing better now than before, I can't drag this out for much longer.'_

"I can see you!" Nappa burst into the air and began clashing with Yamcha, his attacks much more clear and concise than they were before, before he broke away.

"Yeah you definitely aren't screwing around anymore, this is much more like it."

"Much more like it you say? Well let me give you a little bit of a heads up, you're about to have those words crammed right back down your throat courtesy of my own." and then to prove that point, Nappa opened his mouth up wide and unleashed his Break Cannon.

Realizing the power of the attack, Yamcha was forced to fire a quick Kamehameha in order to counter the attack, resulting in a beam struggle that ended with an explosion, forcing Goku to cover Gohan and the others.

Vegeta himself was forced to cover himself as well "He's a freak of nature, no one with their head on straight would try to strike back so quick at such a close range!"

Nappa finished firing his Break Cannon, only to be stunned by what he saw "Wh-What? But how… how is that possible?"

As it turns out, Yamcha had been able to protect himself at the last second "Well that was a close one, if I had taken a blast like that head on then I probably would've ended up in pretty bad shape."

"But that was my… my ultimate technique and he just brushed it aside like it was just a run of the mill attack!"

"You really are a tough one aren't you? I figured that Kamehameha as quick as it was would've been able to at least a little bit of damage to you, neither of us are gonna be able to make a lot of headway at this point."

"That's enough Nappa, back down already!" Vegeta barked "I believe that this Earthling has proven himself to be more than a match for you."

"What?!" Nappa started grinding his teeth.

"I don't need or want that look from you, thanks to your monumental incompetence it would seem that I have no choice but to step in and finish this battle myself, which means that I will also be dealing with Kakarot personally."

"Looks like the shorter one is just standing by." Kai adjusted his gi "Even the big guy is scared of him, I'm gonna have a ball with this asshole."

Nappa let out a low growl and turned to face Yamcha "Well this completely sucks, I can't believe that I had turn over your death to Vegeta. But orders are orders, Vegeta will finish you off along with Kakarot. Still though, I can't just walk away without destroying someone!" and then he charged downwards towards Gohan and the others.

"Gohan! Kai! Everyone! Dammit I've gotta move!" Yamcha took off after Nappa as fast as he could, but he couldn't close the gap.

' _Dammit he's not gonna make it in time!'_ Goku prepared to launch an attack at Nappa, when…

" **Kaioken!"** Yamcha's aura flared and suddenly turned crimson as he shot forward out of nowhere and dealt Nappa a devastating attack to the spine, breaking his back and allowing him to throw him over to Vegeta "Let's just hope that you don't play as dirty as he did."

"Ow…" Nappa was barely able to speak through the pain "It hurts… It really really hurts… so bad…"

"He's not gonna be able to fight again now take him and leave this planet before I decide to finish the job, Goku's not that pragmatic but I am."

Vegeta could feel his mind racing ' _What the hell did I just witness? For just a split second his speed and power both skyrocketed.'_

"You know what I'll deal with you in a minute." Yamcha made his way over to Goku and the others "So are you guys alright?"

"Here's a better question, what the f*ck was that?" asked Kai "Was that one of those new techniques that you learned from King Kai over the past year?"

"Oh yeah, you see it's called the Kaioken. By controlling every ounce of energy in your body you can amplify it for a short burst and when you do it correctly your power, speed and forces both destructive and defensive can all be multiplied a bunch of different times over."

"So as strong as you are right now you can get even stronger. I call f*cking hax!"

"Don't even get me started on that, besides I have to be sure to stay in complete control or else I might end up killing myself. Overusing something like that is way too dangerous so King Kai forbade me and Goku from going beyond the typical doubling our power."

"Well that sucks."

"Tell me about it, I could become stronger than Goku with it and I'm limited to that! It's major hax."

"V...Vegeta…" with what little strength he still had, Nappa reached out his one good hand up towards Vegeta "Please… help me…"

"...Sure thing." Vegeta gripped his hand.

"Thank you… boss…"

"No problem." with a menacing smirk, Vegeta suddenly squeezed Nappa's hand tightly and threw him into the air, shocking everyone present "When has compassion ever been part of who I am?! Compassion only makes you weak! And besides I have no use for a paralyzed Saiyan, you're only dead weight now!" he began charging a powerful Ki blast.

Goku shielded Gohan in his arms as he took to the air, with Yamcha and the others all doing the same "So much power, this guy is unreal!"

"DIE!" Vegeta fired his Galaxy Breaker at Nappa while he was still in mid air, annihilating him on the spot.

Tien was horrified, the same as the others, as the explosion settled "He's such a monster, he just killed his own partner for no reason!"

Goku could feel the sweat dripping from his brow "Gohan listen to me, I want you to follow the others and go back to Master Roshi's house right now, understand?"

"As if you had to tell me twice." Kai told him, receiving a surprised look from Gohan "Hey I wanna prove that I'm strong but I'm not suicidal, not until the day that anime dies. Besides you just saw what the midget can do to a powerhouse like the big guy, right now all we'd do if we stuck around is slow your dad down."

Gohan was still reluctant "Yeah but…"

"Look my mom once said that sometimes you have to know when it's better to stand down than to fight and I think it goes without saying that this is one of those times."

"I guess but, are you sure about this dad?"

"Yeah I'm sure." Goku told him "Sorry Gohan but this guy is a lot stronger than I thought he was going to be, I'm not gonna put you in danger unnecessarily unless I think you're ready. But this time I think Kai is right."

"...Alright fine, I guess I understand."

"Good."

"Hey Goku hold up a second." Kai got his attention "This might sound kind of weird but do you think you could move this fight somewhere else that isn't so corpsey? I doubt Krillin or Piccolo would really appreciate it if you accidently blew up their bodies before we get the chance to wish them back to life."

"Wish them back to life? But Piccolo is dead which means that Kami is too, I hate to have to say this Kai but the Dragon Balls are gone forever so there's no way that they'll ever be able to have another chance at life."

"Yeah I have my doubts about that."

"What do you mean?"

"I've got a plan, I'll explain the details later. Just promise me one thing Goku, kick that short little bastard's ass to kingdom come and come back alive!"

"Come back alive, that I can make sure of. Well then guys I'm not sure that I have that much of a choice now do I? Alright I'll do my best."

"Alright Kakarot let's just get on with it already!" Vegeta beckoned for him "Are you just going to run away like a coward or something?"

"Alright then I'll try to lure this guy as far away from this place as I can and I swear I'll be seeing the five of you as soon as I can."

"And just one more thing." Yamcha held out his hand to him "Sorry I won't be of much use against this guy and we have to leave our fate all up to you again."

"Yamcha you just took down the big guy all by yourself, you oughta be proud of yourself after that."

"I know but still, don't you f*cking dare die on us again okay?"

"...Yeah, you got it." Goku shook the hand "You just keep an eye on my son okay?"

"Sure thing, just be careful. And maybe after all of this is over the four of us can go fishing or something."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty nice." Goku lowered himself closer to the ground.

Vegeta let out a chuckle "I suppose now you realize that there's no point in fighting the inevitable."

"Oh I don't plan on running away, I just want to finish this somewhere else."

"...Fine by me, it's not like it makes that much of a difference in the end."

"Alright then." and so the two of them took off towards another location.

Gohan could do no more than watch them go ' _Dad… good luck.'_

"Alright former ponytail." Kai got his attention "Come on let's head back to Kame House before the others leave us, I wanna get there before my uncle and Bulma start dry humping each other."

"...What?"

"Just come on!"

"But…"

"Look freaking out over it isn't gonna change anything, all we can do now is wait for Goku to kick his ass. Sometimes all you can do is have a little bit of faith, now let's go already alright?"

"...Yeah okay." and so the two of them took off after Yamcha, Tien and Upa in the direction of Kame House.

 **A/N:**

 **So among the changes, I had Krillin get killed by the Saibamen (due to Yamcha not being there to take his place like in canon) and Tien survive the battle with Nappa unlike before (without losing his arm) since I always thought that these two got screwed over big time, and since Gohan has had Kai to train with he has a little bit more of a warrior's edge than in canon. I don't want to have everyone survive except for Piccolo and Chiaotzu or else it won't seem as major to go to Namek and use their Dragon Balls to bring everyone back. Besides with Yamcha not there it was either Krillin or Upa and it's not in Upa's nature to get so overconfident like that.**

 **Since Kai was there to teach him some of the basics during the initial six months of survival training, Gohan now has more of a warrior's edge than he did in the canon version, and as a result he, Kai and the others are able to gang up on Nappa pretty effectively, which sacrificed the need for Tien's Spirit Tri Beam, which allowed him to survive.**

 **One thing that always bugged me was that Gohan was never seen using the Kamehameha before his battle with Cell after he turned Super Saiyan 2, so I decided to have him know it here right from the get go.**

 **I had Yamcha fight against Nappa to show how strong he is in comparison to Goku, and as a result he's only slightly under Goku's initial (no Kaioken) state at the moment. You can see that based on my power levels list below that he's actually about 80% of Goku's power right now. Unfortunately, this means that I had to sacrifice the iconic "Over 9,000" joke. But on the plus side, it gave me the chance to show that Yamcha can use the Kaioken.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 9,200

Yamcha: 7,400

Yamcha (Kaioken): 14,800

Gohan (calm): 2,000

Gohan (full power): 4,000

Gohan (enraged): 8,000

Kai: 1,900

Kai (full power): 3,800

Weighted Piccolo: 2600

Unweighted Piccolo: 3,400

Tien: 1,830

Chiaotzu: 610 (But who f*cking cares?)

Upa: 1,540

Krillin: 1,770

Nappa: 4,000

Nappa (full power, minus one arm): 6,300

Saibamen: 1,200 each


	4. The Battle Ends, a Star of Hope

Goku dropped to the ground on top of a plateau in the Gizard Wasteland ' _Yeah I think this spot will do just fine, from what I can tell there are no people or animals nearby so that way no one will get caught in the crossfire.'_

Vegeta dropped to the ground on top of the plateau in front of Goku "Well this is quite interesting isn't it, of all of the places in your planet you chose to make this one your gravesite. You know you should feel honored, not every low class warrior gets the chance to spar with a super elite like yours truly. Not long after Saiyans are born their skills as a soldier are tested, the scum whose scores are ranked the lowest are sent to the outer worlds where the inhabitants are worthless and weak much like how you were Kakarot. To put it quite simply, we cast you out like a dog."

"Am I supposed to be bothered by that? Because you cast me out I was lucky enough to come here to Earth, my true home and I'm grateful to you for that, and besides that doesn't mean that a lower class outcast can't surpass an elite if he puts his mind to it."

"Is that what you believe? I'll admit that that's a nice attempt at a joke but now I'm going to show you the wall that you will never have the ability to scale through effort alone." he dropped into a combat stance.

Goku dropped into his own combat stance, and with the drop of a rock he charged forward and let the first fist fly, beginning the battle.

Vegeta blocked and dodged every attack and retreated backwards across several other plateaus behind him, then ricocheted off of another plateau and decked Goku in the jaw.

Goku retreated into the air and dodged an attack from behind, and he and Vegeta began trading even blows in mid air.

"What's the matter Kakarot? Surely you can put up a better fight than this, I saw your earthling friend exert more effort when he was fighting Nappa so why the hell would you not do the same for me?! LET'S SEE IT!" Vegeta smashed Goku down towards the ground.

Goku rebounded and landed on his feet ' _Well he's definitely impressive, we haven't even been fighting for five minutes and his speed and technique are definitely beyond my own. This is kind of exciting, or rather it would be if he wasn't going to destroy the world.'_

"Now why don't you just show me already, or was that the extent of the strength that you've been hiding up until now?"

"If you wanna see it then that's your call, but fine! **Kaioken!"** Goku's crimson Kaioken aura flared into life and he burst forward and slugged Vegeta straight across the face, followed by a rapid barrage of attacks and an uppercut kick to the jaw.

Vegeta recovered before Goku was able to launch his counterattack and dealt him a return kick to the jaw, knocking the Kaioken straight out of him "Okay not bad I'll admit, but if that's all that the limit of what you have to offer then I'll be sorely disappointed."

' _This guy is brutal!_ But for all of the trouble that I'm facing, I'm beginning to get even more excited at fighting someone as strong as this."

' _He's laughing, is he completely out of his mind or has he simply given up on all hope? No perhaps he's hiding the fact that he can raise his power level even higher through some sort of convoluted disguise._ Come on now Kakarot, don't tell me that you're done already. I guess that means that you're all talk then huh? Well if that's the case then allow me to show you something before I finish you off, and that is the overwhelming power of a Saiyan super elite! Soon you'll follow the rest of your friends into oblivion! Or Hell! Whatever!" and to add onto this point he started powering up, shattering plateaus around him and summoning storm cloud as well as various strong winds, his body being engulfed in a sphere of energy.

' _Oh man his power is incredible, it's like the whole planet is shaking! It's like he's generating a mini hurricane!'_

With a mighty primal roar, Vegeta finished powering up and let out a massive shockwave, the force sending Goku flying as everything died down.

Goku quickly rebounded in mid air to find that everything had settled back down, with the exception of one thing ' _That's kind of weird, the wind just stopped and all of the clouds have disappeared too. But Vegeta… oh crap that's a gigantic power level.'_

Sure enough, Vegeta was still just floating in front of him, his body crackling slightly with electricity, looking as confident as ever "And now Kakarot, it's done." he suddenly blitzed forward and dealt Goku a fierce headbutt and elbow to the gut.

Goku rebounded on top of a plateau and tried to recover "What the-?!"

"Hey stupid behind you!" Vegeta dealt Goku a sharp kick from behind and attempted to incinerate him with a fireball through use of his Shine Shot technique.

" **Kaioken!"** thinking as fast as he could, Goku used his Kaioken to boost his speed in order to dodge the attack, though he still ended up having part of his shirt burned off ' _Okay that one was way too close.'_

"Well done Kakarot being able to dodge an attack like that one, of course that was one that I made easy for you. After all where would the fun be in this battle if a simple attack like that would be able to kill you."

"Yeah I kind of agree with you about that." Goku lowered himself back to the ground on top of a plateau, with Vegeta doing the same in front of him ' _Dammit his speed and power are unlike anything I've ever seen before, even with the basic Kaioken I can't keep up with him. I guess that leaves me with only one option.'_ he ripped off the remains of his shirt ' _This may destroy my body but it's better than dying, the only choice that I have right now is to go to the third level of the Kaioken. The only question is, once I do use the third level of the Kaioken how long will my body be able to hold out? I guess there's only one way to find out.'_

"Why bother with so much hesitation Kakarot, after all it is your move. Don't make me lose my patience."

' _It's my only option, I'll have to pull out all of the stops if just want to stay alive.'_

"What you don't have anymore of those trick moves up your sleeve? Not that any of them would actually be able to do that much good for you, even among the other Saiyans I was always the most powerful one by far."

"Yeah that definitely shows."

"Of course it does! I don't care if you've trained every minute of your entire life for this day to come, it's not going to change the fact that you will always and forever be a worthless low ranked outcast and nothing more than that."

"Well I think we'll see about that soon enough." Goku's muscles began bulging as his crimson aura began slowly flickering into life "Come on body, you can't fail me now! Kaioken… times three!"

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Back at Kame House, where she and the rest of the gang had been monitoring the battle to the best of their ability, Bulma observed the growing power level on the Scouter that she had previously received from Raditz ' _What the hell is this, it's at 12,000 and it's still rising so rapidly it's insane!'_

"Hey calm down now, what's the matter?" asked Master Roshi "Are you seeing something on there, did something happen?"

"This reading is probably coming from Goku but the power level I'm reading is shooting up like crazy!"

"Wait what?" Chichi's head snapped towards her "Are you serious, it's really Goku? What's going on down there?"

"It's at 17,000… 19,000… 23,000-" and then the Scouter exploded on her "Oh come on you've gotta be kidding me!"

"Well I think we know that Goku is about to wreck some shit." a young sounding voice commented.

Bulma whipped around "Kai!"

Sure enough, Kai was leaning against the doorway, with Upa slowly crossing into the threshold of Kame House "What's up guys, kickass right over here. Oh and to solve the case of the exploding facial accessory here, I kind of snuck it off of that other Saiyan last year before I left with Gohan and Piccolo." he pulled out a capsule, revealing a red scouter, and he tossed it over to Bulma "Check that one out, I think it's a higher model than the green one and I did a little bit of modifying to it. Give it a try."

Bulma did so and nearly did a double take "Goku's power level is over 27,000!"

"Wait until you see who else is here."

"What do you-" she glanced over at the doorway and her eyes widened as they began filling with tears "Y-Yamcha…"

Sure enough, standing in the doorway was Yamcha, still alive and well, which contrasted from how he was the last time they saw each other, with Gohan hiding behind him "Hey guys what's up?"

"YAMCHA!" Puar immediately latched onto his face "Oh Yamcha I missed you so much don't ever leave me again, I'm so glad you're back!"

"Yeah well it's good to be back Puar, sorry I was gone so long." he glanced over at Bulma and gave a small smile "Hey."

"Yamcha…" Bulma slowly began making her way over to him, her hair covering her eyes in a very ominous way "You really haven't changed have you, you're still being such a reckless idiot!" she suddenly smacked him upside the head, but then pulled him into a gentle and tender hug "Welcome home."

"It's good to be home, sorry I took so long." Yamcha slowly wrapped his arms around her, also forcing Gohan out of his hiding place.

Now out in the open, Gohan could do little more than wait for the inevitable to happen ' _5… 4… 3… 2…'_

"MY BABY!" and as if on cue Chichi instantly glomped Gohan in a death hug "Gohan are you okay?! It's alright baby, mommy's here! You're going to be okay sweetie! Mommy's here, mommy's here! You poor thing, I promise you from now on I'm never gonna leave your side you hear me? I swear your mommy won't let anything happen to you, oh Gohan I missed you so much what have they done to my poor baby?! Oh my baby boy you must be traumatized from everything you had to endure and go through! I mean you're turning blue for the loud crying out of!"

"Excuse me ma'am but I don't believe that him turning blue." Upa pointed out "Your hands are around his throat, he can't breathe."

"...Oh." she loosened her grip "Is that better?"

"More or less." Gohan took a few deep breaths "Anyway I really did miss you too mom but it wasn't actually that bad."

"Not that bad?! You almost died!"

"Well sure but that's to be expected, and besides the only hard part that really got to me was the training and even then Kai took really good care of me."

"You're welcome and I've gotta pee." Kai quickly made a beeline for the bathroom,

"And yeah Piccolo was a really tough teacher and I almost gave up on myself a few times during it, but I was able to persevere and become stronger both in body and in mind. And you know I learned one other really important thing too." he glanced over to see Bulma drag Yamcha upstairs to the bedroom "That is not one of them and I'm really glad it's not."

"What are you saying?" asked Chichi.

"You hate fighting I get that, which is kind of weird because you used to be a martial artist yourself, but it's not just punching people for no good reason like you claim that to be. When I saw dad get killed by that Saiyan before I just hated myself for not being able to stop him or do anything while Kai just charged into the fray without any sign of fear. I knew that there were more Saiyans coming and I couldn't just stand by like a weak little kid again, not if I had this crazy power inside of me. But I figured that if someone like Kai, a kid like me who was my age, could do it then I figured that maybe I could too. And besides it gave me the chance to make my first real friend my own age. And knowing that I had what it takes, knowing that I could get strong enough to protect all of these new friends, it awoke something inside of me that I never knew was there. It showed me that I'm so much stronger than I ever thought possible, and that deep down I have this fighting spirit I inherited from dad."

"Stop it Gohan what are you saying? You're not a fighter, you're just a little boy! You shouldn't be worrying about fighting, you have to study and live a normal life!"

"I was never meant to live a normal life mom, and now I understand why. When dad fights it's not because of being a thug or whatever you said he was, he fights to protect us, to protect all of us."

"Sweetie you're just confused, you don't know what you're saying!"

"Yes I do mom, more than I ever have. Yes spending six months with Kai alone in the wilderness may have impacted my sanity, but after that was over I came to understand just how dangerous the world is and how I have to get stronger if I want to protect all of you. What happened with dad a year ago and what happened today with Krillin and Piccolo, I don't want that to ever happen again."

"Gohan… my poor baby you received brain damage from those beasts!"

"Oh for god's sake!" and then Gohan lost it "Look I tried being reasonable mom but clearly you can't do the same!"

"Don't talk back to me young man, I will not have you turning into a delinquent!"

"Have you not been listening to a word I've been saying? If you want to talk about how bad I've turned out then do it later, we have other things to focus on. I'm doing this for you and for everyone else, my family and my friends. They all fought hard in order to protect and three of them died to save us, and dad is still fighting hard to protect all of us. It's not for nothing and I won't let it be, right now the best thing I can do to honor their memory is to get stronger so that I can protect everyone. I'm sorry mom, I really am, but this is something that I just have to do and you're not gonna stop me no matter what you say."

"Gohan…" realizing that she couldn't win this argument, Chichi just hung her head in an air of defeat.

"You have to admit Chichi the boy has a point." Ox King patter her on the shoulder and then patted Gohan on the head "Looks like you've got your mind made up. Way to go Gohan, you're getting stronger every day. I'm sure Goku will be proud to hear that."

"Thanks grandpa, really."

"Yeah but in the meantime we've got other things that we have to do." Kai made his way out into the living room "Mainly in regards to bringing everyone back to life now that Piccolo has been offed. Hey by the way where's Tien?"

"Oh I saw him take off on his own before we reached Kame House, I think he just wants some time to process losing Chiaotzu like that. We should leave him alone for now."

"Fair enough."

"So what's the plan you were talking about?" Yamcha came down stairs with a big goofy smile on his face.

"Uh…"

"Well one thing's for sure." and then Bulma came back down with the Scouter on, numbers blazing through it "I've gotta admit Yamcha being able to crack 7,400 is pretty surprising all things considered. And Goku's is still at over 27,000."

"Well then, Vegeta is f*cked. Who wants to watch a movie?"

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Goku continued powering up, his muscles bulging from the shear strain as he tried to push the Kaioken to the third level ' _Come on, just a little further…'_

Vegeta raised an eyebrow at the scene ' _What's going to happen next I wonder, what with all of the pressure he's building up it's like he's about to explode.'_

' _NOW!'_ Goku unleashed a massive shockwave, nearly blowing Vegeta off of his feet and causing the plateau he was standing on to shatter " **Kaioken… times… THREE!"** with a mighty roar and his crimson aura flaring into life he began his onslaught, in which he slugged Vegeta across the face and then kicked him in the spine.

"Take that!" Vegeta attempted to hit Goku with a stray Ki blast, only to get literally nowhere with that move.

Goku kicked Vegeta square in the face, sending him crashing into the side of a mountain with a loud thud.

With a roar Vegeta shattered the mountain, the vein in his forehead throbbing "You wretched little…"

Despite feeling the pain of the Kaioken on his body, Goku blitzed behind Vegeta and headbutted him in the spine.

Vegeta quickly recovered and attempted to deal Goku a Ki enhanced fist to the face, only for that to fail when Goku buried his red fist into Vegeta's gut, causing him to cough up blood and nearly topple over in pain ' _How… How the hell is this happening?!'_

' _Good I was able to make him bleed, just one step at a time and I might just win this fight after all.'_

"DAMN YOU!" Vegeta attempted to let a desperate fist fly forward.

Goku caught both of his fists and began crushing them with his hands, causing Vegeta to cry out in pain, before Goku added on a headbutt, smashed Vegeta into the ground, elbowed him in the face and just kept on going with a fierce barrage of attacks before finally smashing him into the ground on top of a plateau, leaving Goku himself to return to the ground, reeling from the pain that he was feeling.

Vegeta on the other hand had finally toppled over in pain and in denial ' _I absolutely refuse to believe this is happening, it's not possible for the power level of low class scum like Kakarot to exceed that of mine! No this is not happening, I will not accept this!'_ he pulled himself back to his feet.

' _What you've gotta be kidding me, dammit he's tougher than I thought he would be. I was hoping to try and settle this quickly.'_ Goku cringed as he felt a muscle convulse in his arm ' _No you've gotta focus Goku, work through the pain.'_

"I belong to the upper echelon of the most elite class of warriors that has ever been seen by this universe, I will not be bested and I will certainly not be bested by some worthless low born amateur like you! I AM THE GREATEST WARRIOR WHO HAS EVER LIVED!" this declaration echoed throughout the Gizard Wasteland.

' _Using the three times Kaioken really does a number on my body even more than I thought it would. I don't think I can keep this up for that much longer or I won't be able to make it.'_

Vegeta wiped some blood from his lip, which was the final straw for him that caused him to pretty much snap "Blood?! My noble blood has been spilled by the sheer of luck of such worthless low class scum?! No, no I will not allow this to stand! I CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO STAND! YOUR INSOLENCE JUST COST YOU THIS ENTIRE WORLD, I'LL BLOW IT ALL TO PIECES AND THERE'S NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!" in his rage he burst high into the air.

"He's gonna what?"

Now out of patience, Vegeta began charging his signature attack, his Galick Gun, in order to blow up the entire planet "Go ahead and try to dodge this if you can, you might be able to save yourself but your precious Earth is doomed!"

' _He's got me, now what the hell am I supposed to do? There's only one thing I can and I'm gonna have to risk it!'_ Goku powered up his Kaioken again and cupped his hands at his side for his own signature attack "A THREE TIMES KAIOKEN… KAMEHAMEHA! **KA… ME… HA… ME…"** the rubble around them began to rise into the air as Goku's muscles began bulging visibly.

"It's hopeless Kakarot, you don't have a chance in hell of stopping my Galick Gun! PREPARE TO JOIN THIS FILTHY ORB IN OBLIVION!" Vegeta fired his Galic Gun down towards the Earth.

" **HAAAAAAAAAA!"** Goku fired his full power Kamehameha into the air as hard and as fast as he could, the blast colliding with the Galick Gun and resulting in a beam struggle that shattered the mountains around them.

"No that's impossible, his blast is exactly like my Galick Gun!"

" **Kaioken… TIMES FOUR!"** using the last of his power, Goku pushed his Kaioken to the absolute limit, increasing the power of his Kamehameha, allowing it to overpower Vegeta's own Galick Gun and then send him flying into the sky and out of sight. With the battle appearing to be over, Goku fell to one knee in pure exhaustion "That… That was way too close…"

"Tell me about it." that was when Tien revealed himself from underneath the rubble, much to the surprise of Goku and the readers "Looks like you had it covered though."

"Tien… what in the world are you doing out here? I thought you went with Yamcha and the others back to Kame House."

"Something didn't feel right so I decided to tag along in secret and keep an eye out in case you needed any help, looks like I wasn't needed though."

"Well it did come pretty close a few times though I guess."

"But you continue to surprise me Goku, nice job." he patted Goku on the back, causing him to howl in pain "What the heck? I barely touched you."

"Sorry Tien but I may have pushed my body a little bit passed its limits."

"Yamcha said not to push the Kaioken past the first level, you pushed it to the fourth. You're just unbelievable sometimes Goku."

"Listen to me Tien, you'd better get out of here. It's not safe here yet."

"What do you mean? Wait a second, are you saying that that Saiyan is still alive even after all of that?"

"Yeah he's still out there somewhere, there's no way that's all it was gonna take to finish off a guy like that. I just wish I'd be able to blow him away like that though I doubt I would actually be able too, my body is pretty worn out and I think that might have been all that I had in me at the moment."

"You don't say."

"Is that offer to back me up still available? Chances are that I'm gonna need it when he comes back down."

"Don't worry about that Goku, I'm here to back you up every step of the way. He has to pay for what happened to Chiaotzu."

"Thanks Tien."

"Don't worry about it. Besides I'm not a spectator, I am a warrior."

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It took a good long while before Vegeta was able to pull himself off of the Kamehameha, foaming at the mouth with pure rage "DAMMIT! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LOW CLASS BOTTOM FEEDER THAT CAN SURPASS ME IN STRENGTH, SUCH A THING IS UNTHINKABLE! I AM NOT JUST A SAIYAN, I AM SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT! I AM THE COMBINATION OF EVERYTHING SUPERIOR IN THE SAIYAN RACE!" he finally stopped shrieking when the gears in his head started turning and a devious smirk gained its way across his face "As much as I hate that it's come to this it's clear that I only have one option left now, I'll transform into a Great Ape and grind him to a pulp! We'll see how cocky he is once he witnesses the full extent of the powers of a true Saiyan! Fortunately I planned for our arrival to coincide with the full moon but that was so we could wipe out the inhabitants of this planet without wasting any time, I never imagined that I would have to transform in order to defeat a single opponent like that. Damn that Kakarot!" he looked around and noticed something that he found very unsettling "Wait a minute where is the full moon, I should be able to see that thing by now."

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King Kai observed him from Otherworld and let out a snicker "He can search all he wants but there won't be a full moon out tonight, or ever again for that matter. Piccolo suspected that you would try something like this and he personally took steps from happening long before either of those two Saiyans got there."

"Not like they're in the clear yet though." Scarlet pointed out "Even if he's stuck in his normal form that Saiyan is more than a match for Goku, though he has been weakened by the battle and now Goku has help from that triclops."

"Yes I know, if Goku can muster up the strength for one all out attack then that means that he might still have a chance at winning."

"You mean if he uses the Spirit Bomb."

"All he has to do is hit him with the Spirit Bomb and he can't lose."

"If he can muster the power and get the time that he needs, that's going to be the real issue in this fight

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Goku and Tien were still waiting on the battlefield for Vegeta to return as the sun was beginning to set "I don't like this, what could he be doing up there? Why won't he just come back down here and fight."

"Whatever it is it can't be good." Tien pointed out "We should use this time to come up with some kind of strategy."

"Yeah, good idea. I don't think I have enough stamina left to use the Kaioken in that kind of way again. I've got one more trump card though, it's called the Spirit Bomb. It might be powerful enough to take him out but I'll need time to prepare it."

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Vegeta continued searching for the moon, only to be forced to reach one conclusion as to its whereabouts "This can't be happening! It's gone, the damn thing is gone! How the hell could an entire moon just up and disappear like that?! Kakarot that conniving little bastard, he must've known what I had in mind and then took care to stack the odds in his favor before the fight even began! Well that can't be helped I suppose, what I have to do in order to correct that might reduce my power level a bit but at this point it's the only choice that I have. And besides I think the look on his face will more than make up for that!" and then he proceeded to fly his way back to the battlefield.

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Goku and Tien braced themselves as they watched Vegeta drop back down to the ground in front of them ' _It's about time he came back down, so what's he gonna try next? The only way I can take him now would be with the Spirit Bomb, I guess I'll just have to trust that Tien can hold him off long enough for me to charge it up.'_

"Well well well." Vegeta let out a chuckle "I have to give you credit where it's due Kakarot, for you to blast the moon right out of the sky in the sneaky way that you did but I'm afraid that it was all for nothing."

"Wait blow up the moon, why the hell would I do that?"

"Fine you can go ahead and play dumb."

"He's not playing." Tien pointed out, only to be ignored.

"But regardless of that I'm still curious, do you even know why it is that we Saiyans transform at the sight of a full moon?"

Goku blinked "Wait hold on a second, we do what?"

"The moon appears only because it's reflecting the light of the sun, but when the sunlight is bounced from the lunar surface it causes a slight shift in the wavelength and this results in the creation of what we Saiyans refer to as a Blutz Wave and when the moon is full their intensity is over 17 million zenos."

"Yeah okay I'm afraid that you lost me there."

"Once 17 million zenos are absorbed by the Saiyan retina our bodies respond to a biochemical reaction produced in the tail and we transform as a result. Among the elite of our race there are a certain few that are capable of actually producing a satellite with the emissions of zenos that are necessary to effect the change and as luck would have it I happen to be an elite of that same caliber! Just watch and learn as my Powerball mixes with the oxygen in the atmosphere of this planet!" he summoned a Powerball in his hand "Well Kakarot I'm sorry to have given you such false hope, this nonsense should've been over a long time ago! Let this be a lesson to all low class scum such as yourself and your brother Raditz who dare to challenge their superiors on the battlefield!"

' _When that Powerball thing of his appeared he lost some of his energy, why would he risk a move like that? What is he planning to do?'_

"And now this pathetic excuse for a battle ends!" Vegeta threw his Powerball into the air "Burst open and mix!" he closed his fist, causing it to blend with he oxygen in the atmosphere, thus creating an artificial moon.

"What the- What is that, what have you done?"

"It looks like he created some kind of fake moon." Tien muttered.

"But why?"

"You really don't get it do you?" Vegeta let out a cackle "Boy would that long lost tail of yours ever come in handy right about now!" and then shit hit the fan when he started transforming into his Great Ape form.

"So… does this mean anything."

"If I had to guess then I'd say that we're f*cked." Tien muttered.

"Sounds about right."

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Yamcha's head snapped up as he sensed Vegeta's rising power level "What the hell was that just now?"

"Hey lover boy we're in the middle of planning here!" Kai threw a marker at the back of his head and went back to writing on some random white board "Okay so going to how we're gonna get to the planet of the slug people…"

' _That thing out in the distance, it's so bright. And that power level that's just rising out of the blue like that, whatever it is I doubt that's Goku's power level. There's no mistaking where that energy is coming from, it's that Saiyan. His strength is totally off the charts, what could be going on down there?'_

"Yamcha what are you thinking?" asked Bulma.

"Something's wrong, Goku is in trouble. I have to go back, Tien is down there too so he knows this as well as I do."

"But Yamcha…"

"Look Bulma I can't explain it but I just know that Goku is in trouble and if I don't do something then he's gonna get killed. I'm not gonna stand by and let that happen. Maybe I won't be able to do very much to help out against an opponent as strong as this but I won't just stand by and do nothing, sorry guys but this is the way that it has to be." he activated his Kaioken to give himself a boost in speed and took off back towards the battlefield.

Bulma couldn't do anything else other than watch him go ' _Yamcha…'_

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Goku found himself frozen in pure fear as he watched Vegeta transform "Hey Tien would now be a bad time to start screaming?"

"Better now than five minutes from now." Tien muttered.

"But you are seeing this right? This is really happening?"

"Yep." the two of them suddenly found themselves being forced to dodge and evade Vegeta in his Great Ape form.

With a deep rumbling chuckle, Vegeta continued to slowly advance towards them " **So do tell me what do you think, quite the impressive transformation isn't it?"**

Goku and Tien were forced back on the evasive "I don't understand, what the heck is going on here?"

"Well I think this Saiyan has turned into some kind of gigantic ape creature."' Tien pointed out rather dryly.

"No one likes a smart ass Tien!"

" **How about I let the two of you in on a little bit of a secret? When I adopt the form of a Great Ape my power increases ten times over!"**

Goku was forced to evade another sweep attack, only to freeze as images and memories suddenly began to flash through his mind ' _Grandpa… you told me all those years that that giant gorilla monster lurks around whenever the full moon comes out, and Kami… you must've known about this too so you made sure that my tail would never grow back! So that's why, now everything makes so much sense!'_ he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Vegeta pouncing at him until…

"Goku look out!" Tien yanked him out of the way of Vegeta's attack "Goku what's the matter with you? Get your head together!"

"It… It was me…" Goku slowly pulled himself to his feet "It was always me…" his voice was soft and his bangs were covering his eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"If it's true… if I'm really like this guy… then it was me… I was the one…"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know if you ever heard about this Tien, but apparently there was some kind of gigantic ape monster that was responsible for crushing my Grandpa Gohan to death, and the same thing smashed up the grounds during the World Martial Arts Tournament all those years ago, and if I'm really like this guy then that means that… It was me. It was always me!" he slammed his fist against a plateau "DAMMIT!"

"Goku…"

' _I owe it to you Grandpa and to everyone else to take this guy down, I don't care how strong he is or what I have to do, even if it kills me. And if I die and see you in the next world then I'll make it a point for saying that I'm sorry for doing all of those horrible things that I must've done whenever I transformed._ Come on Tien we've gotta finish this, we can't beat him when he's in that form so maybe if we can find a way to get him back to normal then we might still have a chance."

"Goku are you sure you're alright?"

"No I'm pretty far from it but that's the last thing that I can think about right now, right now we have to stop this guy no matter what the cost may be. I can't charge the Spirit Bomb if he won't give me the time and you can't last long enough against him on your own, the only hope we have is to-"

"Either destroy that fake moon or cut off his tail."

"Exactly, and then we might be able to double team him."

" **Oh what's the matter Kakarot, are you and the Triclops trying to strategize in a desperate struggle? What happened to all of that blazing red bravado you had a moment ago?! Come on now, don't give up yet, we're just getting started!"**

"I think I have an idea but it involves me borrowing one of your moves."

"Or rather than repeat what happened in our last fight how about I just take the lead and stop you from stealing that technique from me again." Tien burst upwards in front of Vegeta and was able to avoid being grabbed and crushed to death " **Solar Flare!"** he quickly unleashed his signature Solar Flare, blinding Vegeta with the effects of it.

" **MY EYES, DAMMIT MY EYES!"**

"Now Goku, go for the fake moon!"

"Got it Tien, thanks!" Goku quickly flashed into Kaioken and made a beeline for the artificial moon above them ' _I'm gonna have to put a lot of power into this attack if I want to completely destroy this thing, the problem is that I don't have a lot of power left to begin with so I'm gonna have to make this count!'_ he cupped his hands at his side " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

" **AND DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT SNEAKING AWAY FROM ME KAKAROT, I CAN SMELL ALL OF YOUR FEAR FROM HALFWAY ACROSS THIS PATHETIC PLANET!"**

" **HAAAAAAAA!"** packing as much Ki into it as he could, Goku fired a full power Kaioken enhanced Kamehameha, engulfing the artificial moon and annihilating it on the spot, much to the clear horror of Vegeta.

" **NO NO NO NO NO! DAMMIT THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"** and yet despite his protests Vegeta was forced to transform back into his normal form, slightly weakened from when he transformed and also foaming at the mouth from pure, unyielding rage "You… You…"

"Yay…" Goku fell flat on his back and hit the ground with a loud thud "Ow…"

"YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR THESE TRANSGRESSIONS! YOU'RE ABOUT TO SUFFER IN WAYS YOU COULD NEVER EVEN BEGIN TO IMAGINE!"

"...Hey Tien did we plan this far ahead?"

Tien breathed a frustrated sigh "No we did not Goku, no we did not."

"Don't be said about that you guys, I never do." that was when Yamcha suddenly dropped down onto the scene "I figured you could use a hand."

"Well we can thanks, I just wish I had an idea about what to do from here on out."

"Well I've got one idea."

"Go down fighting like true warriors?"

"Yep."

"Works for me."

"I figured that it would."

"BE SILENT YOU WORTHLESS PEASANTS!" Vegeta bellowed furiously "I REFUSE TO ALLOW THE LIKES OF YOU TO IGNORE ME!"

"I wish we could ignore you."

"I SAID SILENCE! I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET THE DAY YOU WERE BORN! YOUR TORMENT WILL BE LEGENDARY!" and then to prove this point Vegeta suddenly attempted to unleash a Super Explosive Wave to incinerate the three of them "NOW BEGONE YOU IMPUDENT GNATS!"

Thinking quick, Tien and Yamcha tried to hold back the blast, only to find themselves quickly being pushed back "Come on Yamcha put more power into it!"

"Why the hell don't you take your own advice!" and yet Yamcha still unceremoniously pumped his Kaioken up to the fourth level in an attempt to hold back the blast, with Tien using a Super Dodon Wave from each hand as well as the Four Witches Technique, thereby adding on four Ki blasts in total.

That was when another blast joined the fray, courtesy of Goku, him being barely able to stand at all "Sorry about this you guys, I shouldn't have left all of it to you."

"You still able to move?" asked Tien.

"Like you have any room to talk, how about you guys go ahead and I'll try and back you up from a distance."

"You say that like you have any chance of victory!" Vegeta let out a cocky smirk "The three of you or however many more can join forces if you like, a few more puny insects won't make any sort of difference against the power of an elite warrior like yours truly! Your fates were decided the minute that I set foot on this miserable planet!"

"You've gotta admit that a guy like this is amazing, no doubt he's the strongest person we've ever faced!"

"You're not gonna start fawning over him are you?" asked Yamcha.

"Not a chance, just do what has to be done." and with a mighty roar the three of them managed to cancel out the Super Explosive Wave "Well what do you think of that?!"

"NOW YOU'RE GOING TO DIE SLOW AND AGONIZING DEATHS!" now void of any patience, Vegeta prepared to charge forward and slaughter all of them.

"Come on man, let's go!" with two simultaneous mighty roars, Tien and Yamcha met the charge and began trading even blows with Vegeta, the latter receiving a fist to the gut but catching said fist and the latter.

"Now!" Goku barked, prompted the two of them to move out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by Goku's barrage of Ki blasts, sending Vegeta flying into a plateau.

Tien and Yamcha took the chance to attack him while he was still embedded in it as they ricocheted off of rubble, the former grabbing Vegeta by the throat and the latter slamming his fist into Vegeta's chest.

"You wretched little… HOW DARE YOU STRIKE ME!" Vegeta dealt both Tien and Yamcha a fierce barrage of punches as he slammed them through the plateau and blitzed towards Goku, dodging every Ki blast being thrown at him

"There's no time to waste, Yamcha launch me at him!" Tien barked.

"I gotcha now GO!" Yamcha quickly launched Tien forward, giving him a boost in speed and allowing him to grab Vegeta by the throat and pull him downwards towards the ground with a brutal use of the Volleyball Fist technique.

"Don't think I'll go down that easy!" Vegeta took control of the pile driver and then ended up slamming Tien into the ground instead.

" **KAIOKEN TIMES FIVE!"** forcing his Kaioken as high as he could, Yamcha joined the charge against Vegeta as he felt his body being ripped apart, the two of them forcing Vegeta through the ground with all of the force that they had.

Finally forced to his knees from sheer exhaustion, Goku could only watch as Tien and Yamcha finished the battle "Tien! Yamcha! FINISH IT!"

"RIGHT!" and so using whatever Ki they could scrounge up, Tien and Yamcha launched Vegeta high into the air with a two man uppercut.

Vegeta barely had any time to process what was happening ' _How could this happen?! How could I, the prince of all Saiyans, lose to such trash?!'_

"AND NOW THIS ENDS!" with two simultaneous roars, Tien and Yamcha hit Vegeta with two massive Ki Blasts, the former using the Super Dodon Wave and the latter with a Kaioken enhanced full power Kamehameha, both blasts combining into one and engulfing Vegeta in a massive explosion that covered the entire area.

Once the explosion died down, Goku could only smile at the sight ' _You guys have all gotten really strong, things got pretty hectic for a second but somehow we were able to pull through in the end.'_ then he frowned ' _Grandpa Gohan… and the tournament… it was all me… I can't help but wonder… did they know?'_

"D-Dammit…" now thoroughly wounded to the point where he couldn't stand with his tail having been blown off in the assault, Vegeta pulled out of his suit the remote control for his Saiyan space pod and summoned it ' _Crushed and broken by a lower class Saiyan, a worm with scars and a triclops… Yep, I think I'm done here.'_

"Oh come on…" Tien pulled himself to his feet "He's still alive…?" he glanced up and noticed the space pod land in front of them ' _Is that the ship he used to come here…?'_

"Okay Vegeta, you know what to do…" Vegeta started pulling himself towards his ship "Get into the pod… fly back to Frieza Planet 79… and sleep this off like a bad hangover… me, Vegeta, the prince of all Saiyans, the greatest warrior in the entire universe… actually being forced to… retreat…"

' _So that pod is his spaceship, that means that he's trying to get away… No, he has to pay for everything that he's done… for all of the people that he's hurt… time to finish him off…'_

"Just like some kind of bad hangover…" Vegeta was about to climb into his pod and leave the planet, when…

"And just where do you think you're going?" Tien staggered his way towards Vegeta and began charging a Dodon Ray "You're not going anywhere… you killed my friends… and Chiaotzu… and now you're gonna pay!"

' _Dammit I can't move, I don't have any power left!'_

"Now die!" Tien prepared to blow through Vegeta's heart, when…

"Tien no… don't do it…" Goku staggered towards them and then grabbed Tien by the hand, stopping him "It's over… just stop…"

"Goku are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Please… just let the Saiyan go…"

"You cannot be serious Goku, two of our friends and Piccolo are dead because of this guy and you want me to let him get in his space pod and fly away like nothing ever happened? Goku if we don't finish him now then he's just gonna lay low until he has his strength back and then he'll just come back and wipe out the planet!"

"Yeah I know, he probably will."

"I know he will, Piccolo may have had a change of heart but this guy is pure evil! People like him don't change, if we let him live then he'll just keep on hurting people and I don't want him to have that opportunity."

"Yeah I know, and I know how strong he is and how much damage he can do. As long as he's alive nobody on Earth is safe, but I need you to listen to me. This might sound crazy and chances are I'm gonna regret saying this any second now, but just now when it looked like you were about to kill him I couldn't help but think of how much of a waste it would be."

"A waste, what the hell are you talking about?"

"After me and Yamcha finished training with King Kai in Otherworld I thought that I had gotten as strong as I could possibly be, but then I saw Vegeta fighting and he's so much stronger than me even without his Great Ape thing. Which reminds me, Yamcha you and I need to have a serious talk. Anyway the things that Vegeta was capable of was overwhelming, but I've gotta admit that deep down I was kind of excited. Maybe it's because I've got Saiyan blood in me too, but when I see someone as strong as that I can feel my heart racing because I realize that I still have that much further to go. I got that feeling against all sorts of enemies like you and Piccolo, and I think that maybe he's no different. It makes me want to train even harder to be able to push myself to reach that level. Listen to me Tien, I know that this is wrong but please just let him go for now, for me. I need to be able to fight him again someday, to know just how much more powerful I need to become."

"...You know something Goku there are times when I really really hate you." Tien very reluctantly dispersed his Dodon Ray "But I'll respect your wishes for the time being, after all if it wasn't for you and Yamcha then right now we'll all be dead. But that being said I want my chance to beat him too, for Chiaotzu."

"I understand."

"And next time we fight him we'll make him regret that he ever came to this planet, that much he can be sure of." he glared down at Vegeta "You would be wise to keep that in mind."

"Oh believe me I will." Vegeta climbed into his pod "I believe that now would be the time for me to make my grand exit. But don't think this is over, not by a long shot, and don't think that you'll be able to save yourselves from me next time. That is a personal guarantee from me." and with that, the pod sealed itself and departed from the planet.

' _And you won't get away next time, that's a guarantee from me.'_ and then just to prove that point he fired a Ki blast at the ship, altering its course unbeknownst to anyone.

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King Kai breathed a sigh of relief "Well that's one hell of a relief, that had me worried for a minute there. I know that I'm not really supposed to take sides."

"A rule that went out the window ages ago." Scarlet pointed out.

"Well regardless, that Saiyan is a menace to the entire universe so someone as evil as that guy was bound to get a taste of his own medicine at some point right? It was just a matter of time now wasn't it?"

"But despite this victory that doesn't change the fact that no one will be safe until the route of this evil is completely cut off at the source."

"This isn't over, not by a long shot."

"Which means that my brother and my son both have a lot more growth to go through before this is all over, the path of martial arts is quite a difficult one."

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"Thanks Tien, I know that wasn't easy." Goku sat down on the ground and let out a tired and aggravated sounding sigh.

"Yeah you're right, it wasn't." Tien just breathed out a sigh "I just wish there was a way to undo everything that's happened."

"I know what you mean."

"Actually I think Kai had a plan for that." Yamcha sat down between them "So Goku are you okay after all of that?"

"...No Yamcha, you know what I'm not okay. At all." Goku slowly got to his feet, his anger taking both Tien and Yamcha by surprise.

"What's going on with you?"

"I'm only gonna ask me once, did you know that the monster who screwed up the tournament grounds all those years ago?"

"So… you found out about that transformation?"

"Yeah I did, now did you know or not?"

"...Yeah Goku I did, we found out that night when we were stuck in Emperor Pilaf's castle and you transformed at the full moon. Bulma, Krillin, Launch, Master Roshi and the others saw it too back then."

"And Tien, Chiaotzu, Piccolo and the like?"

"As far as I know you never transformed in front of them so I doubt that they know."

"So you're saying that… for 12 years you know this about me, that I transformed at a full moon into some kind of giant gorilla, that I smashed up the tournament grounds, that I killed my own grandfather, and you never bothered to say anything?"

"Goku we thought it was for the best, we knew that if we told you then you would be devastated."

"Bulma came up with the idea, we just promised to go along with it."

"What were you guys thinking?"

"Hey I promised Bulma that I would never tell you but that shit hit the fan pretty hard today didn't it?" Yamcha looked up and noticed some sort of ship descending towards them "Oh you've gotta be f*cking kidding me, now he's coming back?"

"Nope, that's not the Saiyan." Tien told him.

"Then who is it?"

"Hey what's up A holes!" Kai flipped them off from the window of the plane, earning a smack on the back of the head from Bulma "Ow!"

"...I'm not sure if that's better or worse."

"Yamcha!" Bulma leapt out of the plane and into his waiting arms.

"Okay it's better. Listen Bulma, we might have a bit of a problem. Goku is-"

"Goku!" she suddenly threw her arms around Goku, a gesture that he didn't return "You're back and you're okay!"

"No Bulma, I'm not okay." Goku removed her arms from him and let out a sigh, taking her by surprise "Yamcha told me what happened at the tournament all those years ago, and what happened at Pilaf's castle that night."

"...Oh."

"So no I'm not okay, you guys should've told me the truth."

"Goku I wanted to so many times, I really did. And don't blame Master Roshi or the others either, I was the one who made them promise not to."

"...I've gotta go get some air, I'll meet up with you guys later." and then Goku just blasted off into the sky before anyone could get another word in.

' _Goku…_ Wait what about the Saiyan?"

"Sorry about that guys, but he got away." Yamcha told the group.

"That's of little consequence at the moment, right now you guys deserve credit where credit is due." that was when Korin approached Yamcha and Tien "Not just anyone can run off a warrior of the Saiyan race like that."

"Yeah no kidding, you wouldn't believe just how strong the guy was. The three of us were lucky to survive against him, I just wish the same could be said for everyone else like Krillin, Piccolo and Chiaotzu. Especially since Piccolo dying means that Kami is gone too, and that means that the Dragon Balls are gone forever."

"Yes I know, it's such a shame. But right now we had best get the two of you some medical attention because I gave Goku and Yamcha the last of my Senzu Beans earlier."

"Yeah, I know." so while everyone else boarded the plane, Yamcha glanced up at the moonless night sky "I hope you saw that sis, and I hope that I made you proud." and then he boarded the place after the others.

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It wasn't long before the plane was soaring high through the sky in search of the original battlefield.

Bulma looked out the window of the plane in search of the bodies "So this is where the battle started right, where Krillin and Piccolo went down before?"

"We're getting closer, I think it was a little bit further that way." Yamcha pointed in a certain direction.

"Not like we have to worry about them being gone forever." Kai piped up, earning looks from everyone "Not if the plan that me and Gohan came up with works the way that we think it's gonna, and if that does work out the way that we think it does then we can still fix everything."

Gohan nodded "Kai is right, I mean it definitely is a long shot but it still might work and unless we're missing something then there's still a chance that everyone who was killed today can be brought back to life." he glanced over at Kai "And by the way Kai, about the whole giant ape thing…"

"You mean how you turned into one and I blew up the moon and gloated about it for like a week after that?"

"Yeah… you don't think it's kind of scary or anything?"

"Hell no, that just make you even more awesome in my eyes! As far as I'm concerned you're more than qualified to be my sidekick."

"Thanks Kai, you really- Wait a second, sidekick?!"

"Alright you two we don't need any of that." Yamcha broke them up "We had enough of that after the Pokemon thing earlier. Anyway what are the two of you thinking?"

"Well here's the thing Yamcha-" Gohan glanced out the window "Me and Kai will explain it all later, it looks like we're here. You can go ahead and set it down here Bulma, this is where we'll find the bodies so we can get them on board."

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The bodies of Krillin and Piccolo were quickly put into cry coffin capsules provided by Bulma.

"Alright there's just one more body to go." Yamcha looked around "I don't think there's any sign of Chiaotzu anywhere, you guys know where he is."

"You won't find anything." Tien had his back turned to the others, staring upwards into the night sky "There's no body, he blew himself up trying to kill one of the Saiyans. It didn't work though."

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Soon enough, the bodies had been loaded into the plane and they were all on their way once again.

Gohan knelt down in front of the coffin containing Piccolo's body, his teeth grinding furiously and his fists clenching tightly "These kinds of things just shouldn't happen, I just wish there was a way that I could've saved him."

Korin nodded "You've definitely got Goku's good heart in you and I agree, as it stands right now far too many good people have made far too great of a sacrifice."

"And to think I was helpless to stop this from happening, it's just wrong. And to know that I couldn't do anything about it, it's just so infuriating it's making my blood boil! The feeling of being so helpless, I just hate it!"

"Welcome to the club." Kai sat down next to him "This is only the second time I've gotten that feeling and I'm only five I guess that just shows the kind of life I'm leading right?"

"Well we made it this far haven't we?"

"I guess so."

"You know you guys never finished." Upa got their attention "What exactly were the two of you saying about bringing everyone back to life?"

"Well so far it's just a theory but we'll try and keep it easy to follow. See from what we were able to gather the Saiyans already knew about the Dragon Balls when they got here, they heard us talking over the Scouter that prick Beets was wearing."

Gohan nodded "They didn't come for revenge, at least not entirely."

"Or at all, they were a crap load more interested in tracking down the Dragon Balls so that they could make a wish. But what really caught our attention, they called him a Namekian. Do you guys know where we're going with this?"

"Which means that Piccolo and Kami have to have been some sort of aliens from another planet like the Saiyans or dad."

"I mean the fact that they're green is kind of a dead giveaway but what Vegeta said after that that got both of us thinking, he said that they would get answers if they visit Piccolo's homeworld, his and Kami's home planet."

"It just took us a while to really understand what they meant by that, but it's like they were saying that they would be able to find more Dragon Balls on the Planet Namek, which means that if we can somehow get to this Planet Namek, which we already know is a really big if right about now."

"But if we can find it somehow then we might be able to use those Dragon Balls and wish that everyone who was killed today by the Saiyans to be brought back to life."

"And then we get to see Piccolo again!" this was met with Chichi freaking out, but she was ignored.

"They'd all be brought back to life and if Piccolo and Kami get brought back then that means that we get our magic dragon testicles back and if not then he can just make another set of them for us, say whatever the hell you want about me but I know a good idea when it pops into my head!"

"Yeah Kai for all of your insanity you're a genius!" the two of them high fived.

"You're damn right I am."

"Yeah but guys that's easier said than done." Bulma pointed out "We could never pull off something like that, it's kind finding a needle in an intergalactic haystack."

"Yeah but we've got you on our side so if anyone could find it then it's you, and even if you do f*ck it up then we can just get Goku or Uncle Yamcha to use King Kai to track it down for us."

"Don't worry Kai, I'm way ahead of you." so Yamcha tapped into King Kai using telepathy from his end "Hey King Kai are you hearing that, I bet you know just about every planet in the universe so you could track down Planet Namek for us then couldn't you?"

" _What kind of question is that? Of course I know where Planet Namek is, if I didn't know my own realm then I'd be a pretty sorry king. As a matter of fact I can give you its exact coordinates too for that matter. They can hear me right?"_

"Yeah they can all hear you, you're coming through loud and clear. Go ahead, we're all listening to you."

" _Nice change of pace compared to you and Goku. Alright just hold on a minute, I'm trying to translate the coordinates to Earth terminology so you guys can understand it. Now let's see here, it says here that you'll have to keep a barring of SW66- No wait hold on that's not it. God this thing might as well have been written in Japanese. Okay maybe this is it, SU83 by 9045YX. Yeah I think that's it, give that one a shot."_

"Hold on a second." Kai cut in "Let me just make sure that I heard that right, you said 9045YX right?"

"You understood that?" asked Yamcha "I'm glad someone did because I'm totally lost on that right now."

"Big surprise there, let me just do a little bit of math."

" _As I recall Planet Namek was once an extremely beautiful world populated by a large number of Namekians, but a long time ago there was a major change in the climate of the planet. It was horrible, and as a result all but a few of the Namekians were wiped out. No one really knows what it's like on Planet Namek these days but I'll go ahead and check it out with my antenna for you. Oh wow that was fast, I think I found it!"_

"So yeah that's it, so Kami or whoever he was before the whole thing where he and Piccolo split from each other escaped from his home planet and then came all the way here to Earth."

Gohan nodded "And if that's the case then that means that one of two things happened. Kami must have either lost his memory or he came when he was too young to remember. But either way it's safe to assume that his past must have been pretty hard for him."

"And chances are trying to wish the climate normal again wouldn't have worked either, keep in mind that the Dragon Balls have limits to their power depending on who the creator is so maybe this guy wasn't that powerful. And besides, the fact that the Dragon Balls have limits is what's screwing us over to begin with."

" _I found the Namekians, it looks like there are almost one hundred of them! I mean granted it's not nearly as many as there were before but they're flourishing!"_

"Which means that there are 100 other guys who can make Dragon Balls!"

" _Yes that's right but rest assured that's nothing to be worried about, the Namekians are known for their gentle nature. They're nice like Kami was on your planet, I mean granted Piccolo had a mean streak but that was more of the exception than the rule. Keep in mind that Piccolo used to be one with Kami but Kami was exposed to evil within him that he would never have known on Planet Namek and when he decided to purge the darkness that crept into his nature that gave birth to Piccolo, the embodiment of all of the evil that he had encountered."_

"Yeah that does make sense, no wonder he was such a prick before. But anyway now there's nothing stopping us from going to Planet Namek and using their Dragon Balls to bring all of our schmucks back to life!"

"But did we consider how we'd get there?" Gohan held up a calculator "Even if we do know the exact coordinates of Planet Namek using any kind of spaceship that's available on Earth with the world's best engine built by Bulma's dad to get us to there it would take us 4,339 years and over 3 months."

"Yeah that had me worried too for a minute but then I thought back to the ship used by those other Saiyans Raditz and Beets, they were so small that they could only fit one person at a time inside, two at the most if they wanted to get freaky. That means that Vegeta and Nappa had to have come in two different pods and Nappa's pod should still be sitting right where he had left it when he landed. I mean granted Beets' ship was pretty screwed up after what you did to it a year ago, which was awesome by the way."

"But still one alien spaceship might turn out to be more than enough, we can't say for sure until we get a better look at it but I bet that we can figure something out! But how are we going to get to it?"

"How do you think?" Kai pulled a control pad out of his gi "I swiped it off of that big guy earlier after Uncle Yamcha snapped his spine with his head, I saw it lying there while he was explaining his Kaioken technique and I picked it up because I thought the thing might come in handy a little bit later if our theory panned out."

"Kai you're a mad genius, this could actually work! There's still hope for Piccolo and everyone else after all!"

"And now onwards!" the two of them pointed forward to the sun beginning to rise beyond the horizon in front of them "To Planet Namek and to the Dragon Balls!"

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 **Suddenly Planet Namek doesn't seem that far out of reach anymore, but the crew has much to do in order to prepare before they can start their journey, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generations!**

 **A/N:**

 **I know that Gohan and Kai are meant to be the main focus on this story but it's not their time, at least not yet. Besides I like the idea of Goku and Tien teaming up against an opponent, especially since Tien didn't have the chance to do that much just yet.**

 **This fight gave me the chance to exploit some of Tien's older techniques (Four Witches Technique, Multi-Form, Volleyball Fist) and give him a few other techniques used by other characters and in other movies and the like (Dodon Barrage, Super Dodon Wave).**

 **Rather than let Goku get his ass handed to him by Vegeta, I decided to get a little bit more creative and add some elements of the Goku vs Giant Piccolo fight from the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.**

 **I was going to just have it be Goku and Tien vs Vegeta but I couldn't just shove Yamcha to the side after having him take out the likes of Nappa, so I decided to take a cue from the final episode of Dragon Ball Super and have Tien and Yamcha epically double team Vegeta like Goku and Frieza did to Jiren, which you have to admit was pretty epic. Also I had Vegeta's tail get blown off because I won't be writing out him transforming into a Great Ape again, and besides if you look closely at Dragon Ball Super episode 131 you'll notice that the end off Frieza's tail was blown off in the final struggle against Jiren so I figured why not here too?**

 **Sorry if the whole thing with the Great Ape was kind of underwhelming but I always figured, why not just destroy the fake moon to undo the transformation process? I mean it worked with Gohan didn't it?**

 **Also sorry if this seemed rather anticlimactic, I was pretty eager to get to the Namek saga. That's where it's going to get good, trust me.**

 **One thing that kind of bugged me was how Goku was able to just get over the whole realization over the Great Ape transformation and how he was the one who killed his own Grandpa Gohan all those years ago, and since Goku wasn't injured anywhere near as bad in his fight with Vegeta thanks to Yamcha's intervention I decided that rather than go to Namek he'd take some time to process this newfound revelation, along with the one where Yamcha, Bulma and everyone else (with the exception of Tien, the only one still alive who was around back when Goku still had his tail, and Upa, who hadn't appeared since the Fortuneteller Baba saga) knew and never told him, so you can imagine how that would be pretty heavy even for him. This stems from the fact that I've never seen Goku get that much development in terms of his overall character, so now I'm giving him that chance. And before you say that it's OOC for him, take a look at this situation from his perspective. He found out that he killed his own grandfather and that his best friends new for years and never told him.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 9,200

Goku (Kaioken): 18,400

Goku (Kaioken 3x): 27,600

Goku (Kaioken 3x Kamehameha): 33,000

Goku (Kaioken 4x Kamehameha): 44,000

Yamcha: 7,400

Yamcha (Kaioken): 14,800

Yamcha (Kaioken 4x):

Yamcha (Kaioken 5x): 37,000

Tien: 1,830

Tien (Super Dodon Wave): 18,300

Tien & Yamcha (Miracle of Earth): 50,000

Vegeta: 14,000

Vegeta (full power): 18,000

Vegeta (Galick Gun): 28,000

Vegeta (weakened): 12,000

Vegeta (Great Ape, weakened): 120,000

Vegeta (post transformation): 10,000


	5. The World's Strongest, Depart for Namek

By this point the sun was shining over the skies of West City, but everyone was already in the hospital.

Yamcha laid back on his bed and let out a sigh "So yeah the doctor said that Tien is gonna be as good as new in a few days, but I myself will have to stay for about a week because of insane levels of muscle strain from use of the Kaioken, and he wants us both to stay for some observations. Goku is still pretty messed up though after that fight, he still won't even talk to any of us."

"Oh I wouldn't worry about his injuries." Korin waved him off "The next crop of Senzu Beans will be ready in another month or so, all of you guys will be up and about before you even know what hit you. As for him being upset… just give him some time, he'll come to terms with all of this."

"Yeah I hope so. You know aside from that today turned out pretty well, first we saved the entire world and now we've got a chance to bring Krillin and Piccolo and everyone who died in the battle back to life."

"That we do."

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One of them clearly disagreed with Korin's statement.

Upa found Goku sitting on top of the hospital roof, staring out into the horizon "You know everyone else is inside talking about the plans to go to Namek."

Goku nodded and just laid down on his back "Well I'm sure that they'll have a lot of fun with that and Bulma will have a field day with that Saiyan ship."

"And you know that it's not good to hold things in, you want to tell me what's bothering you so much?"

"It's not like it's rocket science Upa, I transformed into a gigantic ape monster at least twice in my life, one of those times ending with me killing my own grandpa. Now I just feel so different and all."

"You say that like different is a bad thing."

"In this case it feels like it, but that's only part of what's bugging me. It's mainly the massive shock that comes with it, not to mention that Bulma, Yamcha, Krillin and Master Roshi kept it a secret from me for all these years. To be honest I'm kind of disappointed in them."

"Goku I might not have much room to talk in this situation but I do know that you won't get anywhere with this unless you actually talk to them."

"Yeah yeah I know Upa, it just feels so weird. Son Goku the gigantic ape guy, I can't wait to find out what other surprises are coming my way."

"Well whatever it is it doubt it will be as bad as the Saiyans. But still Goku, you should just talk to them."

"Hey guys?" that was when a hesitant Bulma showed up on the roof "Hey Upa can you give us a minute?"

"...Yeah sure, take all the minutes that you need." noticing the awkwardness, Upa made his way back inside.

"So we were all gonna go get some lunch before we started working on getting the ship so we can head to Namek, you wanna come?"

"That's okay, I'm not hungry." he started walking away.

Bulma grabbed him by the hand, stopping him "Goku look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry we never told you about your transformation but like I said I was the one who came up with the idea of not telling you, we thought that it was best."

"How Bulma, how would it be best for me not to know that I'm the one who crushed my own grandpa to death? If I had known from the start then I would've had plenty of time to adjust and then maybe learn to control that power, but now I just feel so different."

"Well you're not different Goku, it didn't make us think any differently of you before and it doesn't now. I just wish that we had told you sooner, when you had transformed at the tournament. You're still Son Goku, the same big hearted idiot that we all know and love and nothing will change that."

"...Thanks for that Bulma, it helps I guess, but it's not easy to be able to accept something like this when you know it took away one of the people that I loved more than anything else in the world." and he blasted off into the skies.

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(The hospital room)

"Everyone!" that was when Launch showed up in her blue haired form "Hurry, you have to see this!" she turned on the TV and turned it to the news."

" _The mysterious object was found in the remains of the recently devastated Metro East, and although it cannot be confirmed at this time it appears to be some type of alien spaceship. Based on early reports that we have received from the scene, this is one of the two flying objects that landed in the Metro East area mere moments before the city was attacked."_

"I don't like the sound of that." Tien muttered "Our only hope and it's locked up in some kind of lab somewhere."

"Yeah well it won't be for long." Kai pulled out the remote "If this remote or whatever thing that I found really works then we can summon the ship right to our front door and then take it for one hell of a joyride, those blowhards won't even know what happened."

"Do you really think that that's a good idea Kai?" asked Gohan.

"Hey I'm the psychopath here so leave the thinking to me."

"That is not helping."

"Well it's the truth, and besides last night me and Bulma studied the thing for hours and hours on end. Just let the master do his thing." Kai pressed a few buttons, which ended up causing the ship to self destruct.

"Uh, Kai?"

"Not. A f*cking. Word."

"So that was the self destruct button instead of any kind of activation and that was the only ship on the planet that was fast enough to get us to Planet Namek while we were still alive. Anyone got any other ideas?"

"How the f*ck am I supposed to know?"

"I might be able to assist you." that was when Mr Popo showed up on his Magic Carpet at the window, thoroughly freaking Bulma out once she was in the doorway "Hi."

"Oh hey creepy genie guy- I mean Lord Popo." Kai actually bowed to him.

"Listen up maggots, because I know of another spaceship if you want to see it."

"So you actually know of a ship that we can use-"

"Shut up maggot."

"Yes my lord!"

"Who is this guy anyway?" asked Bulma.

"That's Mr Popo, he used to live up on the Lookout with Kami before he and Piccolo both croaked like frogs. So anyway my lord you have a ship that we can use."

Mr Popo shrugged "Probably, I just want some other maggots that are worthy of being in my presence to check it out before you start praising me. I'm the only one who knows where it is and the only one with the transportation to get you there. There's room on this carpet for one big one or two of you smaller maggots. So who's up?"

"DIBS!" Kai leapt onto the carpet "I bow to your infinite wisdom Lord Popo."

"I like you already. Anyone else? We've got room for one more."

"I'd better go." Gohan slowly stepped out onto the carpet "Someone has to make sure Kai doesn't end up blowing up the planet, besides I can just beat him into the ground if he tries to right?"

"Oh you and I are gonna get along just fine." and then the three of them disappeared.

"GOHAN!" Chichi tried to force her way out the window and then go after them "GET AWAY FROM THAT PSYCHOPATH AND THE SCARY GENIE THIS INSTANT!" she realized too late that she was about to fall out the window.

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Mr Popo and the others appeared in a mountain range covered by strong winds and he stepped off of the carpets "Alright boys you can get off now."

"You sound kind of different now that we're alone." Gohan pointed out.

"I just do that to keep up appearances and maintain my reputation, truth be told so many centuries can mellow a guy out. Anyway get off, I just had this thing detailed."

"And why is it so cold, where are we anyway?" asked Kai.

"This is the Yunzabit Highlands."

"Say what now? They're across the globe, there's no way that we could've travelled that far so fast." Gohan pointed out "And even if this thing could travel that fast why didn't you let my dad and Yamcha use it to get to the battle yesterday?"

"I was preoccupied making toast."

"Of course you were."

"I believe the ship was this way." Mr Popo just started walking and jumping up to the tops of ledges, with Gohan and Kai following him just by floating, and beyond one of these said cliffs they found what they were looking for "This is the object in question." he gestured to a large ship covered in moss with some visible damage and wear and tear "So is this what the two of you need?"

"I don't have a f*cking clue but I guess we can take a look." so Kai and Gohan checked out the ship in question "Well it's definitely not like any metal I've ever seen before, so what's the deal with this thing anyway?"

"It was about 100 years ago when Kami at last told me the details of his life before he came to train in the Lookout, he told me that when he was very young he lived here in Yunzabit and then I asked him why. It's such a desolate land and so few people ever go there, why would anyone ever want to live in a place like Yunzabit? He said that he didn't, he had no recollection of how he came to be there. He said that he had no memory of either of his parents or anyone else up to that point."

"But he had parents didn't he?" asked Gohan.

"He didn't know, all he had was a letter that told him to wait and that they would come for him as soon as they could."

"But they never came for him did they?"

"When Kami was a boy he waited for his parents who never came, it was in Yunzabit that he had spent his childhood. Throughout his youth he remained certain that his parents would return for him, but his certainty faded with each passing day and then month and then year. He didn't know how long he had waited, whether it be 20 years or 30 years but either way he eventually gave up hope and then he left his home and Yunzabit altogether. He still went back to look in on the place every now and then but nothing ever changes in a place like this. He said that back then he thought he had the most normal home in the world, but it was only years later when he actually came to comprehend how strange a spherical house really was, not to mention its four tiny legs and meditation room or that the door had no knob or lock, and in fact the only way that I could open it was with a specific vocal command."

"You mean like some kind of password?"

"And that word was… Piccolo." this caused the door to open, revealing a floating platform for them "And now we have to stand on this in order to get inside."

"Good enough for me." Kai quickly hopped on, with Gohan and Mr Popo doing the same "So you're saying that Kami used to live in there."

"And the same command closes the door as well. Piccolo." this caused the door to close, taking them into the ship "Kami referred to this as his house but to my eye it seemed that it could be a spaceship."

"Well that makes sense, Kami is from Namek and King Kai told us that Namek was almost wiped out by some severe change in the climate before."

"Yes I heard from King Kai as well and if Kami is not of this world then I thought that surely something had to have brought him here so I came back to have a look at it."

"Well if this thing turns out to be what it looks like and if it fits with what Kami told you about his anime style childhood of loneliness that would make Naruto eat his heart out."

"Yes so with Planet Namek in crisis Kami's parents decided to put their son on this spaceship and then sent him to Earth in order to keep him safe."

"They must've thought that they could come back for him later like the letter promised but they probably died so they were never able to. Besides look at this thing, how the hell could this possibly look like a house? Also is there some kind of training room in here?"

"From what I have seen the closest to that is a meditation room." he pointed to the door on the far side of the room.

"Well either way this is definitely a spaceship, the only question is whether or not we can get this bad boy flying."

"Well the door opened so that means that it has to be pulling power from a source of some kind right?" Gohan pointed out.

"Maybe this here is the main switch- No wait that's not it. Maybe it's voice activated, this has to be some kind of-"

"Voice activated sensor!"

"Yeah it's gotta recognize words like the entrance does."

"So then do we say Piccolo to make it fly?"

"My guess is that's just the word we use to open the door so chances are it will actually do anything else, we'll have to try a more direct approach in some other phrase of the Namekian language."

"Which raises the problem because neither of us know any Namekian. Hey do you remember what Piccolo used to do whenever he meditated?"

"Yeah he kept muttering to himself about stuff but I had no idea that it was some kind of alien language, I just wish that he had paid closer attention to what he said."

"But it was Namekian though?" asked Mr Popo.

"Oh yeah definitely."

"Well if the language that you previously heard Piccolo utter then it might help to know that I happen to speak it as well. I know that the word Piccolo means Other World in the language used by himself and Kami and it just so happens that the word Piccolo also has the meaning of entrance."

"Well why the hell didn't you say so in the first place." Kai and Gohan quickly took the chance to position Mr Popo in front of the controls "So that would mean that the name King Piccolo would translate to something along the lines of King of Another World. Well don't just stand there Black Man, tell this bad boy to fly!"

"But tell it to fly where?"

"Anywhere is fine, but for now let's try something simple like maybe Pluto, at least to see if it's an actual planet."

So Mr Popo spoke into the controls, which prompted the ship to suddenly blast off into space until it was in front of Pluto, which in reality only took about two minutes.

"Oh man it's Jupiter! This isn't just a spaceship it's one hell of an amazing spaceship! Yeah eat your heart out Dora the Explorer, we're the ones who did it not you!" he drew Gohan into a crushing bear hug "This is exactly what we need!"

"I'm so glad." Mr Popo wiped away a few tears "If this works then that means that Kami will be brought back to life as well.

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Soon enough the group was back on Earth, and Kai and Gohan were explaining the details of the ship that they had found "And it's totally perfect, it's fast and it won't take that much work other than a few minor modifications. We could easily be on Namek within a month! We can probably launch within five days if we work fast enough."

Bulma lit up when she heard this "So then we're flying Kami's ship to Namek? This a scientist's dream come true!"

"And it's all thanks to Mr Popo here, too bad he can't join us since he has to take care of things on the Lookout so you and I are gonna have to learn how to speak Namekian."

"...Say what now?"

"Oh come on just think about it, if the ship breaks down then you and I can fix it and maybe you can put in a good word for me with your dad so I can get an internship at Capsule Corp when I'm a little bit older."

"...Alright fine, I guess the trip won't be too bad but I'm not going alone understand? You're coming with me, and so is Yamcha for that matter because I went for a year without a certain something and just two rounds last night was not enough to make up for that."

"What about my dad?" asked Gohan.

"Well…"

"He's still mad at you guys."

"Yeah."

"Alright I understand, and besides someone has to stay behind and keep an eye out here while we're gone. I'll go with you guys too." he glanced over at Chichi climbing in through the window and held up a hand to stop her from screaming "Look mom if you want to yell and scream about Kai turning me into a delinquent because you're so closed off from the reality of this situation then we can do that later, but right now I'm focusing on what has to be done for the sake our friends. None of this is about me and I don't plan to make it about me, this is about all of them. Krillin, Chiaotzu and especially Piccolo all fought hard trying to protect us and Piccolo gave his life to save me from Nappa. It wasn't for nothing, it can't have been for nothing and I won't let it be. And besides, now I have to say what no one else will. Over the past year I've come to understand more about fighting than you ever did. It's not just for thugs and dropouts like your self motivational tapes say, the main reason to fight is to protect the people you love most. That's one of the main reasons why I chose to train with Kai and Piccolo, and that's why I'm going to Namek. Will it be dangerous, yeah it probably will, but that's just another part of life. How can I know what it is for myself and the people that I care about to be safe if I can't understand what it is for them to be in real danger, and to be able to stop it? And mom, to be totally honest, I won't want to be a pediatrician or any kind of doctor. I just don't. I want to be a writer, for my work to inspire others. That's what I want to do with my life, and those are my reasons for wanting to go to Namek." this left everyone taken by surprise.

Kai patted him on the shoulder "Looks like you're getting stronger every day in both body and in mind just like how Piccolo would want, he'd be proud of you ponytail- I mean Gohan."

Mr Popo glanced over at Bulma "Kai said that you would have the ship ready in 5 days, will you be able to learn sufficient Namekian by then?"

Bulma pondered this for a moment "That's a fair point, it will take some time to program a translator so we should probably call it 10 days just to be safe okay? We'll meet at Kame House in 10 days."

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The Tsurumai-Tsuburi mountains were cold, bitter and covered in thick layers of ice that couldn't even be melted by pure Ki energy alone.

Goku found this out the hard way when he tried to blast apart a mountain of ice using a full power Kamehameha, only to not even crack it "Looks like I underestimated how tough this stuff would be, maybe this is gonna be harder than I thought. _Even during the fight with Vegeta I could sense some kind of evil energy coming from these mountains, I thought finding it would be easy but it's gonna take a lot more firepower than that to melt this kind of ice. I'm gonna have to use the Kaioken then.'_

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At the same time, Gohan and Kai themselves were wandering through the mountains, freezing their butts off as they did so "God I don't think I've ever been this cold before."

"Get a grip already, we can't back out now." Kai told him "We don't have any other choice but to keep on going ahead."

"Why are we in these mountains again?"

"Because I keep feeling some weird Ki signature and I wanna see what it's about. Just tell me that you didn't tell anyone that we're going here, the last thing I need is my uncle cramping the style of the Kai man."

"...There are many many times when I worry about your mental health."

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"Okay, let's do this!" Goku powered up his Kaioken technique, his muscles convulsing from the strain due to him still being injured " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a Kamehameha at the frozen mountain, shattering the ice and revealing a massive fortress floating in the icy waters where the mountain once stood "Uh… oops."

What Goku had failed to realize was that an old man by the name of Dr Kochin was observing this from afar in nothing but pure glee "Yes! At long last my master Dr Wheelo is free from his icy tomb, after all this time our moment is finally at hand! After spending 50 long years in an icy purgatory we're able to unleash our brilliant plan upon the world! All will bow before our brilliance!"

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Gohan and Kai made their way up to the sight of the evil fortress "Okay I'm pretty sure that building wasn't there before, and you did feel that didn't you Kai?"

"Which that are you referring to?" asked Kai "As in the uncomfortable creepy feeling like we just walked into a sci fi version of The Shining or the super f*cked up dark Ki signature we felt inside?"

"Both of those, how do we get in there?"

"We could just blast a hole through the wall and walk in there, or maybe one of those things back there can answer it." Kai gestured to the Saibamen rejects- I mean Biomen that then proceeded to gang up on the two of them, pummeling them before they had a chance to react, only for their fists to be caught and their attacks to be halted by a certain figure looming over them.

"D-Dad…"

Sure enough, it was Goku looming over the Biomen and looked down at Gohan and Kai, his eyes softening for a brief moment "What are the two of you doing out here? You should be getting ready to go to Namek with Bulma and Yamcha." he proceeded to take out each of the Biomen with one kick.

"Dad… you saved us…" and then Gohan passed out.

"Did we miss some Saibamen because I feel like we missed some Saibamen and I wasn't even there-" Goku whipped around to find three figures looming around him, only to be caught in some sort of energy blast from underground, causing him to cry out in pain.

Gohan and Kai could only feebly watch as they fell through the ice and lost consciousness, leaving Goku alone to his fate.

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Gohan slowly opened his eyes only to find that he and Kai were buried under several feet of snow and ice "Dad, dad where are you? Kai get up, I think my dad might be in some serious trouble!"

"Oh no don't bother checking my pants for chunks of snow and ice. I'm totally fine, thanks for asking." Kai spat out some of the ice in question.

"Well sorry but my dad was screaming pretty loud-"

"Gohan think for a minute, when was the last time you saw a fight where at least one guy didn't scream? That defies the laws of the universe! Now let me tell you how this is gonna go down, we're gonna go home and train before Namek and you're not gonna tell your mom about this little outing, understand?"

"But I-"

"Don't tell your mom about this or I will blast you into the F*ckbox!"

"Alright alright! Why do I have such a strong feeling that I'm going to be hearing that sentence for the rest of my life?"

"Because you are, welcome to life in the real world."

"I don't think I like the real world."

"No one does Gohan, no one does. Now come let's get out of here, I wanna be able to pee somewhere where it won't freeze to my big dragon."

"...What?"

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Chichi glanced over at where Gohan was reading a book "You mean you saw your father and you didn't try to convince him to just come home?"

"I wanted to mom but by the time we came to he was gone." Gohan told her "Whatever happened between him and the others must've really upset him. What did happen anyway?"

"All I know is it was Bulma's fault, which is why I'm not that comfortable with you going to Namek with them."

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that I'll be spending another month alone with someone like Kai?"

"Well that goes without saying, but…" she let out a sigh "I guess I just didn't want you to grow up so fast okay? But you're right, stuff like this can't be avoided. If you want this as badly as you say then I won't stop you."

"Thanks mom."

"But that being said you'd damn well better get strong enough to beat whatever you find out there okay?"

' _Why is it that everyone is so comfortable cursing around me even though I'm only 5?'_

"But afterwards when all of this is finished and everyone is back to life, the world is safe again and all of this crap is over with I'm expecting some hardcore studying on your part you got that?"

"Yeah I gotcha."

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Nightfall came, and things had calmed down on Mount Paozu.

Gohan woke up and found himself in a black void surrounded by nothing but stars "Where am I?"

"In a neutral spiritual plane." much to Gohan's surprise and joy, Piccolo appeared before him, albeit with a halo over his head "Sort of like the between realm between the living world and Otherworld."

"Mr Piccolo…" Gohan tried to wipe away a few tears.

"Don't go crying on me now, you know I hate that stuff. Look I don't know all of the details of what's going on back on Earth but I do know that I didn't spend a year of my time training you and Kai for you to wimp out against whatever it was that took your dad."

"About that, do you think I'm strong enough to beat these things?"

"As you are now, probably not. That's why I'm gonna give you a little pick me up in the form of some of my own techniques." he placed a hand on Gohan's head, imprinting knowledge of various techniques into Gohan's mind "It's just a rough version of some my own techniques, you'll still have to train in order to master them but they'll get you by for now. I plan to do the same for Kai later on."

"You can do that?"

"Sure, I've just never had a need to. Anyway it's time to get down to the real meat of this situation."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Kami is sensing something menacing and powerful coming in the direction of Planet Namek."

"He can sense things from all the way out there?"

"Not normally but being in Otherworld extends the range of his senses, anyway I'm gonna make sure that you're ready for it one way or another."

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A few days went by peacefully, preparations for the trip to Namek being made in earnest, and now the sun was just rising in the skies over Kame House.

When the doorbell rang, Turtle was the one to answer it ' _Why do I have to be the one to get the door while Master Roshi is dealing with private stuff upstairs?_ So can I help you guys stray Saibamen or whatever you are?"

As it turns out, it was three Biomen standing in front of him " **We have come in search of the one known as Master Roshi."**

"Oh. Okay, yeah he's right inside."

" **Bring him to us."**

"No need I'm here I'm here!" Master Roshi stepped out of the house hacking and coughing, causing the Biomen to sweatdrop "So are you guys the buyers, cause there's gonna be a little bit of a delay. As it turns out pigs don't know how to cook brownies, so what can I do for all of you?"

" **You have been forcefully invited to the laboratory of Dr Wheelo."**

"Sorry guys but that name isn't ringing a bell, if that's all then I'm gonna put another batch of brownies in the oven." this prompted the Biomen to get into defense positions "Oh so now we're doing this."

" **Dr Wheelo is calling for you, if you do not comply then we will use force."** and then they all charged at him.

"Oh man is it a bad time for this." Master Roshi proceeded to take all of them out with one blow each "I am NOT a morning person."

"Excellent, you've exceeded me expectations." Dr Kochin took the chance to reveal himself, applauding the display "Just what I would expect from the great Master Roshi of the Turtle School, your form and power are truly a sight to behold. Now if you would be so kind I have come to bring you to my own master Dr Wheelo, he will be most humbled to have you as his honored guest whether you like it or not."

"Are the bodies not a clear indicator of how this is going to go down?"

"Yes I did anticipate that but here's the thing, strength is only truly relative when a little bit of leverage has been applied." he gestured to where a few Biomen were holding Bulma captive a few feet away, tied up and gagged "Now comply lest I have my creations rip her limb from limb in front of your eyes."

"Dammit and those are some fine limbs too, alright fine let's get this over with."

"I do appreciate your cooperation, Dr Wheelo will be so pleased to at last have you within his clutches." he failed to notice Upa slipping away as he summoned his own ship to take the others back to the mountains.

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Gohan bolted to his feet once he heard the news "They took Master Roshi and Bulma with them?!"

Upa nodded "Yes but is it that much of a concern? Master Roshi is a great martial artist, I'm sure he can handle himself. But the question is, where do you think they took them?"

"...My guess is probably the Tsurumai-Tsuburi Mountains in the North, and that's probably where we'll find my dad too."

"Wait you saw Goku?"

"About two days ago, but then these guys attacked him and when I came too I couldn't find him anywhere. Just stay here and tell my mom what happened, I'm gonna go and see if I can find all of them."

"But what about Kai, shouldn't you tell him?"

"If this is as bad as I think it is then I don't have time to go get him, I can handle this one on my own." and so Gohan took off out the door and then took to the skies.

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Master Roshi stood next to the chained down Bulma in a dark room, no doors or windows or light of any kind in sight "So isn't it about time you tell us exactly what it is that you brought us here for? At least let Bulma go, it's not like you have any use for her anyway?"

Bulma nodded "He's right, I mean what good is a delicate flower like myself to the likes of you anyway? It's not like I'm a fighter or anything, all I have going for me are my beauty and my charming personality."

' _Seriously why do they keep bothering to kidnap her? You would think her personality would get to them by now.'_

" _Thank you for being so cooperative, now let us commence the demonstration."_ this was followed by Bulma being pulled down a trapdoor.

"Oh come on Bulma, it's not like this is your first kidnapping!" Master Roshi found himself lifted by a moving platform into what looked like some sort of combat zone, with three shadowy figures appearing before him "Okay so what now then?"

" _Well Master Roshi if you would be so kind as to allow me to introduce you to the future in the form of my state of the art biotechnical warriors, these three being known as Kishime, Misokatsu and Ebifurya! These are perfect warriors trained in all scores of combat and they're itching to show off just what they have learned."_

"Yeah well I bet that I can still teach them a thing or two. Alright I'm ready, tell your boys to come at me and give it their best shot."

" _That's what I like to hear, I appreciate your enthusiasm, Now then, it's showtime. Let the demonstration begin!"_ this prompted all of the Bio Warriors to charge forward.

' _They're fast!'_ despite the realization of their levels of skill, Master Roshi began to take evasive maneuvers, dodging and blocking, as well as weaving his way around almost every attack being thrown at him.

" _Well I must say that this is quite impressive, I was sure that he would be no match for the power of my Bio Warriors but he actually does appear to be holding his own."_

"Yeah you got that right! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Master Roshi unleashed a quick Kamehameha blast, only for Kishime and Ebifurya to dodge the attack and for Misokatsun to use his super flexible body to deflect the blast, giving Ebifurya to chance to catch Master Roshi by surprise and pummel him straight into where Kishime was waiting for him and electrocuted him using Electric Whips, causing Master Roshi to cry out in pain and fall to the ground in a smoking heap "What you didn't teach them any manners, you've gotta respect your elders." and then he lost consciousness.

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Bulma was horrified by what she was seeing from where she was chained in the observation room from behind Dr Kochin "What the hell is your problem, how could do do that to an old man like that?!"

Dr Kochin just ignored her "Well it would seem that I was wrong, he was no match for my creations. And to think I was led to believe that he was supposed to be the strongest fighter the world had to offer, such a shame really. I was looking for a challenge."

"Oh yeah the three hundred year old man, Master Roshi isn't even in the top five anymore which is to say that my boyfriend and at least five of my friends are stronger than he is."

"Is that so, and who pray tell would they be?"

" _ **Yes, tell us. Who is the greatest fighter in the world?"**_

"We are ever so curious."

Bulma blinked "Okay so who the hell is that, show yourself you coward!"

"How dare you speak to Dr Wheelo like that you insolent wench!"

"Dr… Wheelo?"

"That is correct my dear, you are in the presence of greatness. Dr Wheelo and myself happen to be the foremost authority in biotechnology."

"Wait a second, that must mean that you're Dr Kochin! I studied the two of you back when I was in school, you were the ones responsible for the biotechnical controversial experiments at the beginning of the new millennium!"

"That is correct my dear, I must say that I am quite impressed with your knowledge."

"But how the hell could the two of you possibly still be alive? I read that while the two of you were on a research mission in the Tsurumai-Tsuburi mountains you both fell victim to a tremendous avalanche that buried you both alive in ice, and besides that happened over half of a century ago to begin with! There's no way you can be who you claim that you are, Dr Kochin is already dead."

"Yes that is true, we were buried in that avalanche but I can soundly assure you that we managed to survive thanks to the scientific genius of the magnificent Dr Wheelo!" he flipped a switch, revealing the brain of Dr Wheelo trapped inside of a robotic shell in the corner of the room "We persevered and as a result we are both very much alive and well, and now allow me to formally introduce you to the great Dr Wheelo himself!"

Bulma was horrified by what she was seeing "Is that… a brain?"

"The doctor thought that he had succumbed to frostbite after the avalanche in question but his magnificent brain survived intact, it's quite amazing wouldn't you agree?"

"The only thing amazing is how the two of you could manage to sleep at night after pulling all of the horrible things that you have, you don't deserve to call yourselves human!"

"SILENCE! Do you have any idea what his research means to the human race? We have unlocked the secrets of eternal life!"

"What?"

" **Enough Kochin, she does not need to know. Now tell us, who is the strongest fighter in the world?"**

"Oh get real!" Bulma let out a scoff "Anyone with half a brain cell would know that Son Goku is the strongest!"

" **Son Goku you say?"**

"Did I stutter? You don't stand a chance against Goku, I say the two of you should just quit while you're ahead!"

" **Where is Son Goku right now?"**

"How the hell am I supposed to know? He's been gone for days."

" **Not true. He is right here."** the lights turned on further, revealing Goku down on one knee in front of Dr Wheelo, a strange vein patterned yellow device covering part of his head, the parts that didn't have hair sticking out in the typical ridiculous fashion.

' _Goku…'_

" **The pain and uncertainty within his heart made subduing him that much easier, now he is ours to command."**

Kochin let out a chuckle "Imagine the possibilities with the true greatest fighter in the world under our control and combine his might with the greatest scientific mind the universe has ever known, with all of that power at his command. With all of that power Dr Wheelo will be able to rule the world! All will bow before his might and genius in the same way that Son Goku here does!"

Bulma was mortified "You're… You're insane!"

"You should feel honored my dear, you will be the first witness to the dawn of a new era for this world!"

' _No…'_

" **People never understood my genius, they always thought of me as a mad scientist, a lunatic, a monster. Once I transfer my brain into Son Goku's body, I will at last have my revenge."**

"But that's just crazy, it'll never work!"

"Be silent!" Kochin let out a snarl "Only a fool would dare to doubt our power, a few days ago the forests surrounding South City were enveloped in a tremendous flame that turned everything to ash. I'm sure you've heard of this event."

"Wait, you mean that was you?!"

"Guilty as charged my dear, it was reported as a bizarre storm or the result of a Solar Flare or something of the sort, you know how the authorities like to keep these things under wraps like that. No one was able to explain it, they had never seen anything like it before. It was the awesome power of our new device that caused all of that delicious chaos, the Planet Geyser! It is this power that will allow us to get our revenge and what happened there is little more than a small sample of the power that we are capable of! We could wipe all traces of life from this entire planet if we so wish and then turn it into a barren wasteland in the blink of an eye, but after all what good would this incredible power be if we didn't leave anyone around to fear it."

" **Wait Kochin! Yes, I can sense it! Another powerful life force is approaching the fortress at high speeds."**

"Wait a second someone's coming?" Bulma glanced up at the monitors only to be surprised by who was coming "Is that Gohan?!"

" **His power is incredible… Son Gohan, he shall serve as fodder for my new power once I have my new body."**

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Gohan continued flying across the skies towards the Tsurumai Tsuburi mountains, his mind and heartbeat racing ' _Just hang on everyone, I'll be there as soon as I can!'_ he glanced down at the fortress "Well this a sci fi style evil lair if I've ever seen one. Maybe I should've brought Kai with me."

" _Are you the one known as Gohan?"_

"Yep that's me. I am Son Gohan, son of Son Goku, now tell me what you did with the friend and teacher of my father, and my father for that matter."

" _They're in here with me, if you wish to reclaim them then try and see if you will be able to find them."_ and then the doors opened for him " _Show us how strong you truly are."_

"Fine by me. _I hope it's warmer inside.'_ he cranked his neck to the side and dealt Misokatsu a spin kick to the head without even looking, sending him crashing into the icy waters beneath the two of them

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Gohan soon found out the hard way just how cold it really was ' _Oh god it's actually colder inside, how is it colder inside?'_

" _Attention all Bio Warriors, activate search and destroy protocol!"_

"Wait what?" Gohan found himself in a large room occupied by what looked like dozens of large metal balls "Hey cool he has a ball pit." and then metal spikes started protruding out of said metal balls "Oh no he has a ball pit." and then he was forced on the evasive in order to avoid being skewered on the spot, only to quickly get frustrated with it once he noticed Misokatsu arrive on the scene "I don't have time for this!" he fired a quick Masenko, annihilating all of them on the spot "And I thought dad said that he had been to the worst ball pit ever."

Unfortunately that backfired when Misokatsu pounced towards him and slugged him in the face, using the smoke as a cover.

Gohan quickly recovered and dodged the counterattack, and then he attempted to deal him a kick to the torso, only to end up stuck inside of his squishy body, much to his disgust "Oh no oh God ew ew it's moist, why is it moist?!" he quickly retreated back down to the ground in order to get a grip ' _It's like I'm fighting some kind of disgustingly moist balloon- That's it! Maybe I have been hanging around Kai too much.'_ he flared his aura and charged into the waiting balloon that was the body of Misokatsu, stretching almost all the way to the top of the room ' _And now to finish the plan!'_ he fired one of the new techniques that Piccolo gave him, this one being the Explosive Demon Wave, and ended up blowing a hole clear through him, causing Misokatsu to deflate like a wet saggy balloon while Gohan himself burst through the ceiling and into the next artificial battle zone in the fortress "Well that was…. Alright who do I beat the air out of next?" he whipped around to find Ebifurya smirking at him from behind, and then proceeded to quickly elbow him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground "Or beat the frozen snot out of you is more like it?"

That was when Kishime attempted to pounce at Gohan, only to end up using some sort of different version of the Afterimage.

' _This guy is definitely no amateur, and coupled with the fact that I can't even trace their Ki signatures this one won't be easy-'_ and then Gohan's thoughts were rudely interrupted out of the blue when Ebifurya and Kishime started double teaming him before he could react, getting slammed into a nearby wall and then electrocuted by Kishime using his Lightning Flash technique, which allowed Ebifurya to freeze him in place, leaving everything but his face covered in a thick layer of ice "Oh my god oh my god it's like the worst part of getting into a pool a thousand times over! And I can't move, that's bad too."

" _Well well well Son Gohan, it would appear that you have discovered the special talents of my creations and now there is no chance for you to escape. Now watch as Ebifurya seals you in your frozen grave! Finish him my creation!"_

"Great, now what do I do?"

"You get your ass in gear!" that was when Kai suddenly dropped down onto the scene in front of him, with Upa showing up right next to him "Dammit you know I hate it when you snub me like that, but at least the situation you're in now can be sound proof of why that is." he suddenly blitzed behind Ebifurya and dealt him a quick Explosive Demon Wave, blowing his head clean off.

"So where are Tien and Yamcha?"

"Last I heard training in the Arctic." Upa pulled Goku's Power Pole off of his back and then used it to slam Kishimi into the ground, and then proceeded to cut Gohan free of the ice "We couldn't get into touch with them because a certain someone insisted on coming with them."

"And by someone you mean Kai?"

"Well yeah even I know that's obvious." Kai pointed out.

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Dr Wheelo let out a chuckle as he observed them " **So much incredible power. I wonder, should I use one of them instead for my new host? No, Son Goku will be more than suitable for my goals After 50 years locked away in an ice hell my dream will finally be made into a reality, with the power of his body at my command the world will grovel before my unrivaled might."**

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Kai was charging down the halls at full speed, with Upa and a semi frozen Gohan following not far behind "Come on guys I can sense the others up ahead."

Gohan on the other hand was still shivering "So cold… still wet… frostbite… so much frostbite…"

"Chill the f out Gohan, the cold never killed anyone."

"Hypothermia would beg to differ, and besides how the heck do you even know that we're heading towards my dad and the others?"

"Because I'm sensing a super sinister Ki signature towards the back of the fortress, now let's move it!" and so the three of them pressed forwards.

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Dr Wheelo waited in anticipation for their arrival from within the shadows " **Yes that's right fools, run right into my clutches."**

It was only a matter of moments before Kai and the others arrived on the scene "Bulma just hang on!"

"Kai!" Bulma lit up when she saw them, only to cringe when he ran straight into the electrified force field surrounding her "Uh, are you okay?"

"What the f*ck do you think? God I'm gonna have some major nerve damage after that, why the hell didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't know that was gonna happen, I haven't tried to break out!"

"Why not?"

"Why do you think, I'm chained here!"

"First of all that wouldn't have stopped me, second of all that's sexy!"

"I'm pretty sure you mean sexist." Gohan pointed out.

"No I mean sexy."

"And I must agree!" that was when Dr Kochin revealed himself "I must commend the three of you for your efforts, to get this far at all."

"Holy crap it's Pinky and the Brain, but why the hell is the Brain the size of a greyhound?"

"Kai!" Gohan rounded on Dr Kochin "Tell me where my father and Master Roshi are, we wanna know and we wanna know now!"

Dr Kochin let out a chuckle "My my such pushy brats aren't you? Well if you're in that much of a rush then Master Roshi is down in our lab, I'm preparing to transform him into one of my Bio Warriors."

"What?! Oh wow Kai you actually weren't kidding, that brain really is the size of a greyhound bus."

"That's not just any bus sized brain." Bulma told them "It's the brain of Dr Wheelo, he's an evil scientist who's not as smart as me that everyone thought was dead over 50 years ago but now he and the old guy are trying to rip off Pinky and the Brain by trying to take over the world!"

"...Oh. Wow."

"Yeah!"

"SILENCE!" Dr Kochin let out an outright snarl "Don't you dare speak that way about the greatest scientific mind this world has ever known!"

"You're both nuts, you only use your genius for personal gain!"

"This coming from the chick who invented the Dragon Radar." Kai pointed out dryly.

"Shut up Kai! Kochin just take a look at how pathetic your so called master is, clinging to life in that little fishbowl! He should've died a long time ago, the world would be better off if he did die back then to begin with!"

"So what then is he plugged into the wall or something?"

"Such naive minds." Kochin let out a chuckle "Together we can do anything. Some have referred to the technology that we have developed over the years as questionable and morally offensive on numerous levels, but the truest scientists are the ones that are removed from history are the ones looked down on as lunatics by the rest of the world around us! Many times throughout it had taken death itself to allow their works to be taken seriously! The body of Dr Wheelo has long since perished due to frostbite from that avalanche, but his mind lives on thanks to the fruit of our scientific efforts! At long last the time has come in which our work will be taken seriously by the rest of the world, not even the avalanche that buried us in ice and snow could thwart our plans! We will achieve world domination once we combine a human body with the biotechnology at our disposal! And now thanks to the reckless ambitions of one Son Goku we have been given another chance, now we have the potential to realize our dreams!"

" **With my genius and the power Son Goku at my command, I will become an unstoppable force."**

"I don't think so!" Gohan took on a combat stance, with Kai and Upa both doing the same.

"Guys you had better be careful." Bulma told them "All these guys want to do is take Goku's body for themselves."

"It's a painless procedure, but needless to say he will be quite a bit smarter than he is at the moment." Dr Kochin assured "Doesn't that sound nice for him?"

"I don't care what you want to do to him!" Gohan snarled "I'm going to rescue my father and his friends and finish you guys off once and for all!"

" **I think not, you will grovel at my feet just as the rest of the world will!"** Dr Wheelo suddenly blasted both Gohan and Kai from underground with a mysterious red imprisonment beam of some kind, binding both of them with chains at their ankles and arms.

" **The time has come. Kochin, retrieve our volunteer and prepare for the transfer, and make sure that these two do not intervene."**

"Stop this, let them go!" Upa charged towards Dr Wheelo and Dr Kochin, only to find himself face to face with Goku, still being controlled by them "Goku we've been looking everywhere for you, so you've been trying to find these guys this whole time!"

"Oh is that what you choose to believe?" Dr Kochin let out a chuckle.

"No what I choose to believe is this!" Gohan let out a roar and broke free of the tractor beam, then pulled Kai out of his.

"Dammit you little brats!"

" **Such remarkable strength, to think that such power will be wasted."**

"Yeah yeah whatever lets you sleep at night." Kai glanced over at Goku "Hey Goku how's it going, and what's up with the red eyes, oh crap you didn't find my secret stash of brownies under my bed did you?"

"Kai get a grip on what little sanity you actually have!" Gohan quickly dropped into a combat stance "It's Dr Wheelo, he's controlling my dad somehow!"

"You sure because my brownies have similar results most of the time." Kai received a foot to the face from Goku "Okay mind control it is, Upa go try and free Bulma while Gohan and I deal with this." he blasted Goku in the face with an Explosive Demon Wave, sending him skidding backwards but not really hurting him.

Gohan shot Kai a small smirk "Looks like I'm not the only one Piccolo visited in a dream a few nights ago?"

"Nope, you wanna do a double Special Beam Cannon on his ass?"

"No that would take too long to charge. But that gives me an idea, can you hold off my dad for a few minutes?" he leapt back and placed two fingers to his forehead as he began charging his Ki into his fingertips.

"Oh I get what you're getting at." Kai glanced over at where Goku was recovering from the attack and flared his own aura "Alright you stoner haired brownie stealing son of a mother f*cker, come at me!

"Now do you see you worthless little brats?" Dr Kochin let out a cackle "How could anyone dare to doubt our power when even the mighty Son Goku himself bends to our will and follows our every command?"

"Leave Goku alone!" Upa snarled from where he was trying to get Bulma free from her confinement, only to end up getting shocked again "Ow…"

"It's out of my hands now boy, the mighty Son Goku is now a loyal servant as well as a future vessel for the great Dr Wheelo!"

"We'll see about that! **SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"** with a mighty roar, Gohan unleashed a full power Special Beam Cannon in the direction of Dr Kochin, the excess energy being released ripping apart all of the laboratory equipment that it passed, this being coupled with an excess boost in power from Gohan's rage.

" **That power… is this boy a hybrid of some sort?"**

"I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my father and to all of my friends, you won't get away with this!"

"You stinking brat, you should know not to but into business that doesn't have anything to do with you." Dr Kochin snarled.

" **Be silent Kochin, stop angering the boy."**

"Yes you're right Dr Wheelo, I should just kill the boy now!" Dr Kochin suddenly fired his Madness Wand Ki blast from the tip of his cane.

"You think you can just go around all over the place and do whatever you want, well I won't let you!" Gohan deflected the Ki blast and sent out a shockwave, loosening Dr Wheelo from his place in the wall and destroying the lab even further.

' _Dammit that little brat!'_ Dr Kochin reached for his cane amongst the chaos.

That was when Upa kicked it away "Not so tough without your can are you old man, now release your hold on Goku and let the others go."

"I have a better idea." Dr Kochi held up his hand and revealed a machine gun, which he then proceeded to start firing rapidly, only to find that Upa wasn't even scratched "Uh…"

"BOOYAKASHA!" that was when Master Roshi suddenly dropped down onto the scene and severed the machine gun, knocking Dr Kochin to the ground in the process "And that's for ruining my Sunday."

This also caused the mind control device on Goku's head to shatter, which allowed him to come back to reality, albeit with a visible headache "Okay can someone explain to me what's going on?"

"DODGE!" Kai suddenly kicked him in the face "Sorry, force of habit."

That was when a menacing chuckle filled the air, courtesy of Dr Wheelo " **This has proven to be very entertaining, I had never anticipated that you would be able to make it as far as you have."** and then with an even more menacing chuckle he ripped himself clear out of the wall, or what was left of it, revealing his brain to be simply housed by the massive form of a mechanical body.

"No, no no no no no! DR WHEELO!" during the chaos of the emergence, Dr Kochin was sent falling into the abyss below, his layer of synthetic skin being ripped off by falling debris, revealing his hidden robot body " **Dr Wheelo… help me…"** and then he exploded.

Dr Wheelo stood in front of the five warriors as well as Bulma in all of his menacing mechanical glory " **Hear me Son Goku, once I have taken control of your body I can at last discard any use for this hideous metal shell. Then and only then will I be able to fulfill my destiny and become the greatest scientist the world has ever known!"**

"Oh man his power is incredible, and to think this guy was the one that was controlling me before? Well now it's payback time-" Goku suddenly fell to one knee and started coughing up blood.

"Goku you're too badly hurt, just stay back and let us handle this." Upa charged in at full speed towards Dr Wheelo, only to be backhanded to the ground "Ow…"

" **Pathetic is the only word I can use to describe you, it will take far more than that to break this shell!"**

"Come on now boys!" Kai flared is aura "Let's Kame and Hame and Send him home to Mommy!" he got into a Kamehameha stance, with Gohan and Goku doing the same " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HAA!"** the three of them fired off a combination Kamehameha, the blasts hitting Dr Wheelo dead on, only to not even scratch him "Dammit Gohan you better not have held back!" and then he got backhanded into a wall.

"Oh come on we BOTH know that it was my dad!" and then Gohan got hit by Dr Wheelo's Madness Cannon.

Goku landed on the ground in a sort of sloppy way "Yeah okay it might have been me. What can I say, old habits die hard."

"And we won't die at all, not today at least." Gohan pulled himself out of the rubble "Alright everyone stand back, I'm gonna try something."

"HEY!" that was when Upa suddenly charged at Dr Wheelo, only to get backhanded into a nearby wall, knocking the Power Pole out of his grip.

Gohan caught the Power Pole and blitzed behind Dr Wheelo "Power Pole extend!" he extended the Power Pole and used it to knock Dr Wheelo off of his feet "Now Kai!"

"As if you had to ask!" Kai hit Dr Wheelo from above with another Explosive Demon Wave, engulfing him in an explosion, only to end up being body slammed straight into the ceiling of the fortress "Ow…"

"Kai!" Gohan rounded on Dr Wheelo in his rage "I'm gonna take you down no matter how long it may take me!" he flared his aura, his rage increasing his power as he put both of his hands together, a yellow Ki sphere charging in between his palms as he blitzed past Dr Wheelo, one solid kick managing to take off one of his arms.

" **Damn you you little brat, I will not die as easily as that!"** Dr Wheelo attacked Gohan by firing another Madness Cannon.

Gohan barely managed to protect himself using a weak Energy Shield "I… won't… quit! I WON'T LET YOU WIN! LIGHT GRENADE!" using all of the Ki that he had been able to muster, Gohan unleashed the ultimate attack that he learned from Piccolo in the form of the Light Grenade.

" **Damn you Son Gohan! DAMN YOU!"** Dr Wheelo could only roar in fury and agony as he was blasted into the sun by the Light Grenade, effectively vaporizing him upon contact in its flames.

Gohan on the other hand nearly fell over from exhaustion, and he would've if he hadn't been caught by Kai at the last second "Thanks Kai…"

"Just remember this, the next win is gonna be mine, no complaints." Kai told him with a totally straight face.

"Yeah, sure…" and then they both just burst out laughing, before Gohan held out the Power Pole to Goku "Here dad, I think this belongs to you."

Goku gave him a small smile "Actually I was thinking Gohan, maybe you should hold onto it for a little while. You've more than earned it after the way you fought today. I'm proud of you son, really I am."

"Are you serious? Thanks dad this is amazing!" the two of them hugged.

Master Roshi let out a small cough "You know in regards to that Dr Wheelo there's one thing that I did like about him."

"And what would that be?" asked Kai.

"The fact that he and his lap dog thought that I was the strongest fighter in the world, which I admit is rather flattering."

"That's not to say you haven't got some pretty kickass moves, but no one ever bothered to tell him that you're also a dirty old man." and then everyone started laughing.

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Sunset came, and things had died down for everyone after they had returned to their respective homes.

Goku slowly made his way inside the hut that Grandpa Gohan had used to use, finding it as old, creaky and half broken as ever ' _I should really make it a habit of cleaning this place a lot more often than I do.'_ he made his way over to Grandpa Gohan's old bed with a high shelf and picked up what looked like a box and a note ' _He put this way too high for me to reach, he must not have wanted me to see this when I was a kid.'_ he pulled off the note and then began to read it out loud to himself

 _Dear Goku,_

 _This is something that I wait for the day that you will get the chance to use. If you're reading this then it means that what I fear has come to pass, that I'm gone and that you have to face a very dangerous foe. You've always meant the world to me ever since I found you in that little ship, I love you dearly and I always will and I know things must be hard without me but I know you have the strength to pull through._

 _Your gifts as a fighter are both a blessing and a hardship, with these capabilities come a great burden and a great responsibility to use them to do what is right. I didn't tell you this when I was still here because I wanted you to have the best life that I could give you. Someday you'll understand, hopefully you will by the time that you read this. I want you to understand that I did this out of love._

"Yeah I know grandpa, I understand now. I just needed some time to process it."

 _Enter the code 0416 in that miniature safe that I keep under my bed. It's meant to represent April 16, the day that I found you all those years ago. Inside the box you will find something that just might give you the edge that you need. Remember this if nothing else, its power comes from not just the bonds you share with those around you, but your instinct to protect them. It means a lot to me, almost as much as you do. Look after it, and remember this. I'm proud of you my boy, and I love you more than anything._

 _Love,_

 _Your Grandpa Gohan_

Goku wiped away a few tears as he pulled out the miniature safe, put in the combination and opened it, revealing a long golden colored object "A Power Poll?" he pulled it out of its carrier case, went outside and tried testing it out a little bit, accidentally slicing through both a boulder and the tree behind it "Woah. This is gonna be good."

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3 more days passed in the blink of an eye, and the time to see the four heroes off to Planet Namek had come at long last.

Yamcha, clad in a white martial arts outfit with gray trousers, glanced up at the massive ship on the beach in front of Kame House "Hey Bulma are you sure that this thing is gonna be able to get us all the way to Planet Namek?"

"You know Yamcha that's quite the snazzy outfit." Bulma made her way out of Kame House in an astronaut suit with a new haircut "You realize that it's freezing in space, I had figured that you would take your packing choices a little bit more seriously like I did. Hell I even cut my hair for this trip!" this was followed by Kai stepping out dressed in his typical crimson red martial arts gi.

"I almost did too." that was when Gohan showed up with Goku and Chichi, clad in a little suit and a bow tie that made everyone burst out laughing "I know I know, rub it in."

Chichi let out a sigh "I wanted to style his hair too but he wouldn't let me, and I wanted to give him the cutest little bowl cut too."

"You're welcome." was all that Kai said on that matter.

"Say whatever you will but I still think that he looks like a perfect little gentlemen, he's going to make quite the impression."

"And I think that you're acting like you're on meth, what do you think we're doing auditioning for intergalactic Glee Club?"

"Alright enough of that." that was when Tien and Upa made their way out of Kame House "We're counting on the four of you, if there are Dragon Balls on Namek."

"Yeah we got you." Yamcha and Tien quickly shook on it "Hey maybe when we get back I can teach you how to use the Kaioken."

"Alright enough small talk." Bulma glanced up at the ship "Piccolo." and then the platform opened up and she hopped on, with Yamcha doing the same.

Gohan quickly followed Kai onto the platform as well "Well I guess it's time. See you later everyone, I promise we'll be back really soon."

"Piccolo." and then the ship closed on them, taking the four of them inside the ship, giving them the chance to see it in all of its glory.

Yamcha looked around in awe "You know this is kind of exciting isn't it? Hey Bulma so where should we but our stuff?"

"Don't know, don't care." Bulma strapped herself in "Now sit down, strap in and shut the hell up, and be quick about it."

"...Yeah works for me." and so Yamcha did as she said.

Gohan blinked "Is it just me or is she in a bad mood?"

"Don't worry about that, it's probably just her time of the month." Kai dodged a book being thrown at his head.

Bulma got the controls ready for launch "Alright get ready guys, we launch in five seconds. Our destination: Planet Namek. 4… 3… 2… 1." and then the ship took off.

"Wait Bulma hold on a second, we're not ready yet! Is this payback for the crack about you being on your period?"

Gohan blinked "What are you guys talking about?"

"I'll tell you when you're older!"

"We're the same age!"

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Master Roshi and the others watched from back on Earth "Wow those boys weren't kidding around when they said that the spaceship was fast, they're almost out of sight already."

Goku nodded and just glanced back at the Gold Power Pole strapped to his back ' _I'd better get some serious training in with this thing while they're gone, and maybe teach Tien and Upa a thing or two about the Kaioken. If anything else happens like Dr Wheelo then it's just the three of us.'_

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Still acting pissed off, Bulma got up and turned back to the others "You guys are free to move around now if you want, things should run more smoothly now that we've left the Earth's atmosphere." she started walking towards the back room.

"Really so soon, hey babe where are you going?" asked Yamcha.

"If you really must know then I'm gonna go and change my clothes." and she made her way into the back room, slamming the door behind her.

"So what into pajamas or something?"

"You don't have to sugarcoat it for us." Kai pointed out "If you wanna say that she brought lingerie then just say so."

"Not every kid your age is as f*cked up as you."

"This is also true."

"Now that I think about it I think I forgot to bring anything to sleep in."

"Just do what I do."

"Not everyone sleeps in their gi."

"Well I like the natural musk. Musk. Musk."

"Stop saying musk."

"Stop eating my brownies from under my bed. Anyway what about you Gohan?"

"Pajamas were the first thing that I packed this morning." Gohan took off his bag and started removing his hideous suit.

"I was wondering how long you were gonna look like a gay stripper."

"I don't understand half of the things that you say but I only kept that on for launch, I have another thing that I could change into later but I didn't want my mom to be able to see it before we left." he pulled something out of his bag and put it on, revealing a gi identical to the one that he had worn in the battle with Vegeta and Nappa.

Yamcha gave a small smile "Looks like you really do have a lot of respect for Piccolo don't you?"

"Oh yeah, almost as much as I do for dad."

"Yeah yeah good for you." that was when Bulma came back out clad in a perfectly fitting black jumpsuit covering her entire body with a yellow tunic over it, as well as orange boots and a red hairband.

"Wow Bulma those are some really funny looking pajamas, they don't really look that comfortable you know."  
"These aren't my pajamas you little runt, I was just tired of being the only person on this entire ship who gave enough of a damn to dress appropriately for the mission at hand!" she let out a very menacing sounding chuckle.

"...So guys did we do something to upset her? I'm really confused right now." he received only two simultaneous sighs from Kai and Yamcha.

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 **With a mighty blast from its engine, the borrowed Namekian spaceship has at last begun its long journey home, taking Gohan, Kai, Yamcha and Bulma on board coming along for the ride. Unfortunately these four are blissfully unaware of the dangers that are lying in wait for them, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **First off, let me just say that I do not apologize for my references to DBZ Abridged in any way, shape or form.**

 **So now in this story, Gohan, Kai, Bulma and Yamcha will be going to Namek to find their Dragon Balls while Goku, Tien and Upa stay behind for the time being. I was originally going to have Tien go to Namek and Yamcha come with Goku but I decided to switch them around to give Tien some much needed development considering how Dragon Ball Super treats him. Also, in regards to this and adding onto that last little tidbit from the end of the chapter, I'm going to use the month before he goes to Namek to teach Tien and Upa how to use the Kaioken.**

 **Like I mentioned before, Goku is going through a period of processing and grieving in regards to finding out about the Great Ape transformation and killing Grandpa Gohan, hence why he decided to stay back on Earth.**

 **What I'm doing with the human characters is actually part of a system that I'm developing in regards to them all receiving a fair amount of development throughout the story:**

 **Yamcha: had him die and go with Goku to train under King Kai for a year before the Saiyans arrived, which eliminated the iconic pose and gave it to Krillin instead. Also I gave him the Kaioken and currently a power level of over 7,000 in his base form.**

 **Tien: I'm having him stay behind so that he can go to Namek with Goku and train with him during the trip. Like I said he's been treated horribly by Dragon Ball Super.**

 **Krillin: Unfortunately since he's dead in this arc he won't be able to do that much aside from train with King Kai along with Chiaotzu and Piccolo. But he will get his time to shine when the Android threat rolls around.**

 **Upa: I have plans for both him during the Namek Saga, he won't exactly be part of the main action like the battle with Frieza but I can assure you that he'll get some screen time of his own.**

 **In case it wasn't clear, a good chunk of this chapter was based around most of the events of the second movie, The World's Strongest. I decided to have the events take place during the 10 days before they launch for Namek because that seemed like the best place for that to happen.**

 **Gohan, Kai and somewhat Upa are the main heroes in this scenario, with Goku being the one brainwashed by Piccolo to fill the void left behind by Piccolo's death. I cut out Tien and Yamcha from the events from the movie in order.**

 **I always wondered, since Goku was able to basically read Krillin's mind on Planet Namek and Guru was able to awaken hidden powers and see into the past through their minds, was it possible for Namekians to be able to transfer information into the minds of others? Well in this fic it is, this may not be the last time I use this ability, just a heads up.**

 **I know Dr Wheelo was originally killed by Goku's Spirit Bomb, but to add that in now would just turn it into a cheap way of having Goku steal the win from Gohan and Kai, so instead I had Gohan's Light Grenade blast him into the sun.**

 **The idea for a golden Power Poll that Grandpa Gohan used to use powered by the bonds that Goku shares with his friends and family and his desire to protect them is actually an idea that I came up with while watching a few episodes of Fairy Tail, which also might be why I'm making Kai act as insane as everyone in that series typically is. Also, the dialogue in the letter from Grandpa Gohan is based on a scene from the Max Steel 2013 series.**

 **Now then, onto an idea that I want your opinions on. It's not guaranteed to be in this story, it's just a rough idea. What would you guys think of a pairing between Launch and Android 17? See the idea for this came to me because Launch was just shoved out of the series and forgotten, and we never got to see Android 17's family in Dragon Ball Super, both of these things being extremely unfair.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 10,000

Goku (brainwashed): 14,000

Goku (post brainwashing, wounded): 7,000

Gohan (calm): 5,000

Gohan (full power): 7,500

Gohan (enraged): 20,000

Kai (post training): 4,800

Biomen: 70

Misokatsu: 6,900

Ebifurya: 10,200

Kishime: 9,300

Dr Kochin: 40

Dr Wheelo: 15,000


	6. Arrival on Namek, Enter the Frieza Force

**(Flashback- 18 days after the battle with Beets)**

Raditz swapped out his damaged armor for a new more basic set, the only noticeable difference being that they didn't have the shoulder guards ' _Now that I think about it the shoulder guards do restrict movement in battle, no wonder father preferred the older model.'_

The doctor responsible for healing his injuries studied the broken armor "I must say that I am quite surprised Raditz, it would appear that someone was capable of putting you through your paces. Considering the shape this suit is in it's a wonder how you were able to return to us in one piece, the mind boggles at the thought of such force. What it must've taken to leave a fine piece like this in tatters, would I be speaking out of turn to suggest that Planet Earth was more than you had bargained for?"

"I suppose that would be one way of putting it Doctor." Raditz finished putting on his new set of armor "Tell me Doctor, where is Lord Frieza?"

"He departed not long before you arrived."

"Grown tired of this planet then has he?"

"Yes sir."

"Thank you for healing me Doctor, I'll be seeing myself out." Raditz started walking his way out.

That is until the Doctor stopped him "Sir a moment please, it would seem that you've accidentally left your Scouter behind sir."

"It was no accident Doctor, I simply have no use for it anymore." and then Raditz simply continued on his way, contemplating his next move ' _Vegeta and Nappa still have about 10 months or so before they reach Earth, should I go back and help Kakarot's allies prepare for their arrival? No before that I should check out my theory, if Kakarot's ally, the green one, was really a Namekian like I thought then that means that perhaps I should head over to Planet Namek and see what's going on there.'_

Unfortunately these thoughts were interrupted when some random jackass showed up trying to act tough "Yo Raditz word on the street is that a certain weakling that we all know and love got their ass handed to them, and from what I can tell Beets did even worse than you. Now I can't help but wonder, who could give our strong proud Saiyans such a hard time? Aren't you supposed to be invincible?"

"Get out of my face Blueberry, if I had intended to face such drivel then I would've just gone off and found Vegeta." he started walking away, only to be grabbed by the shoulder by Cui, much to his annoyance.

"Hold on a second, Lord Frieza wasn't happy with that little stunt that you pulled with Beets when the two of you ran off to Earth without any permission."

"Well isn't it just too bad that he can't tell me that personally, now let go of me before I do something that will please him even less." this prompted Blueberry to let go.

"...Yes well luck for you Lord Frieza is feeling merciful, your fluke has him feeling rather gracious and he's willing to let bygones be bygones on account of your find."

"What's that?"

"Why would he bother holding some stupid grudge when he finally has the prospect of eternal life in his reach?"

"...Wait a second, are you trying to tell me that Frieza is heading for Planet Namek as we speak?!"

"Well of course, where else would he be headed? I mean granted King Cold called him up for some business but once that's been dealt with it's only a matter of time before immortality is at last his."

' _Dammit I'm such an idiot, Frieza must've been eavesdropping on my Scouter when I was still inside my pod! I have to do something or I'll end up being the whipping boy for that bastard for all of eternity!'_

"Now don't tell me that you wanted to keep the Dragon Balls all to yourself and not let the big man in on that little secret of yours after all he's done for you, oh and I hate to dash whatever dreams of immortality that you may have but he's gonna kill every last Namekian when he's finished."

"LIKE HELL HE WILL!" Raditz suddenly bolted away from him back in the direction in which he came, snatching a spare Scouter as he did so ' _Looks like I'm going to be needing this damn thing after all, now I just have to make sure it's muted from my end this time. Kakarot wherever you might be right now I hope for all of our sakes that you're training to become the best of the best, that's what we're going to need if we want any chance of you being able to take Frieza down once and for all.'_ and then he hopped in a spare pod and took off ' _Next stop Planet Namek, along with whatever is waiting there for me.'_

 **(End Flashback)**

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Raditz stood on another certain planet with green skies, blue oceans and blue trees, staring at the horizon that lay beyond him as he recalled the events of that day ' _And quite the experience it's been. Who would've thought that after spending all those years under Frieza's thumb in such a way, I would end up guarding this planet from him. Just you wait Frieza you rotten little freak, you're going to pay soon enough. That much I can promise you.'_

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7 days had passed since the departure from Earth, and things were VERY slow going for the group.

Bulma just let out a yawn from where she was lounging around in her underwear like a complete and total slob "Could this trip be anymore boring, it's only day 7 and we still have like forever left until we get there. In hindsight I really wish that I would've thought to install some kind of hibernation chamber on this stupid piece of scrap." she looked down to see Gohan in the middle of meditating "Great, so he's doing that meditating crap again and Kai and Yamcha are probably in the back doing that whole image training thing. Well whoop dee f*cking doo."

Gohan opened his eyes and looked up at her "You know Bulma, just because I'm in a meditative trance doesn't mean that I can block out all noise."

"Well if that's the case then how about you try cleaning up the horrendous mess that you and the other idiots have been making before I resort to opening the airlock?"

"Uh… I hate to break it to you Bulma but none of us had anything to do with that mess, that was all you."

"Yeah well guess what kid, I'm the captain of this ship so it's my say what you do, you think you and the others can just sit there playing mind games while I do all of the heavy lifting around here?"

"Wait what? Bulma you just got threw saying that you were bored."

"The last thing I need right now is for you to contradict me, if you won't respect me as your captain or as an adult then at least have the decency to respect me for the rare and delicate flower that I am. A busy flower for that matter."

' _So busy that she can't even be bothered to put on some clothes?_ Hey so there's something that's kind of been bugging me for awhile, I've been sort of mulling it over a lot. Do you remember that Saiyan Raditz that said he was Goku's brother?"

"Yeah, he helped us against that other Saiyan that kidnapped me and killed Dad and Yamcha right?"

"Yeah that's the one, where do you think he ran off to?"

"I don't know, last I saw he was still with you and the others when I left with Kai and Piccolo before."

"Well it's not like he could've just gone home, from what he told us the Saiyan homeworld doesn't exist anymore."

"Well he did look kind of beat up after that fight so I doubt he really could've gotten that far could he? He probably chose a planet that had the right technology to treat those injuries that he received."

"You remember what he said about the Saiyans wiping out the entire population of a planet and then just up and selling the planet to the highest bidder? I just wonder if the world that he went to was just one of their old renovation projects."

"Well if we do ever see him again then let's just hope that he can help us in case Vegeta ever decides to show his face again."

"Why the Earth had to attract the attention of guys like these I'll never know."

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At the same time back on Earth, Goku stood with Tien and Upa outside of his house on Mount Paozu, instructing them about a certain technique "Alright guys listen up, at your current levels you just can't use the Kaioken too many times at once or it could be really bad. If at any point you lose control then you could really mess up your body, to avoid this you had better raise your power level to no more than double. If you go any higher than that will put way too much strain on the body, to put it simply your body can't keep up with it and then it'll end up backfiring on you."

Tien and Upa both nodded "I understand."

"Alright good, now let's go into the principles of the technique so I can show you how to use it properly."

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731 grueling galactic weeks of travel, or rather 34 days if none of you have ever watched Men in Black, had passed and now the trip had was about to at last come to an end, for now the Planet Namek, the fabled home of the Dragon Balls, was now within their grasp.

"Hey take a look you guys, there it is!" Bulma pointed to the green planet that sat beyond their horizon.

Gohan and Kai both looked on in awe "Oh man that looks amazing, so this is Planet Namek then?"

"Yep there's no doubt about it, the computer confirms it as the bonafied birthplace of our very own Kami and Piccolo."

"And it looks like we got here right on schedule too didn't we, this spaceship really is pretty impressive. Not that it flew itself though, we had a great captain."

"Oh come on you little charmer, you're just saying that because it's absolutely true. Now both of you buckle up so I can hurry up and land this thing." this prompted them to do so "Alright then let's do this. Initiate landing sequence for the first spot that you can find." this prompted the ship to descend down onto the grounds of Planet Namek.

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One semi rough landing later and the ship had at long last touched down on the surface its home planet of Namek.

"You might as well have been steering with your-" Kai didn't get to finish that sentence before he was hit in the face by a book.

"Yeah I'm gonna ignore that." Bulma glanced outside of the ship "Gentlemen and Kai, I welcome you to the illustrious Planet Namek!"

"Yeah we made it!" Gohan and Kai caught each other in a high five.

"Alright now before you guys do anything stupid let me just take a second to check the atmospheric composition, I installed a special pair of parametric sensors for that exact purpose and let me tell you now that this is just another example of how I think of everything. You see there won't be much oxygen but yours truly also thought to pack-" she glanced up only to see the three of them standing outside "What the- When did they-" and the she just fell over with her leg twitching in the air in typical fashion.

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Gohan just looked around in awe "Wow this is just like where Piccolo took me and Kai to train while dad and Yamcha were off in Otherworld."

Kai nodded "And it seems like the same kind of spot from where we fought the Saiyans a month ago, I guess that means that he had a soft spot for this kind of landscape by instincts or some other crap. I mean the sky is green, the grass is blue and it's boring as f*ck!"

"Yeah I guess. I miss him."

"Well we're here to bring him and the others back to life so chin up." Yamcha told him "With any luck we'll have them back before the end of the week."

"HEY!" and then Bulma stormed out of the ship "DO THE THREE OF YOU GENIUSES SHARE HALF OF A F*CKING BRAIN CELL BETWEEN YOU OR SOMETHING?! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, FOR ALL YOU KNOW THIS AIR COULD'VE BEEN MADE OF COW FLATULENCE!"

"Well clearly not because you're standing right here." Kai was promptly smacked upside the head "Oh yeah way to keep your cool."

"Oh ha ha you little big shot, let's just focus on the task at hand so we can get this over with and go home." she pulled out the Dragon Radar and got a quick reading "Oh hell yeah now feast your eyes on these bad boys-"

"Guys." Yamcha glanced over in the distance, his expression deadly serious, with both Gohan and Kai doing the same "You feel that? A lot of powerful Ki clustered together on this planet, that can't be good."

"Oh yeah it's like a high dream that I had last night." Kai muttered "I've really gotta stop snacking on those brownies before bed. But in all seriousness there's so many of them and there power is nothing to scoff at, in fact it's way off of the charts. It's like a wet dream for me, this is awesome!"

"...I'm not gonna dignify that with a response."

"Most sensible thing you've said in god knows how long."

"Oh come on you guys there's no need to be scared." Bulma waved that off in a super nonchalant way "It's probably just the Namekians, I mean if you think about how powerful some of the guys like Piccolo and Kami were then is it any real surprise that their home world is full of people just as extraordinary."

"Not likely princess, these power levels feel a evil as they are massive."

"I'm telling you that it's fine, don't you remember what King Kai told us? The Namekians are peaceful by nature, we've got nothing to worry about now let's just stay focused on what we came here to do and find those Dragon Balls and while we're at it we can introduce ourselves to some of the locals."

"...I will never understand my uncle's taste in women or your mindset, Gohan how do you deal with this crap from your mom?"

"What?" Gohan was just looking off in some random direction "Hey guys you feel that really power Ki all that distance away?"

"Yeah what about it?"

"Doesn't it feel kind of familiar?"

"I don't know, I don't keep track of that crap."

"Well still, I can't help but feel like I've felt it before."

"Now that you mention it it does feel pretty familiar." Yamcha muttered "It feels like that guy who said that he was Goku's brother."

"But why would he be here? He helped us after all but then we never saw him again and that was a year ago, so what gives?"

"I wish I knew."

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Sure enough, Raditz stood on a cliffside on the surface of Namek with his Scouter in hand, his objective clear to him "Frieza you rotten little freak, don't think that you can just do as you please for much longer. Not after the humiliation that you've inflicted upon the Saiyan race and our heritage. After spending all of this time training I'm more than capable of taking down his lackeys but it's best to avoid any encounters with the big man at least for the time being. The best way to go about this is to be covert about hindering his attempts to gather the Dragon Balls from the villages. The thought of using a Scouter feels so redundant now." and yet he still put on his Scouter and traced several power levels "And there they are. And it's just my f*cking luck, it looks like he's brought both Zarbon and Dodoria along for the ride."

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Gohan glanced up and his expression turned pale at the sight of a Saiyan pod crash landing on the planet "Uh, guys?"

"Relax spike it's not our least favorite royal midget." Kai waved him off "It's somewhat weaker than Vegeta was the last time we saw him, we're still f*cked though."

"How does that help?!"

"It doesn't, I just like to be accurate."

Bulma just fell to her knees "This is bad, this is most definitely bad."

"Look right now the best thing we can do is mask our Ki so whoever these guys are don't track us down."

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At the same time, the infamous Frieza and his army of lap dogs had just recovered their fourth Dragon Ball after slaughtering a village full of Namekians "Yes how marvellous my men, well done. And now only three remain to be discovered." he let out a menacing chuckle "And do be sure to remember Dodoria, hold onto those two as you would your own life. Keep in mind that we're not the only ones searching for them."

Zarbon took the chance to check his Scouter for a reading "Ah my lord it would appear that Cui has at last touched down in pursuit of Raditz as I speak."

"So he is on this planet after all, it would appear that Captain Ginyu was correct in the information that he had delivered us."

"So he was. Also the three large power levels that I had been picking up earlier, not very long before Cui touched down on the planet they seem to have disappeared. But there's no need for concern, our men are currently coaming the area in which the readings had originated so in any case we should be able to find them quite soon."

"So be it but right now our main concern right now is how best to deal with Raditz, he may be weak right now but he's quite the crafty one so we had best deal with him before he can become a pest."

"With all due respect my lord that problem is no problem at all, as I said Cui is en route to dole out punishment right now. Tensions have been building between him and Vegeta for years so I can imagine that dealing with Raditz would give him some form of catharsis so either way I doubt that Raditz will be able to escape unscathed if he is able to escape at all."

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"Alright you little ape, where are you hiding?" Cui emerged from his pod and used his Scouter to scan for Raditz "Oh there we are." and once he got a location he took off in the direction pinpointed by his Scouter "Looks like a certain someone is sticking out like a sore thumb, a sore thumb that Lord Frieza will be more than happy to see me rip off!"

" _Oh come on now Cui, do you really believe that you could take me down? If so then I have no intention of trying to stop you."_

"There you go running that mouth of yours again trying to talk all tough as someone who's weaker than a Saibaman when any idiot could see the truth by reading a Scouter, and that truth is that my power puts yours to shame any day and every day." and then he noticed another reading on his Scouter and then took off in that direction "Looks like I'm picking up at least 20 signatures, maybe more than that. That must be one of the Namekian villages Lord Frieza and the others haven't hit up yet and wherever there is a Namekian village there's sure to be one of those Dragon Balls so I'll just have to convince them that it's in their best interest to hand it over!" and he let out a cackle.

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With our heroes (and Bulma)...

"Oh wow look at the time, I guess I should really leave the three of you to get started on your search "So yeah I'm gonna head back to Earth and pick up Goku and then I should be back in a few months or so, you guys be sure to stay out of trouble okay?" and then she started to make her way back into the ship, until…

"Guys get ready, somebody's coming!" Yamcha threw his arms around Bulma in a protective and semi romantic looking way as Kai and Gohan got into combat stances.

As it turns out, two of Frieza's mooks had landed not far away from them "I'd say that those three power levels were coming from somewhere around here, probably just one of the locals or something though." and then they glanced over and saw the others "Okay I don't know who these idiots are but they're definitely not from around here, then again it's not like we've gotta ask them their names now is it? Alright then A holes, stay right where you are and we'll shoot you!"

"Don't you mean OR we'll shoot you?"

"We know what we said!"

"It's kind of weird." Gohan muttered "It looks like that's the same kind of armor that the Saiyans wear but these guys aren't Saiyans, I don't know what's going on but I've got a bad feeling about this. Kai let's charge our energy but be sure to keep it hidden, we can't let them see our full power just yet."

"As if." Kai let out a scoff "Stay back you damn noob, I've got this shit in the bag. I'm sending these schmucks straight to the F*ck Box!" and yet he still kept his power hidden.

The two mooks were easily fooled by their rouse "What are these fools tourists or something? I mean their power is far too pathetic, talk about a mercy kill. But before that, how about a little bit of target practice!" and then he fired a Ki blast at the ship, destroying it or at least damaging it to the point where they couldn't use it to escape.

"Was that supposed to be a pun? Because it sucked. Rest in peace Namekian toilet, god rest your seat."

"Sorry guys but I guess it wasn't that good of a time to go sightseeing."

"And now is my cue to rip their junk off, you ready punks because I'm about to Rock You Like a Hurricane!"

"Oh what was that you little bastard? You know that's not very nice, we so called punks have feelings too you know." and then they both burst out laughing.

"And that's my cue. **Kaioken!"** Kai's aura turned crimson and doubled in size, alerting both of their Scouters.

"Wait what the hell?! His power level just cracked 11,000!"

"You'd be surprised what a month of image training while trying to block out your uncle getting laid can do for you!" he then proceeded to one shot both of them with one kick each, letting their corpses fall into the Namekian ocean "Remember this A Holes, one hit wonder means oneshots for each of you!"

"Nice one!" Gohan caught him in a high five "So when did you learn the Kaioken again?"

"During that month of meditation I did with Uncle Yamcha, I haven't really mastered it though so I can't go beyond the first level. Yet. Still though you've gotta admit, my moves are totally sick!"

"WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR MOVES!" Bulma shrieked in a frantic fury "Now what the hell are we supposed to do now?! We're stranded on an alien planet!"

"Well it could be worse."

"No it couldn't, we're basically in Pitch Black only our Vin Diesel is a total bitch."

"Say what you will but at least this is better than Pitch Black."

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Cui finally made his way to the Namekian village that he had located with his Scouter and let out a menacing chuckle "Yes it would seem that my Scouter was right, 20 Namekians or more that have absolutely no idea what's been going on on the rest of their planet. From the look of things it would seem that Lord Frieza hasn't been here yet." with another chuckle he lowered himself to the ground.

The Namekians were alert the very minute they noticed him "What is that, is that some kind of alien?"

"I wish to speak to your elder, I believe that you have one of those so called Dragon Balls that I'll be taking off of your hands."

"What did you say?"

"Did I stutter?"

"Calm yourselves everyone." and the Tsuno, the village elder, stepped forward in front of Cui "I am the village elder, and yes we do have a Dragon Ball but I must ask what your intentions are for using it."

"What you must do is hand it over to me right now if you know what's good for all of your people here."

"I will not, I sense an unspeakable evil within you and I know that you are not worthy to take possession of our Dragon Ball."

"Well then, you can die now." and he fired a Finger Beam at Tsuno, only for one of the other Namekians to take the hit for him and drop to the ground in a dead heap "Alright boys who's next?"

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Zarbon observed the readings on his Scouter and frowned "That's odd."

"You seem troubled by something, whatever is the matter Zarbon?" asked Frieza.

"Yes well here's the thing my lord, it concerns the man that had been mobilized earlier. The three power readings that they had been sent to investigate, one of them had reappeared but apparently whoever it belonged to was able to overwhelm our men before dropping below the radar once again."

"Oh is that so, well I will admit that such a thing is quite bizarre, and you're certain that our own dear Raditz has nothing to do with it somehow?"

"Yes my lord we are quite certain, we're still tracking Raditz separately and these readed about 5,500, 6,000 and 8,000. The first one was the one that reappeared and rose to 11,000 before we lost track of it."

"Oh so a minimum of 5,500 and a maximum of 11,000? Well I think we can safely allow that little mystery to sort itself out, they're still fairly insignificant and they can easily be eliminated if the need were to arise."

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Cui proceeded to smash a Namekian's brains into his skull and watched with a smirk as he fell back dead "And then there was one."

Sure enough, Tsuno now appeared to be the only one from his village that was still alive "You are a demon, why are you doing this to my people?!"

"I'm getting the distinct feeling that you're not going to tell me where this so called Dragon Ball is right?"

"Absolutely not, I will never hand over our Dragon Ball to scum like you!"

"You've quite the thick skull don't you old man? Okay I've had more than enough of you getting on my nerves." he fired a Ki blast at the Namekian elder, ending his life in an instant, and then he glanced into one of the huts and found the Namekian Dragon Ball sitting on a pedestal "You know I was expecting to have to hunt for it but at this rate it might as well have a gigantic bow on top of it. Now what to do, take it to Lord Frieza? No if I come across Raditz then it would be too much of a risk to bring this with me. I'll have to hide it for now." he chucked it into the Namekian ocean, causing to to land with a mighty splash "Not even someone as clever as the likes of Vegeta or Raditz would think to look for it underwater and until I bring it to Frieza I'll be the only one who knows where it is. That should give us plenty of leverage, at least for the time being."

However, what Cui hadn't realized was that there was a young Namekian warrior hiding amongst the rubble, masking his power level and gritting his teeth ' _You'll pay for this soon enough, that much I can promise you.'_

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Bulma was still rummaging around the remains of the ship until she finally gave up and just broke down "It's totally hopeless, I'll never be able to get home! I'm stuck on this heap for the rest of my natural life!"

"Hey come on now Bulma, you don't have to be like that." Yamcha picked up some of their stuff from within the remains of the ship "But for now I think it would be best for us to just get out of here and get somewhere safe before anyone else like those guys decide to drop in, besides if they're really with Vegeta or whatever then I doubt that we'd want to be here to meet them if they decided to get curious." he knelt down in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down "This is just a minor setback, don't forget that that thing was built here on this planet and I'm sure that the Namekians here will be willing to fix it for us if we just ask them."

"Yeah well… what if we can't find them?" and then she just broke down sobbing.

Yamcha slowly wrapped his arms around her "Hey guys maybe the two of you should go on ahead, we'll catch up with you once we-" he glanced back only to find that Gohan and Kai were long gone "Hello? Guys where did you go?"

"We left as soon as you started trying to get laid again!" Kai called from over the hill, followed by a slapping noise "Ow!"

"...You know what let's just go before the two of them, and by that I mean Kai, do anything really stupid."

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Raditz glanced up and smirked "So you did come to me after all, not that smart of a move I must admit. You sure did take your sweet time though Cui."

Sure enough, Cui dropped down in front of him "Fancy meeting you here Raditz, and you know I could've gotten here sooner but I decided to make a quick stop along the way to plow your mother!"

"My mother is dead."

"I know!"

"...You know I'm having trouble remembering Cui, what's your power level again?"

"Oh of course you would forget Raditz! I'm at a solid 18,000, the same as your very own dear prince Vegeta."

"That's what I thought, and you know it just occurred to me that this is the perfect chance to test out a few things that I learned during my time here on Planet Namek."

"What you mean like running away?"

"No that's your thing, but one of the most useful abilities that I've learned is how to conceal my power until the moment is just right! You can thank Captain Ginyu for the inspiration for that little trick!" he started raising his power level.

"What the- His power level is rising."

"What was it that you were saying before about your power level being able to put mine to shame?"

"What the- But how can this be? I've always been on par with the likes Vegeta and you pale in comparison to both of us!"

"You underestimate just what us Saiyans are truly capable of Cui and in my training I've been subjected to combat situations that you couldn't even begin to imagine, none of us would ever stoop so low as to be on par with someone so content with hiding behind Frieza for his entire career?!" and he kept raising his power level.

"19… 20… 21… 22,000?!" and then Cui's Scouter exploded on him.

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Zarbon was surprised to see his own Scouter explode on him "Oh my it would seem that I have gone off prematurely."

"What do you mean, what happened Zarbon?" asked Dodoria.

"I'm not entirely certain, perhaps it was some sort of malfunction. I had previously tuned my Scouter tuned onto Raditz but the last reading I saw was a power level of 22,000 and it was still rising."

"Oh come on now I told you before that you should've upgraded your Scouter to one of the newer models like I did before we came here, the old ones were always glitchy so let me take a look for myself." he did and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"What are you reading?"

"This shouldn't be possible, mine must be on the blink as well! According to these readings it's saying that Raditz is at 25,000!"

"But that would be absurd, there must be something interfering with the scan otherwise that would mean that Raditz's power level has surpassed our own."

"No there's no way, his power level should be 1,200 at the most!"

Frieza let out a chuckle "It's hardly a surprise when you think about it, we must be sure to keep in mind that Raditz has been on the run for quite some time now and I do believe that his trip to this so called Earth as well as this Planet Namek must have been able to teach our dear ape a thing or two."

"But sir-"

"His power level has only reached 25,000 isn't he, with the efforts of both of you combined that should be mere child's play or a mere exercise so sure you're not troubled by a thought such as that."

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Cui found himself backing up in fear "How, how the hell are you so strong?! You should be even weaker than the Saibamen!"

"Oh yeah that joke isn't old as the first Super Saiyan." Raditz just rolled his eyes "And besides haven't you read that official Saiyan biography that Nappa wrote? Aside from that seriously weird playlist that he made with three members of the Ginyu force including Ginyu himself, he gave a little bit of a summary of Saiyan biology, specifically the Zenkai Theorem. See the Zenkai Theorem states that when a Saiyan like is beaten to near death their power level increases immensely."

"Well I don't see what that has to do with anything, it's not like you took that much damage on Earth!"

"That's true I didn't, but during my time training here on Namek, oh bloody hell did I get DESTROYED! By like one guy that has a power level around 42,000 (guess who I'm talking about). I lost outright over and over and over and over again."

"Why are you telling me this?! You'd never tell anyone this!"

"Well that's actually quite simple Cui, it's because I know you'll never tell anyone."

"But- But I hate you! Why would I-" Cui was cut off by Raditz using his Vacation Delete attack, vaporizing Cui on the spot before he even had time to scream.

"That's why, and Cui you're fired." Raditz glanced off in a certain direction and bowed his head in respect ' _Elder Tsuno, may you and your kinsman rest in peace. Your deaths will not be in vain, not as long as I have anything to say about it. Even so Frieza and the others will be alerted to what's happened here by their Scouters, if by some sort of misstep I'm careless enough to cross their paths then I can only feasibly handle up to Zarbon and Dodoria where as Frieza himself is still too much for me. Judging by the transmissions that I've been picking up from his henchmen and from what I've been told by the others the Dragon Balls can only work once all 7 have been gathered together which actually works out very well, five of the villages have already been decimated and from what I can tell Frieza and the others have no idea that Cui found and hid one of the Dragon Balls so that leaves the Dragon Ball being cared for by the Grand Elder, which means that his plans are already disrupted at least somewhat. If I'm able to play this right then I can finally have Frieza's neck under my boot. Kakarot you'd better be training for that day to come or so help me.'_

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Dodoria was taken aback by the readings that he received on his Scouter "Wait it looks like the Scouter wasn't malfunctioning after all, it seems that the reading that it gave us in regards to the power level Raditz was giving was accurate! He just beat Cui like it was nothing!"

"Regardless of that it's of any real concern." Frieza pointed out "For the time being let's just stay focused on finding the fifth Dragon Ball."

"Right, and I'm actually picking up what appears to be about 10 Namekians somewhere in that direction."

"Well that would appear to be perfect timing, and wouldn't it be nice if they just happen to have the fifth Dragon Ball on hand just ripe for the taking. Let's go observe but be sure to stay diligent, we now know that Raditz is not the only pest crawling around on this planet."

"Sir yes sir!" was the chorus from his men.

"Excellent, now let the games continue." and then they all took off.

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Yamcha was carrying Bulma on his back for some reason and found Gohan and Kai lounging around outside of a cave at the top of the hill "Well far be it for me to deny you guys when it's seriously due, looks like you picked a perfect hiding spot."

"Well we had to pick someplace for us to lay low while the two of you were in the middle of dry humping." Kai pointed out dryly "Now if you guys wouldn't mind staying out here for a minute there's something that I've had to so for about a month since we left- Oh Kami almighty get in the f*cking cave!" he threw everyone inside the cave and hopped into it himself.

"What's the big deal?" asked Gohan "I mean we can all sense it too but it doesn't feel evil or anything, it's probably just one of the Namekian villages."

"Not that you schmuck, the gigantic Darth Vader levels of evil power levels coming from the other direction!"

"What then do you think that they're searching for us?"

"I wouldn't count something like that out just yet now duck, I might act like a Meth addict but I'm not suicidal!" he yanked Gohan back into the cave just as Frieza and the rest of his henchmen passed by them.

Bulma was the first one to poke her head out of the cave "Okay I think they're gone, thank the great god above but whatever they're after isn't us."

"That's exactly what we're afraid of." Kai was visibly shaking, with Gohan and Yamcha not being much better.

"What am I missing something?"

"So many things that I lost count god only knows how long ago." Kai promptly swiped the Dragon Radar from her and checked it out, confirming his suspicions "This just as bad as I thought, those 4 Dragon Balls from earlier that were all gathered together in one spot are on the move. There's no way that's a coincidence, those guys that just passed us must have them."

Gohan nodded "And you guys sensed that large group of Ki signatures all just disappear a little while ago right?"

"Oh yeah, I'm guessing that was another one of those goons wiping them out to get another Dragon Ball, which means that they have five. And you saw the one flying second from the front right, or more importantly you were able to sense him? His power is insane, the minute I felt it I felt my heart sink at the same time, along with my typical fight boner."

"...I'm just going to ignore that last part entirely, but either way that thing outranks the other Saiyans by a long shot and from the quick glance that I was able to get his boys look like they could do ugly with the best of them but he's definitely the boss."

"Not to mention that they had on the same tacky sort of armor." Yamcha pointed out "I guess those lackeys must be the fellow officers of those two Saiyans."

"You think you can take them?"

"You and Gohan can take most of the lackeys and I can take two two of them in the front but there's no way even I would be able to take the boss."

"And by the looks of the Dragon Radar they're heading towards another Dragon Ball."

"So what does that mean, that they have some kind of Radar of their own?" asked Gohan.

"No my guess is that they're using one of the Scouters like the Saiyans used, anyway it looks like it's just a few miles away from here."

"Which is where we were sensing all of that other energy a minute ago, that means that it really is a Namekian village. I'm gonna go take a look at the situation, you guys stay here."

"Not a chance Kai." Gohan removed his bag "You're way too reckless, if you go then you'll just get yourself killed so I'm gonna go with you."

"Oh come on, you guys can't just take off!" Bulma protested "I'll be all by myself in some kind of alien wilderness!"

"Okay Bulma two things. First of all, you're gonna be way safer here than where the two of us are going. Second of all, we never said Yamcha was coming so now you two can just cuddle together in private. That is what you do right? I wouldn't know, I'm only five."

"...Yeah that's exactly what we do. Alright fine I get it, but just know that that doesn't mean that I like it."

"We'll be back soon, I promise."

"Don't you dare forget about us! At least not for about an hour and a half."

"We won't."

"Alright enough with the implied hypothetical innuendoes, Gohan go ahead and suppress your power level so they don't see us coming and then we'll get the jump on those guys." Kai told him.

"Alright I get what you're saying Kai, now let's go!" and then the two of them took off following the Dragon Radar.

"And away they go." Yamcha let out a wistful sigh "They're gonna surpass us, I know that and I'm sure that Goku knows that too."

"Let's just hope that they have some kind of a plan." Bulma muttered.

"Bulma you already know the answer to that, of course they don't."

"I know. Anyway I'm gonna go and call the others and then tell them what's going on." she shot him a seductive smile "And then I'm gonna run a bath, give me about 10 minutes."

"You're taking a bath at a time like this?"

"No. _We're_ taking a bath at a time like this."

"...Let's move." and then they both rushed into the cave.

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Tien raised an eyebrow at what he was hearing "So that means that Yamcha and the others all made it to Planet Namek okay?"

Goku nodded "Yeah from what Bulma told me the journey there was pretty low key and Yamcha even took the chance to teach Kai the Kaioken, or at least the principles of it. But it turns out the place is more popular than a Bon Jovi concert, that is to say that the place is actually pretty popular. There's a chance that my brother Raditz is on that planet but that's not too bad, but the real problem is that there's a whole gang of guys just like Vegeta and Nappa showed up and then blasted Kami's ship so they're stranded. Apparently there's at least over 20 of these guys and the leader all over the planet each one stronger than the next."

"Wait a second, you mean that they're stuck there?"

"I'm afraid so, and apparently the ringleader of them all has a power level so massive that he makes the rest of them look tame in comparison."

"Woah…"

"Yeah I know, someone out there even stronger than Vegeta out there?"

"Yeah and he's got a whole army of guys working for him. Anyway I stopped by Korin's as soon as they hung up and I picked up a bag's worth but there's only about 15 or so, plus on the way I talked to Upa and asked him to stay behind while you and I head to Planet Namek to back them up."

"You and me? But how are we even going to get there?"

"Oh I thought of that awhile ago, see awhile I asked Bulma's dad to build another spaceship in case something like this came up and he's had about two weeks so there's a pretty good chance that he's got it finished by now."

"Wait so he said that he could build another spaceship like the one that Kami took to get here all those years ago?"

"No that one was built out of material that can't be found here on Earth so I doubt that even someone as smart as Bulma's dad would be able to pull that off, but lucky for the two of us it turns out that Gohan and Kai came up with a contingency plan for a scenario like this and they pointed out that there were at least two other alien ships on this planet besides the one that Kami came here in before. There's the pod that the Saiyan Beets took to get here when he and my brother showed up and he tried to get the place ready for his pals, and then there's the one that my Grandpa Gohan found me in when I was just a baby."

"Of course, he might be able to make something out of that!"

"The ship that Beets used got messed up by Gohan pretty bad during that fight but Bulma's dad was able to track down my old shit and it turns out that it was still in decent shape, he said that it needed a few repairs before it could fly again but he thought that he could do it and he said that he would even put in some new extras for us."

"And that means that it's finally time for me to put all of this training over the past month to good use."

"Exactly. Now come on, first we've gotta head over to Capsule Corp."

"Right." and so Tien and Goku made a beeline for Capsule Corp, the former studying the latter as they flew ' _He knows what we're up against and yet he still has a smile on his face. It must be that Saiyan blood coursing through his veins, helping his friends has always been one of his first concerns but he's also always seemed to get a thrill out of the prospect of facing a powerful opponent. There are many mysteries in this universe, and you Son Goku are one of those mysteries.'_

"You say something Tien?"

"No, I'm just… internally monologuing."

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(And now, because I want to get this reference in there)

Inside of the cave, Bulma and Yamcha were…

Bulma could only get her words out in small moans in between Yamcha's grunts "Oh yeah, that's it, keep going, right there, right there, yes!"

" **Ka…"**

"Yes…"

" **Me…"**

"Yes…"

" **Ha…"**

"Yes…"

" **Me…"**

"Yes…"

"HAAAAAA!" and cue the Kamehameha wave bursting out of the roof of the cave

"YES!" and cue the climax.

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Later, at Capsule Corp…

Goku and Tien quickly dropped to the ground in the Capsule Corp compound "Alright here we are, we don't have any time to waste so let's get moving."

Of course this was easier said than done when Mrs Briefs, Bulma's mother, suddenly popped up in front of them "Why if it isn't our little Goku, it's been too long!"

"Hi Mrs Briefs how's it going?"

"You've gotten so big and muscular, can it really be you?"

"Oh yeah it's me alright, and I'm not sure if the two of you ever met before but this is one of my friends Tien Shinhan." this prompted to give a simple nod "So out of curiosity do you happen to know if that spaceship that I asked Bulma's dad to fix is done yet?"

"Well I'm not sure, last I saw he was still tinkering around."

"Wait he's still working." Goku tried to come off as calm but inwardly he was screaming at the top of his lungs "That's not exactly a good thing."

"Oh come along you two hunks." she suddenly grabbed both of them by the arms and started leading them along "Let's go see him, he's tinkering around in the inner yard. You know I still find it so hard to believe that our darling little Goku would ever grow up to be so dashingly handsome and your friend here isn't too bad either. The two of you simply must take me out sometime soon yes?"

"Yeah sure, when we get back we'll put it at the top of our list of priorities after defeat the rest of the Saiyans." Goku shot a quick look at Tien, the message clear ' _Just go with it.'_

"Well aren't you just the busiest beavers, you know I stumbled across the most adorable cake shop the other day and the thought occurred to me that if the two of you hadn't saved the world then it'd be gone so thank you for that."

"Yeah don't mention it, I was just trying to protect my friends."

"And that's what makes you such a charmer, hey sweetie Goku and his Triclops friend are here to see how you're doing on the space thingy!" she led them into the inner yard where the spaceship was waiting, surprising both Goku and Tien with what it looked like.

"Woah you've gotta be kidding me, so you mean that that's our spaceship? It's the size of a house, or the egos of Bulma and Yamcha combined!"

"Hey there boys, solid pun." and then Dr Briefs poked his head out of the ship "And it looks like it didn't take either of you long to get here, I guess that means that you're eager."

"Yeah but what about the ship?" asked Goku "Are you really not finished with it yet because we're kind of in a hurry."

"Oh don't worry about that, it's just a few odds and ends left so come on in and make sure that you like what you see."

"Alright!"

"Hey let me run and get the three of you something to wet your whistles okay?" and then just like that Mrs Briefs had gone on her way before she could get a response.

"Yeah sure that'd be great thanks." Goku followed Tien and Dr Briefs into the ship and looked around in awe "Oh wow this looks awesome, how the heck does one little space pod turn into something like this?"

"Well I built it to your specifications with a few tweaks of my own here and there and I made sure that there was more than enough room for all kinds of training to your heart's content in here. It was quite the challenge though, hell just locating this thing was an adventure not to mention that she was in shambles for the most part but lucky for me there was still enough of it intact for me to reverse engineer it though I still practically built the thing from scratch."

"Wait a second it was in shambles?" Tien finally spoke up "Did Goku somehow damage it when he was a kid?"

"Well either way that doesn't really matter now, and besides Saiyan technology is pretty damn spectacular."

"So then where's that artificial gravity machine that I asked for?" asked Goku.

"Well just like you asked for it's right over here." he gestured to the machine in the center of the ship.

"It looks pretty complicated."

Dr Briefs gave a simple shrug "Far from it actually, there's the on switch and that's the controller right there. This puppy can put out up to 100 Gs as you requested so be sure that you're very careful, that kind of force is nothing for you to thumb your nose at even for someone as tough as you, after all this bad boy multiplies your own body weight by 100 just like it does the gravity you know."

"Yeah we know but that's the idea, Tien and I are gonna have to push ourselves really hard in order to get ready for what's gonna go down on Namek. So is this bad boy ready for space travel yet or what?"

"Oh she'll fly like a shooting star, you can bet your life on that boys."

"Wait what? So…"

"So the bedroom, bathroom and fully stocked kitchen are just down the ladder there on the lower level."

"Wait a second I don't get it, what exactly is left to be done?"

"I haven't yet found the right spot to mount the Muffin Button."

"ALRIGHT!"

"Muffin Button?" was all Tien could think to say.

"Why not? Haven't you ever thought how nice it would be to wake up in the morning, push a button and have a muffin?"

"Not even once, so you mean to tell me that a button that makes muffins is the reason is all that's keeping us on the ground?"

"That's all the Triclops says." Dr Briefs let out a scoff "I'll have you know that it's quite a difficult task, there's at least a dozen issues to consider."

"Who cares about some stupid muffins?! Goku and I are in way too much of a hurry to worry about that!"

"Quiet!" Goku let out a violent hiss, which was completely out of character for him "Never disrespect the muffins!"

"Goku you yourself said that we have to leave like yesterday!"

"...Dr it seems that we have another one who has failed to understand the joy of the Muffin Button, we'd better sedate him." and then Goku suddenly tackled Tien "Get a muffin in this man stat!"

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Gohan and Kai were nearing the area where Frieza and his men had previously touched down in front of them "Okay we're getting close so we'd better suppress our power levels completely and then sneak up on them from here."

"Yeah yeah I got it." so Kai followed Gohan's lead, in which they masked their Ki signatures and slowly climbed their way over the cliff in front of them "They should be down there, holy hell these guys are powerful."

"Yeah I know." they glanced over the cliff down at the Namekian village that Frieza and his men were raiding "What are those some kind of houses? They look a lot like the ship that we flew here in."

"That means that this has to be a Namekian village. This is bad, you and I can take the lap dogs without that much of a problem but two of those guys in the back are at least a lot more powerful than Vegeta and that FAG in the middle trumps them both way more than that."

"Kai!"

"What? FAG means Freaky Alien Genotype, what the hell did you think I meant? Oh I get it, you thought that I meant that. But no, there's no way that thing is a guy."

"You think we can handle any of them?"

"We can't win in a straight up fight even with your rage boost and my Kaioken, we'd need my Uncle for that and I bet that even he would have a hard time- Oh shit do you see the Dragon Balls they're carrying?"

"I didn't think that Dragon Balls could be so big."

"Tell me about it, ACDC be damned!"

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Dodoria glanced back at the cliffside, only to see nothing "Huh, that's weird."

"Is something the matter Dodoria?" asked Frieza.

"I thought my Scouter was picking up a smaller power level coming from the direction of that cliff just a second ago but whatever it was it's gone now, it was probably just some kind of insect or something."

"Perhaps, but if it's that small then it is of little consequence."

"I suppose so."

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Gohan yanked Kai backwards "That was way too close, if they had spotted us then we'd be done for."

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One of the soldiers glanced back at Frieza "Excuse me my lord but only 5 appear to be home, according to them the rest are tilling the land." he glanced back inside "Alright you guys just get the hell out here or else we'll start shooting." this prompted the inhabitants of the house to slowly exit.

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Gohan looked on in total awe "That guy looks just like Piccolo, only he looks a lot older than him too!"

"That looks more like Kami to me." Kai pointed out "He's one of the older Namekians which means that this is definitely the right place."

"So then what are they gonna do, why did they force all of them outside like that? Do you think any of those bad guys are Saiyans?"

"Not a chance, they've all got the same tacky armor on but they're all from a bunch of different alien races."

"So then who are they?"

"Do you remember what Goku's brother mentioned about that weird crew that basically wipe out and then sell planets, my guess is that these are those guys that he was talking about."

"So then where is Raditz now?"

"I don't know but I doubt that he would be on their side, keep in mind that he helped my uncle, your dad and Piccolo against that other Saiyans Beets before."

"And when those two huge power levels were fighting a little while ago, do you think one of them was him?"

"Him and another one of these guys would be my best guess."

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Moori, the elder of the Namekian village, was horrified to see Frieza and the others holding their four other Dragon Balls ' _So these are the ones…'_

"Greetings my name is Lord Frieza, as you can no doubt surmise for yourself myself and my acquaintances are quite the collectors of this planet's Dragon Balls." Frieza was quick to introduce himself "So now that I have told you something about me I expect you to repay the courtesy by telling us the whereabouts of your neighbors, our sources say that there should be 10 of you." he received no reply "So you intend to stay silent then do you? No matter I suppose, very well then." he summoned a small bit of Ki into his finger "Come on now, it's not like we have all day now do we?"

Moori gritted his teeth as he gave a reply in the Namekian language.

"A valiant effort my friend but if you would be so kind as to answer our questions in the same language with which they had been addressed to you instead of this gibberish."

"As I said the others are tilling the land for their daily training, only the hold and the very young stay behind. I speak the truth to you."

"You see such a thing wasn't so difficult, continue to cooperate and you have nothing to fear of us. Now let's move onto more pressing concerns shall we, I believe that you have a Dragon Ball in your possession and as such you are to present it to me immediately."

"But I… we have no idea what you're speaking of."

"Is that so? Dodoria I'm quite confused, that other Namekian that we spoke to had related to us something quite intriguing did he not?"

Dodoria nodded "Yes he did my lord, something about not being able to hand over his Dragon Ball unless it was to some who was truly worthy."

"Indeed he was most adamant about that point, try as we might though we could not get him to say any more than that. At least not before we decided to kill one of them, but once that became part of the discussion about how the Grand Elder of this world created the 7 Dragon Balls, how each one was entrusted to the care of a specific guardian who is required by tradition to conduct trials of wit and strength whether the wish of a given seeker is honorable and that only after being determined sufficiently worthy can someone obtain the Dragon Balls and various other details of that like. Well as you can imagine I had quite the difficult time convincing the poor fellow to see us as worthy, I was told flat out that I would never obtain a single Dragon Ball and since I've never been one to take bad news very well I'm afraid that I just up and killed the poor fool. That did delay our efforts to find the first Dragon Ball to an extent, but after locating it the next three were simply a matter of using the proper balance of persuasion and tact, and since then your people have been extraordinarily accommodating." and like the sucker that he was he failed to realize that Raditz was listening in on them using his own Scouter.

"Accommodating you say?" Moori tried not to snarl "You're a liar, I don't believe a word of such a thing! There is no way that the others would dare to hand over their Dragon Balls without protest to the likes of you!"

"Oh you see that's where you're wrong, once we showed him this little ice breaker they were more than happy to help. Zarbon if you would be so kind?"

"Of course my lord." so with that in mind, Zarbon blitzed behind the Namekians and dealt one of them a swift kick to the neck, ending his life in an instant before dodging a Ki blast from one of the other elders that tried to attack him, which led to him killing one of the soldiers, which only led to Zarbon killing him using his Shooting Star Arrow.

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Gohan was practically snarling like an angry animal "Those rotten sons of- What gives them the right to do this to them?!"

"Chill out mini Hulk, you've gotta control your Ki or they'll find us." Kai on the other hand was actually being the rational one.

"But we can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"Well we have to, we wanna bring Piccolo and the others back but the two of us could never take on someone like those assholes. For now all we can do is grit our teeth and bide our time."

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Frieza motioned for Zarbon to get back to his side and turned back to Moori and the other two Namekian children "So then what will it be, I can trust that we're all feeling a great deal more cooperative now are we not?"

Moori glanced around at the soldiers, and then turned back to Frieza "Just tell me, what is your reason for collecting the Dragon Balls from our people?"

"Oh my wish is actually quite a little frivolous one all things considered, what I desire is simply eternal life for myself and nothing else that extravagant."

"You want eternal life for yourself? Over my dead body, there is no way that I would ever grant our Dragon Ball to someone like you."

"Well I hate to break it to you but I fear that that's not that much of a challenge but if that's how you feel then so be it, my it can be so frustrating tenacity but then again I suppose such a thing is to be expected from someone your age." he glanced down at the two Namekian children cowering behind him "And yet I can't help but wonder, would you waste the lives of ones so young though?"

"You're monster!"

"I've been called worse." he raised a finger.

"No how dare you!" this even prompted Gohan to start to lose control of his rage, unknown to anyone else.

Dodora on the other hand had noticed it with his Scouter "There are two considerable power levels nearby." and then he noticed something else "Lord Frieza look up in the sky, there are three power levels approaching!"

Moori breathed a sigh of relief "Oh thank goodness, they're here at last!"

"Well what do we have here!"

As it turns out it was three pissed off Namekian warriors that came looking for a fight and to settle the score, only to find the corpses of the other two Namekian elders, which only pissed them off that much more "So it would seem that our sense of foreboding had been justified after all."

"You know that was awfully rude of you." Frieza commented "To think that you would just barge in and interrupt our little chat and here we were so close to an agreement, it's quite the pity as well that you've come all this way to die because you will either way."

"I didn't want to believe it but I can see that the rumor that someone was raising our villages to the ground in search of Dragon Balls is true after all! You're going to pay dearly for this, how dare you come here and violate the peace of our world!"

"Oh don't tell me that the three of you intend to cause, I can't help but wonder how strong the three of you are. Dodoria."

"Just a moment sir I'll check." Dodoria scanned the Namekians with his Scouter and let out a chuckle "I hate to disappoint you but they're all in the neighborhood of 1,000, there's hardly even a need for any of us to lift a finger!"

Moori's expression hardened furiously ' _Of course, I understand now. We've always taken care to scatter our dwellings at random across this planet to foil potential aggressors but with fiends like these those infernal devices tell them exactly where we are.'_

"Oh that's just rich, you weakling blowhards wanna rumble with the likes of us with power levels of just 1,000 for each of you? Are you serious?!" a bunch of the mooks started mocking the Namekian warriors.

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Kai let out a snort "These suckers can't even tell that the Namekians are suppressing their power levels, man for an elite fighting force these guys just totally suck."

"Hang on a second." Gohan muttered "The Saiyans were caught off guard when we did that too weren't they?"

"Yeah because I'm pretty sure that- Oh you mean that they can't detect Ki without using one of the Scouters like we got from Raditz and Beets!" he glanced over to see the Namekian warriors disposing of the mooks fairly easily "Okay so when is shit gonna hit that fan?"

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Zarbon shot a glare over at Dodoria "You imbecile I thought that you said that their power levels were only at 1,000 each!"

"I did, I don't understand how this is happening!" Dodoria checked his Scouter again "This doesn't make any sense, their power levels have increased to at least 3,000 each!"

Frieza let out a chuckle as he watched the Namekians in battle "Well you have to hand it to them, they're really not all that bad."

"Oh now I see, the Namekians are able to disguise their strength. There aren't many breeds that I've seen that can manage that but they seem to be using it to their advantage."

"I suppose not."

Moori studied the situation intently, focusing on the Scouters for the most part ' _So far so good I suppose, including the one that the big one is wearing only three of those contraptions remain unbroken._ Children stand away from me and quickly, we don't have much time." he motioned for the children to back away from him.

"Dodoria."

"Right, I'm on it." Dodoria set down the Dragon Balls "I'll teach them a lesson, so they're trying to pull a fast one on us now are they? Would you mind if I try to take them all out at one time my lord?"

"Knock yourself out."

"I plan to do that to them, just more than that."

"Now!" Moori suddenly fired a Ki blast at Dodoria's face, destroying his Scouter but not hurting him.

"You little bastard, tell me that's not your idea of a technique because if so then I'd say that you're thoroughly screwed."

Moori said nothing, instead he just burst up into the air and fired more Ki blasts at the remaining two Scouters, destroying them on the spot.

Zarbon was quick to catch onto his ploy "Dodoria he's after the Scouters! Stop him, take him out already!"

"That… is… IT!" Dodoria was quick to lose his temper "YOU LITTLE SHIT! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM IS GONNA PAY WITH THEIR LIVES YOU HEAR ME?! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM STARTING WITH YOU!" and he charged at Moori in a blind rage at full speed, until…

"DODORIA STOP, WAIT A MOMENT!" Frieza barked, causing Dodoria to freeze in plane in mid air "The old one can wait for the time being, see to the other three first."

"...FINE!" and so Dodora burst back to the ground showing only one emotion, that being bloodlust "You know it's too bad, I almost wish that there were more of you so that I would have a chance to break a sweat!"

The Namekians readied themselves for a fight "That's just ridiculous, there's no way that you can take on all three of us at once."

"You obviously have no idea what you're talking about, there's only two of you." he suddenly blitzed behind them and pierced one through the chest, and then killed another with a Mouth Energy Wave "And then there was one." he brushed of a barrage of Ki blasts from the last one and dealt him a brutal headbutt, killing him in an instant.

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Dr Briefs finished installing a certain function into the ship "Alright then boys, 3 hours later and now I'm finally finished installing the Muffin Button."

"YES!" Goku glanced down at the form of Tien tied up and gagged "You'll understand that wonderful feeling one day my friend, this I swear."

"Anyway the flight data that you need has been preprogrammed, at the touch of a button all the two of you will have to do is sit back and then let the ship make the six day flight to Planet Namek on its own."

"Wait a second, six days?! Tien and I can make it to Namek in less than a day?"

"Well then I'll leave you boys to it, good luck now." and then Dr Briefs made his way out of the ship so they could start to launch.

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At the same time, Oolong and Puar were bolting their way to Capsule Corp and were quick to run into meet up with Goku, only to see the ship blast off just as they arrived.

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Meanwhile, on the ship…

Goku finished untying Tien and quickly brushed off the elbow to the face that he received for tying him up in the first place "Okay I deserve that, and you know it's great that we'll be able to get to Planet Namek in just six days and all but…"

"But that means that we only have 6 more days to train to the point where we're up to fighting guys as powerful as that." Tien finished for him.

"Exactly. King Kai said that his planet had 10 times the gravity of Earth so…"

"Go straight to 20, I'm not wasting any time with having to get to your level so if I can't handle it then so be it."

"I've always appreciated your enthusiasm for training." so Goku cranked up the artificial gravity to 20, and the two of them almost immediately felt the effects of it "Oh yeah… that's the good stuff…"

"Yep… that's it… the burning means… that it's working…"

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Frieza shot a very condescending look up at Moori "Well well I must say that while I appreciate your enthusiasm but you must realize by now that even the most powerful amongst your kind is no match for us, in any case I advise you to come back down here so that we may proceed with our discussion."

"...So be it." Moori returned to the ground, albeit extremely reluctantly.

"There we go, now it's not that hard to be obedient now is it? And while I'm sure you've learned your lesson I would like an apology, why don't you bring me your Dragon Ball and then we'll forget the whole thing."

"Very well then, it would seem that I have been left with no choice but you have to promise me that you won't harm the children." and then he walked off in order to get the Dragon Ball for them.

"I'm so pleased that you're finally listening to reason."

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Gohan was grinding his teeth in an ever growing fury "Those monsters, what gives them the right?!"

"Hey settle down bigshot." Kai tried to call him off "Look I'm not gonna stop you from getting all heroic but it's just a matter of when we do, besides those guys are way too strong for us as we are right know and you know that just as well as I do."

"But… But…"

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Despite his clear reluctance, Moori presented the Dragon Ball to Frieza and his men "There you are, you have our village's Dragon Ball so please be on your way."

"Bring it to me." Frieza gestured for Appule to take the Dragon Ball from him "Oh and one last thing, if you would be so kind as to tell us where exactly to find the other two Dragon Balls on this planet and then we'll be on our way."

"Don't be absurd, if you think that I'm going to tell you where there are more Namekians for you to torture and slaughter then you are sadly mistaken! Now keep your word, you have our Dragon Ball so leave us in peace!"

"You're just like the rest of them, uncooperative and always trying to protect your fellow Namekians with no regard at all for what I might want and for being such an ungracious host you'll die with the children."

"But you gave your word!" he was promptly elbowed in the face by Dodoria "You promised me that you would leave the children alone, you already have the Dragon Ball so what good would it do to hurt them?"

"None at all but unless I have all seven of the Dragon Balls I may as well not have any of them at all and since you made the decision to destroy our Scouters we have no way of locating the remaining Dragon Balls ourselves and therefore it's up to you to help us find them."

"I already told you that I would die before I help you to terrorize my people!"

"That is certainly an option but then who would look after the children? Well if you would rather die than help then I can oblige."

"What?"

"Dodoria please dispose of our little friend."

"It isn't safe for you here, hurry children run away!" Moori gestured for the two children to run away "I don't think you realize what Namekians are truly capable of."

"And that goes both ways!" Dodoria suddenly fired a Mouth Energy Wave past Moori at one of the children, killing him on the spot.

"Cargo no!" that was all Moori had time to get out before what happened next.

That is to say, Dodoria suddenly blitzed behind Moori and snapped his neck with his bare hands, killing him in an instant "Is that really all that you're capable of? That was weak, but then again I guess that's on me for expecting more of a challenge." he blitzed in front of Dende, the last Namekian survivor of that village, and then prepared to kill him "You know judging by your size you shouldn't be too much of an issue, so I say let's just get this crap over with!" he prepared to finish Dende off, when…

"THAT'S IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" now enraged beyond any possible point of reasoning, Gohan burst onto the scene and dealt Dodoria a rage filled kick to the face, sending him flying through a few buildings, before firing an Explosive Demon Wave that sent him flying clear through a mountain, said mountain being shattered in the process "I don't care how much stronger you are, I'm not gonna stand by and let you and your friends kill anyone else!"

Dodoria pulled himself out or the rubble with a large bloody stump where his arm used to be, and he was thoroughly enraged when he realized this "You little shit, I don't know who the hell you think you are but you're gonna pay for that one with your life!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

" **Kaioken Style: Boot to the Head!"** with his Kaioken flaring, Kai burst onto the scene and dealt Dodoria a kick to the head, blowing him through another building "Here's the takeaway from this scene Gohan, trying to get the two of us killed is my thing and my thing alone you got that?"

"Loud and clear." Gohan grabbed Dende and quickly took off "Now let's go!"

"In just a second." Kai glanced over at Frieza and gave him a certain finger gesture "I'm just gonna leave it with this: F*ck power levels, f*ck Saiyans, f*ck gigantic gorilla transformations, AND F*CK YOU!" and then the two of them took off.

Visibly angered by this, Frieza rounded on Dodoria "WHY ARE YOU STILL JUST SITTING THERE?! BRING THE TWO OF THEM TO ME IMMEDIATELY!"

"R-Right!" once he snapped out of it, Dodoria quickly took to the Namekian skies.

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Kai and Gohan were bolting through the skies of Namek with Dende in the arms of the clearly pissed off former "Not gonna lie Gohan that was not your brightest move!"

"At least I did more than just quack off!" Gohan protested.

"Hey the Space Duck is an actual thing- You know what screw it, let's just hurry up and get the hell out of here before he catches us." and then the two of them started flying away at full speed.

"And just where the hell do you think you're going?!" Dodoria bolted after them and was able to catch up to them in a matter of seconds.

"Dammit!"

"He's already on top of us, he's way too fast!" Gohan muttered "He's just way too fast for us to keep up!"

"That's what she said!"

"This is no time for dirty jokes!"

"I GOTCHA NOW YOU LITTLE SHITS!" Dodoria started firing a barrage of rapid Ki blasts at them, causing Kai to lose his grip on Dende and send him falling towards the seal below.

"Dammit!" Kai tried to make a beeline after Dende ' _Dammit I'm not gonna make it! I'm gonna have to use it!_ **Kaioken!"** he used the Kaioken in order to boost his speed and he was able to catch Dende before he hit the ground "Gohan we've gotta move, that cost us some time and speed and he's right behind me!" he moved out of the way just in time in order to avoid being hit by another Mouth Energy Wave.

"You know what I think I have an instant fix for this whole situation, I'LL JUST LEVEL THE PLACE AND THE THREE OF YOU WITH IT!" Dodoria in his rage prepared to fire his Maximum Buster to level the are and kill the other three in the process, when…

" **Wolf Fang Fist!"** that was when Yamcha burst onto the scene and dealt Dodoria a fierce Wolf Fang Fist barrage, blowing him clear through a mountain as Yamcha quickly glanced back at the others "I could sense what was happening from the cave, hurry up and get the kid out of here while I hold off the big guy!"

"We'll be waiting for you to get back." and then both Gohan and Kai took off in the opposite direction of the battle, taking Dende with them.

" **Kaioken 3x!"** Yamcha boosted his Kaioken to the third level, trying not to cringe from the strain that he was feeling.

"One more weakling doesn't make any sort of difference!" Dodoria burst out from within the rubble and charged.

Yamcha simply dropped into a combat stance and prepared to fight as the two of them charged towards each other.

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Kai and Gohan hit the ground and both breathed a sigh of relief "Well that was definitely too close for my liking."

"How did Yamcha know where to find us exactly?" asked Gohan "I mean I thought we were too far away for him to be able to sense us."

"That's what I thought too but then I sensed him and Bulma… let's just call it sparring in the bedroom, and I figured that if I could feel him then he should be able to feel us too, so when you went apeshit on the big guy back at the village I spike my Ki using the Kaioken just enough for him to be able to hear us. But in the meantime we oughta head back to the cave and see if we can find Bulma." he glanced over at Dende "So do you think you can fly or what?"

"Um yes, all Namekians learn when we are still young." Dende started floating into the air very slowly "Excuse me sir but I just wanted to thank you for putting yourself in danger to try and save me back there."

"Thank Gohan, he's the one who grew a pair and charged in there like a crazed wild animal and started beating the ever loving crap out of the big guy."

Gohan let out a chuckle "Well maybe but I never could've pulled something like that off by myself, you know Kai you really know how to come through for us. You might act crazy but you're really smart."

"What can I say, it's a gift. Anyway the point of this story is that none of us are dead just yet so I'm thinking that you oughta stick with us for the time being. I wouldn't blame you for weighing your options."

Dende studied the two of them and blinked "Well… okay."

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Back at the battlefield…

Yamcha had a few minor bruises but was, and I think this goes without saying if you bother to look at the power levels list that I put at the bottom of the chapter, winning the battle very soundly "Alright big guy this is your last chance, leave now or you're not gonna make it out of here with your life."

Dodoria, still bleeding from his stump and covered in wounds, was practically foaming at the mouth with rage "Forget it you little shit, there's no way I'm gonna let some worthless peon like you get the best of me-" he was cut off when a new figure suddenly sideswiped him, sending him crashing into the Namekian ocean.

"Well then again I guess I'll leave that to the newcomer, I've gotta go make sure the others made it back alright." Yamcha glanced over at the newcomer and received a simple nod "You and I will talk later." and so he took off through the skies.

Dodoria pulled himself out of the water and let out a low snarl when he saw who was standing in place of Yamcha "What the hell do you want Raditz?"

Sure enough, Raditz was standing before him with a smirk on his face "What's up Bubblegum and why such a long face?"

"You must've grown some serious balls if you think that you can just get the drop on me like that and live to tell people about it!"

"And what exactly are you gonna do about that? You're all on your own now and not hanging around the likes of Frieza and Zarbon and I can see judging from that bloody stump where your arm used to be that that's not going so well. Note to self, give those Earthlings credit for that when I see them later on. Anyway now that Frieza isn't here to intervene getting rid of you should be pretty damn easy."

"What the hell are you going on about, if you think some little Saiyan freak like you can take the likes of me then you've got another thing coming! I don't think you really wanna challenge me and believe it or not I don't wanna fight you either right now so what do you say you just hand over that Scouter and then we can both walk away from this, do we have a deal or not?"

"Oh I get it now, I knew something must have gone wrong when I heard your audio feed go to static. There was finally someone smart enough to catch onto the whole thing with your Scouters and then destroy them didn't you? That would have to be Elder Moori then, and you killed him didn't you?"

"Who?"

"That would be a yes then, anyway that ought give me that much more of an element of surprise on my side for when I blindside the rest of you cretins." he slowly removed his Scouter and then placed it on the ground "A trip back to one of Frieza's planets for more Scouters would cost at least a few days, so getting this from me is your best option right now."

"Smartest thing you've done yet, it's about time you give me a little bit of the respect that I'm due. I was gonna take it anyway but since you offered it to me I might have to go easy on you after all."

"Well I would give it to you but there's a problem with it."

"And what would that be."

"The fact that I'm about to crush it underneath my boot." and then Raditz proceeded to do just that.

"God dammit Raditz what the hell were you thinking, what the hell did you go and do that for you fool?!"

"Well it's actually pretty simple Dodoria, this Scouter was worth far more to you than it was to me."

"I don't buy it, without that Scouter you're as blind as me and Lord Frieza and any of the rest of us!"

"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, you see during my time here on Planet Namek one of the things that I've learned was how to detect the energy signature and location of my opponent without having to use a Scouter, something that I first saw this technique being used on Earth before. It's not that difficult of a technique once you get the hang of it but it doesn't require that much power and I know how much you and Frieza only give a damn about flexing your muscles and the like, there's more to life than just showing force but you just never did seem to understand that."

"Wait a second I get it now, those little bastards like the one that I was fighting and the two that took my arm were Earthlings! You must've sent them to lure me away from Frieza!"

"You wish you fat piece of gum stuck underneath my boot."

"Enough with the insults you insignificant ape, if you don't have another Scouter on you then you're just wasting my time now get lost before I decide to kill you." and yet he started backing away nervously "This is the kind of opportunity that I'm not giving you more than once so take it and get the hell out of here!"

"That's quite the generous offer considering who it is that we're talking about, or is it that you're just scared of trying to attack me? Yes that has to be the answer, when you overheard about my battle with Cui you realized just how much more powerful I am compared to before and now you're overcome with fear of my newfound power. You saw all of that on your Scouter didn't you? Just face it, you're nothing to me anymore."

"No, no there's no way that power level reading could've been accurate! You can't be that strong and I'll prove it to you! NOW DIE YOU MOUTHY LITTLE PRICK!" and he fired his Maximum Buster in a blind rage.

Raditz just blitzed behind him without giving a damn "And just where the hell are you aiming Dewgong? I told you not to underestimate me but if you don't want to listen then I can't be held accountable." he caught Dodoria's only remaining arm and started bending it painfully behind his back "Oh I'm going to enjoy taking you apart like a fat pink Mr Space Potato Head after all the years of being spat on and taunted by you and for all that you did to the Namekians of this world. And besides we Saiyans grow stronger with every battle and while you knew that you became complacent, I've spent the last year training and growing stronger until I grew to a level that I never even dreamt of. Essentially I've been reborn from constantly fighting and improving while you've been growing lazy and soft." he started pulling on the arm even harder.

"R-Raditz hold on a second, I know something that you're really gonna wanna hear! If you let me go then I promise I'll tell you all about it! It's about your homeworld, I know the truth about what happened to Planet Vegeta!"

"What the hell are you going on about, what does Planet Vegeta have to do with anything right now? What could you possibly know about it? Tell me you fat blob!"

"I will I promise, but first you have to let me go!"

"...Fine." so with very great reluctance, Raditz released his grip on Dodoria, allowing him to get free "So start talking."

"Alright but first things first, what kind of guarantee do I have that you won't just kill me off as soon as I tell you?"

"Here's my guarantee, if you don't start talking then I will rip your still beating heart out of your chest now spit it the bloody hell out!"

"Okay okay just calm down, you don't have to get all huffy about it. Frieza told you that your home Planet Vegeta had been destroyed and that much was true, but the story about how it had been crushed by a gigantic meteor was a lie."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Frieza knew that no one Saiyan could ever get in his way but a whole bunch of them teaming together could cause some problems for him, and the thing of it is that he noticed that there were more and more Saiyan babies being born with highly developed combat skills, the same of which couldn't have been said for you." he took to the air "A small group of warriors might eventually grow up into a strong Saiyan army someday and we all knew that the Saiyans wouldn't stay loyal to Frieza forever. He had a choice of the matter, he would either see what happens with the Saiyans in the future or wipe out the only race that would ever be powerful enough to oppose him. It was a tough call but in the end I think he came to the only logical conclusion: to wipe all of them from the face of the universe. And to make sure that the job was done right Frieza did it himself, he destroyed Planet Vegeta and every single wretched Saiyan on it, with the exception of you, Vegeta and Nappa. No Frieza had plans for the three of you, the last three surviving warriors of the Saiyans would make valuable additions to his team. Well Vegeta and Nappa would anyway, you were just there as a footstool. Did you really think that it was a coincidence that Lord Frieza had sent you to another planet before yours exploded? Of course not all of the Saiyans were clueless as to what he had been planning, your father Bardock in particular caught on and thought that he could take us out all on his own, but he didn't make it very far before he died just like the rest of them." he shot Raditz a malice filled smirk "So there it is, you're finally in on our little private joke. How about this, why don't you just take a minute to let that sink in while I let Frieza know that you're here."

"...You know something Dodoria I think I'm going to be okay, but the same can't be said for you." Raditz formed a reddish pink Ki sphere in his hand "You're not going anywhere, you're going to suffer in this just as Frieza did. But you won't get this for the same reason that Frieza will, my reasons for doing this to you are not for the sake of my father because I know that's not what he would want, it's because you thought that you could get away with it!" and with that, he fired his Saturday Crush at Dodoria as he tried to flee, vaporizing him on the spot "So even the likes of the almighty Lord Frieza himself is afraid of what the Saiyans are capable of. I'm sure you'll be interested to hear that too won't you… Kakarot?"

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Tien finally managed to pull himself to his feet "Okay, I think I'm starting to get the hang of 20 times Earth's gravity."

Goku nodded "Yeah learning to walk is the first step. Also Tien?"

"Yeah?"

"DODGE!" Goku dealt him a solid kick to the face, sending him slamming in to the wall of the ship "Yeah I think it goes without saying that we don't have any time to waste."

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 **Goku and Tien and both of the are growing in power by the minute, and yet across the galaxy Raditz is growing stronger as well, and the day that the two brothers will meet once again is fast approaching, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **The flashback with Raditz at the beginning showing up on Planet Frieza 79 was meant to show what had happened to him after he left Earth, as well as show his intentions. I did say that Raditz would appear later than the battle against Vegeta and Nappa, and here he is as a warrior of the Planet Namek. Granted he's not as strong as Nail yet but he's still able to kill Dodoria, so I'm going to be giving him the role of Vegeta for the time being, minus slaughtering that Namekian village.**

 **Now that Goku and Tien have the chance to train a lot together before they arrive on Namek, Goku will be somewhat stronger than in canon whereas Tien will be a hell of a lot stronger than in canon.**

 **Like I said, Upa isn't going to be going to Namek but he will have a sub plot of his own later on.**

 **The scene with Cui attacking that random Namekian village is mean to replace Vegeta attacking that same village. I wasn't sure what to do to make up for the fact that there's no Vegeta yet to attack the village for their Dragon Ball, so I had to come up with a substitute for that. Plus it adds in that extra little bit of chaos that sets the events on Namek into motion.**

 **The reason why Gohan, Kai and Yamcha are stronger is because they did a lot of meditation training during the month long trip to Namek, so they got to power up at least a little bit. Also, in case it wasn't clear I'm having them use the meditation training to get Yamcha to teach Kao the Kaioken, or at least the basics. He can't use it to the same degree that Goku and Yamcha can, just the first level, maybe the third but the strain would be too much for him to handle. Think what happened to Goku during his fight with Vegeta, only much worse. I was going to have Gohan learn it too but I didn't for one main reason: I originally intended to combine the Kaioken with his rage boosts but that would lead to the same problem as if Goku were to use the Kaioken while in Super Saiyan, because the intense emotional turmoil wouldn't allow the precise Ki control necessary, which therefore eliminates the possibility.**

 **I'd just like to take the chance to point out how poetic that final scene was with Dodoria being killed by Raditz: Dodoria had slaughter Bardock's crew and nearly did the same to Bardock himself, and now Dodoria met his end at the hands of Raditz, Bardock's own son. As far as I'm concerned it's poetic irony at its finest.**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 6,000

Gohan (enraged): 24,000

Kai: 5,500

Kai (Kaioken): 11,000

Yamcha: 8,000

Yamcha (Kaioken 3x): 24,000

Goku: not yet

Tien: not yet

Average Namekians: 1,000 to 1,500

Namekian Warriors: 3,000 each

Raditz (flashback, post Zenkai): 2,500

Raditz: 25,000

Average Frieza soldiers: 1,200-1,500

Dodoria: 20,000

Cui: 18,000


	7. Covert Maneuvers, Zarbon's Revelation

Raditz watched as the smoke cleared from his blast, revealing that Dodoria had been completely vaporized "And it looks like I'm two for two, goodbye and good riddance fatass. Really it serves him right for bragging as much as he did about his strength, not to mention that it was surprisingly easy. Even I'm impressed by how much more powerful I've become thanks to all of my training here, I have Nail to thank for that now don't I? But then again I don't have a lot of time to enjoy my newfound strength after finding out about Planet Vegeta. No Raditz you have to focus, this is no time to get sentimental and the last thing you need is to get yourself killed right now. For now I should probably go and rendezvoused with Kakarot's friends like the one with the scars and the two kids, knowing what they can be like chances are they've already been noticed by Frieza by now." and then he took off after Yamcha and the others.

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By this point Yamcha had caught up with Gohan, Kai and Dende and was following the three of them back towards the cave "You know it's kind of weird that you guys know your way around this planet so well considering this is our first time here."

"Yeah well not all of us just get laid instead of focusing on our actual priorities." Kai pointed out dryly.

"Fair enough-" Yamcha glanced back "You guys feel that?"

"Yeah we do, there's another huge Ki signature coming towards us and it's closing in on us really fast." Gohan pointed out.

"No it's okay, that's just Raditz."

Sure enough, in a matter of seconds, Raditz had blitzed right behind them "You're lucky as hell they lost their Scouters otherwise they would be right on top of you right now."

"Tell me about it." Kai muttered "What the hell are you doing here anyway? I thought you took off after that other Saiyan bit the dust."

"And where do you think I ended up? I've been training and or guarding this planet for almost a full year now."

"Are you for real right now?"

"It's true." Dende spoke up "Raditz crash landed on Planet Namek about 10 months ago when we were facing a serious crisis, from what our leader the Grand Elder Lord Guru tells us it was a group of aliens trying to overthrow our planet."

"I'm getting a major sense of deja vu right now."

Raditz gave a simple shrug "It was mainly a happy accident but I figured why not lend them a hand, besides if I got hurt in the fight then I'd only become that much stronger afterwards so it would be a win win. Anyway I fought them alongside Nail, one of the strongest Namekians on this planet and we fought off most of those fools. Until we got to the leader."

"What happened?" asked Yamcha.

"Their names were Abo and Cado, they work for Frieza just like the likes of Zarbon and Dodoria do only their power levels rival those of Frieza's elite squad the Ginyu Force. I knew that it wouldn't be an easy fight but Nail and I were able to double team them and take them down, but just barely. Ever since then I guess the people of Namek consider me their protector or something, but on the plus side I've spent a lot of time training with Nail to get far stronger and it's worked wonders."

"Huh. Cool."

"Hey guys check it out we're back." Yamcha pointed to the cave sitting literally a few feet in front of them "I guess you were right about how close we were."

"What was your first clue?"

"Don't push it you little shit, hey Bulma we're back and we've got company!" Yamcha poked his head into the cave, only to receive no reply.

"What did she go off to to kill crabs in the ocean in a gigantic battle suit or something?"

"Your imagination never ceases to frighten me, anyway she just went further back into the cave so let's just go." and so they started making their way back into the cave "Hey Bulma it's okay to come out now! You don't have to hide anymore, it's just me and the boys!" he made his way back until he noticed the capsule house, with the door locked "Okay she's still mad at me for taking off the way I did."

"Taking off while you were in the middle of Bow Chicka Wow Wow?"

"...Yeah you know what I'm not even gonna deny it."

"That's what I thought."

"I don't get it." Gohan commented.

"I don't expect you to."

"Where the hell have the three of you been goofing around all this time?!" Bulma suddenly stormed out of the house and then tore straight into Yamcha, causing Dende to hide in fear of her and Raditz to sweatdrop "You know something you should be ashamed of yourselves leaving a defenseless delicate flower like myself all alone on a rock like this!"

"Defenseless my ass." this earned Kai a smack upside the head, again "Ow. Anyway in case you didn't notice we've got guests."

"Wait what?" and then Bulma finally noticed Dende and Raditz "So that's Goku's brother again right?" she received a raised arm from Raditz as if it was his way of saying hi, and then she looked down at Dende "So who's the kid, he looks like a miniature version of Piccolo. Wait a second he's a Namekian isn't he?" this caused Dende to cower slightly.

"Just calm down, she's a little bit pushy sure but she's not really THAT dangerous all things considered." Raditz tried to assure him.

"So what exactly are the two of them doing here anyway?"

"We'll tell you after I manage to take a leak." Kai told her flatly "It's complicated and I haven't peed since we got off of the ship, and the other two morons are pretty exhausted too."

"Yeah well piss on a rock, I've still got some awesome news to tell all of you. I talked to my dad a little while ago and he told me something that's gonna blow all of your tiny minds away into nothing, he said that we don't have to worry about being stuck because Goku and Tien are on their way to Namek, right now he and Tien are somewhere in space 6 days from here and moving at the speed of light! You see my dad was able to find the ship that Goku came to Earth in when he was just a little baby before his Grandpa Gohan found him and then he completely rebuilt it from the ground up and if that's not enough to make you lose it Goku and Tien are using the entire trip there training their brains out so they'll be ready to take on that lizard guy that has the other Dragon Balls. What do you think about that?"

"So… that means that my dad is on his way to Namek? ALRIGHT!" Gohan suddenly grabbed onto Kai and pulled him into a bone crushing hug "Nobody trains as hard as my dad does, at this rate we're saved!"

"But how about this, we'll lighten his load for him so that all he has to do is take out the lap dogs for him." Kai told him.

"But things are far more clear now." Raditz pointed out "Kakarot is on his way here and the most important thing is that he will be ready to face Frieza."

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Sure enough, Goku and Tien were both sparring at 40x the gravity of Earth "We don't have time to waste on just getting used to them, keep going through the motions! Let our bodies adapt to the new gravity and then we kick it up 10 notches! We've gotta be ready for the toughest fight of our lives!"

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After the revelation of the impending arrival of Goku and Tien in a few days time, Bulma and the rest of the group, as well as Raditz and Dende, had made their way into the capsule house to get a bite to eat and unwind a little bit. Well that is to say, everyone except for Dende for reasons that will be discussed right about now.

Yamcha was the first one to notice this "Look kid I know it's not the best food in the world but you're gonna have to eat if you want to keep up your strength."

"I don't know if that's a good idea, I mean I've been through what he has seeing his family die in front of him." Gohan pointed out "I didn't have any appetite then either so I don't think he would either."

"Oh yeah good point, I didn't really think of it in that sort of way."

Dende slowly shook his head "No that's not it. Namekians don't need to eat food to survive, we don't need anything but water."

"That's actually pretty interesting." Kai commented "But if all you guys need is to drink water then then what's with all of those fields that you had around your village and why would you need to grow all of those plants."

"The plants that you're referring to must be the Ajisa saplings."

"And those are what exactly?"

"Well from what the elder always told me a long time ago Planet Namek was covered with thick beautiful groves of those Ajisa trees. You couldn't even turn your head without seeing one of those magnificent trees, until it happened. The weather had suddenly changed out of nowhere, the Ajisa trees were almost wiped out and the same could be said for Planet Namek. Luckily we were able to find the few Ajisa trees that were able to survive and now we're trying to grow more of them so that we can make Planet Namek beautiful again."

"Cool. Hey by the way I don't think you ever told us your name." Gohan pointed out.

"My name is Dende, and I don't mean to be rude but would you mind telling me exactly what it is that you're doing here?"

"Dende it's alright, they're on our side." Raditz assured him.

"Do you mean that they'll help us save Planet Namek?"

"Of that I have no doubt."

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Zarbon and Appule, the only two soldiers that Frieza had left with him, stood overlooking the ocean of Planet Namek, the former starting to grow impatient "I can't help but wonder just what it is that's taking Dodoria so long to get back, taking care of a couple of little brats like those two and the Namekian shouldn't be that difficult even if they're stronger than those Namekians that destroyed our Scouters."

"It's not that important." Frieza waved him off "After all if Dodoria is having trouble catching a couple of children then what use is he to us? Forget about him for now, your task is to locate the remaining two Dragon Balls."

"Of course my lord and I can assure you that we're not going to let you down, there can't be many villages left so the last two Dragon Balls can't be that hard to find. If Appule and myself split up then I'm sure that we'll be able to find the other villages relatively quickly compared to searching in a group."

"If that's the case then I suppose I might as well just take these five back to the ship and then wait for you and Appule there, I know that the two of you won't disappoint me not when we're as close as we are to using these Dragon Balls to grant myself the immortality that I so rightfully deserve."

"Of course sir." so Zarbon and Appule took to the skies "You start heading in that direction and I'll go in the other direction, if you come across a village then don't do anything until you notify me. There are some Namekians have decent power levels and you can't handle more than one of them, in any case we'll be sure to rendezvoused back on the ship in exactly three hours understood?"

Appule nodded "Of course sir."

"Good, now spread out." and then the two of them separated in order to start tracking down the other villages.

Frieza watched the two of them depart and then returned to his musings "I have to be sure that I consider the possibility that our dear Raditz has already found one or both of the Dragon Balls that I need, but either way I'm certain that he'll try to come after the ones that I already have in my possession. Who knows he may even end up bringing the last two Dragon Balls right to my doorstep, I mean of course I doubt even he would be foolish enough to walk into the enemy camp with them but I'll be happy to take them from him if he does." he let out a sinister sounding chuckle "Raditz may very well still be working for me and not even realize this in that simple mind of his." and then he took off back towards the ship, using his telekinesis to levitate the Dragon Balls to follow him there "Yes all that I have to do is wait for the Dragon Balls to come to me."

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Being one of the only two members of the group that had been with Goku from the first search for the Dragon Balls, Yamcha was explaining to Dende the history behind the Dragon Balls back on Earth "It turns out that Kami was actually a Namekian who came to Earth when he was just a little kid, maybe about your age would be my guess, and we figured that since he was the one who created the Dragon Balls on our planet we might find more on Namek and be able to wish our friends back to life and if it works the way that we hoped then the Dragon Balls on Earth should be restored along with them."

Dende nodded "That actually makes a lot of sense, it explains everything like how you all know about the Dragon Balls and how those bad guys found out about the Dragon Balls as well. I think I know what we have to do now. Please I need you to come with me, I need to take you to the Grand Elder! Raditz and I can take you there, he will know what to do!"

"And who is the Grand Elder exactly?"

"He's essentially their king." explained Raditz "The Grand Elder is the one who gave birth to all of the Namekians, during that climate change that Dende told you about he was the only one who survived and he's also the one who started trying to bring the Ajisa trees back. He's basically this planet's equivalent of the guardian of your planet, Kami I think you said his name was."

"So why do you guys want us to come with you to meet him so bad exactly?"

"Well when Frieza and his men attacked Elder Moori's village they said that they had already collected four of the Dragon Balls from four of the other neighboring Namekian villages and I was able to sense a lot of energies disappear not long ago before my village was attacked, and I think that means that was the village that Elder Tsuno and at least 20 others lived in. My guess is that Cui attacked that village before I killed him, but either way that means that Dende here is one of the last Namekians on the entire planet."

"Sad to say but that's probably the case."

"For now we have to assume that Cui probably found the Dragon Ball in the village when he attacked Elder Tsuno and the others which means that there's only one of them left."

"This is kind of a long shot then but does this Grand Elder have one of the Dragon Balls in his possession?"

"As a matter of fact yes he does."

"Then that means that we don't have any time to waste, we have to warn this Grand Elder fast before any of Frieza's lackeys manage to get to him first."

"Then that means that we don't have any time to waste, we have to move fast or this could all be in vain. Dende and I can take you there."

"Right." Yamcha glanced back at the others "Gohan, Kai, I want the two of you to stay here and protect Bulma while I go with Raditz and Dende. There's no point in all of us going so just work with me on this."

Gohan and Kai shared a glance and nodded "Alright we get it Yamcha, just be sure to be careful while you're gone."

"We will, but you guys be sure to do the same here. We'll be back soon and with any luck we'll have a Dragon Ball with us." and with that, Yamcha followed Raditz and Dende across the skies of Planet Namek, his mind drifting with the wind ' _This is definitely bad, this Frieza guy and his lackeys are definitely a lot stronger than Vegeta and Nappa were and we barely managed to scrape by on that one. If it wasn't for me and Tien managing to double team him like that then we never would've been able to make it out of there, I don't know exactly what kind of training it is that Goku and Tien are doing but whatever it is it might not be enough to handle this guy either way. Right now the only chance that we've got is to find the Grand Elder, get the last Dragon Ball from him and then keep it hidden until Goku and Tien manage to get here. And even when they do we're still gonna need some kind of miracle. I guess it's a bad sign when you start relying on miracles, I'm probably gonna die here but at least I've managed to get laid so that's kind of a bonus.'_

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Goku and Tien took a brief breather from a sparring session, having moved up to 45 times the gravity of Earth "Okay good, I'd say that we've definitely got 45 times the gravity of Earth pretty much down for the most part."

Tien nodded "I'd say so but we still have a long way to go. No wonder you were able to get so strong before the fight with the Saiyans, gravity training is some intense stuff."

"Yeah tell me about it, but now I'd say it's about time for us to kick it up to 50 times the gravity of Earth." he got up to change the gravity setting when he paused as he heard a voice.

" _Hello out there can you hear me? Goku, Tien, come on guys come in!"_

"Wait hang on a second, King Kai is that you?"

" _Yep you got it boys, the one and only! I'm the voice that launches a thousand ships!"_

"Yep it's him."

"Is he always like this?" asked Tien.

"Oh you have no idea."

" _Hey you know I can hear the two of you! Anyway I have to ask, why exactly are the two of you soaring through outer space in a refurbished pod? Oh wait yeah I forgot about that, Planet Namek and the Dragon Balls, what a fool I am. Shut up Scarlet. Anyway happy hunting to the two of you."_

"Happy hunting? Oh come on King Kai do you mean to tell me that you don't have a clue as to all of the crazy stuff that's going on? From what Bulma tells me every bad guy in the galaxy except for Vegeta has shown up down there on Namek!"

" _Yeah it sounds just terrible. Well either way the two of you will have to tell me all about that later, you see right now me and Scarlet are in the middle of entertaining."_

"What you mean like you're doing another stand up comedy routine?"

" _No I learned from last time that not everyone appreciates my sense of humor in the same way that people like Yamcha and Scarlet do. I'm talking about guests and not just any guests either, these guys beat the record that you and Yamcha set on Snake Way by a mile as hard as that is to believe but here they are in a fraction of the time that the two of you took. All three of them in fact."_

"Wait a second, three of them?"

" _But I guess if a record has to give then it's best if it's broken by friends right?"_

"Wait are you serious?"

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King Kai glanced back at his visitors, those being Piccolo, Krillin and Chiaotzu, and he let out a chuckle "You know if I were either you or Yamcha then I'd watch out, these guys right here are out to kick up your old training regimen a couple of notches too."

" _No way that's totally incredible, so all three of them made it to your place at the same time then? So are they with you right now?"_

"Yep."

Krillin took the chance to step forward first "Hey is it alright if I get a chance to talk to him real quick?"

"Oh yeah no problem, just put your hand on my back and start yacking until your short bald heart's content."

"I'm gonna ignore the short jab." Krillin placed a hand on King Kai's back "Hey are you able to hear me okay Goku?"

" _Holy crap Krillin, how are you man? I mean aside from being dead."_

"Well it just so happens that we ran into Kami on this side and he told us all about King Kai and how we could track him down, and he told us what you and the others are up to right now. What you're heading to his and Piccolo's home planet to find a new set of Dragon Balls to bring the three of us back to life." he received a raised eyebrow from Piccolo.

" _Well if you made it to King Kai's then I know that Piccolo sure did, he didn't go to hell though did he?"_

"Nope not a single problem there, he's been kind of grumpy about all of that though no surprise there."

Piccolo let out a loud scoff "You say that like there's any way that my pride would allow me to sit this one out while everyone else is getting stronger."

"You heard the man, and if you didn't then good for you."

" _So who's the third one that's with you and Piccolo, is it Kami?"_

"No I'm afraid not, Kami actually decided to stay behind in Otherworld with King Yemma and help him out with some paperwork. Get this, it's actually Chiaotzu!"

" _What are you kidding me that's awesome, I thought Chiaotzu got blown to bits fighting one of the Saiyans!"_

" _Shut up Goku."_

" _Sorry Tien but I'm just telling it like it is."_

"...Yeah, anyway Chiaotzu is totally fine aside from being dead. Kami gave him a brand new body and everything, the little guy is as good as new."

" _That's totally amazing, way to go Chiaotzu!"_

" _...Hey Krillin?"_

"What's up Tien?"

" _Do you mind if I get a chance to talk to Chiaotzu in private?"_

"...Yeah I get what you're saying, no problem." Krillin made a hand gesture to Chiaotzu and gave up control.

Chiaotzu slowly floated his way over and placed a hesitant hand on King Kai's back "Tien, is that really you Tien?"

" _Chiaotzu…"_ telepathy or not the voice was cracking.

"Tien I'm glad you're okay, at least you managed to stay alive so I guess I didn't blow myself up for nothing."

" _No your sacrifice wasn't in vain, I would never have let them…"_ he trailed off into complete silence for a moment, and then spoke again " _Chiaotzu… Chiaotzu I'm so sorry, I should've been stronger because if I was then you wouldn't have had to-"_

"No Tien don't say that, the fact that I died wasn't your fault. There was nothing that you could've done."

" _Yes there was, if I had only been stronger during the battle then I could've been able to beat the Saiyans before Goku and Yamcha even had to get there and then you, Krillin and Piccolo would never have had to die."_

"Tien that's not true and you know it, you did your best and there was nothing that you could've done to change that fact. Besides I knew what I was getting into, we all knew that death was a possibility when we decided to fight against the Saiyans but we didn't care, and we still don't care. We fought them anyway because we wanted to protect each other and the rest of the people that we cared about. Well with the exception of Piccolo that is." he received a middle finger behind the back from Piccolo but ignored it "Anyway I speak for the three of us when I say that in order to protect the Earth we'd all gladly die all over again."

" _Chiaotzu please don't say that!"_

"Don't act like you wouldn't say the exact same thing if our roles had been reversed."

" _...Okay fine you're right, I would say the exact same thing in your position. You did know what you were getting into but it doesn't change the fact that I had a responsibility to protect you and I failed you, but I won't let it happen again. Chiaotzu listen to me, I'm going to bring you back and be sure to tell this to Krillin and Piccolo too. No matter what it takes, I swear I'll see you alive again!"_

"Now that's the Tien that I know! And you know I wonder how Goku and Yamcha were able to handle training on this planet, I mean the gravity is so strong here that Krillin and Piccolo can barely even run and I can't even float!"

" _Oh trust me Chiaotzu you'll get used to that but that's only 10 times the gravity of Earth, me and Goku are doing 50 times the gravity of Earth right now. We only have about 5 days left to train before we reach Planet Namek and unless we get stronger than we ever thought was possible by the time that we land we're gonna be in some serious trouble."_

"Wait what do you mean do you have to fight someone really strong?"

" _Well you see while Upa, Goku and I were training back on Earth during the past month or so it meant that Yamcha, Gohan, Kai and Bulma went to Planet Namek ahead of time because they figured that was the best way to find some new Dragon Balls but they ran into some serious problems. Those problems are that a bunch of Vegeta's friends showed up with the same thing in mind and the real problem is with the leader of the bunch, apparently he's so powerful that he makes Vegeta look like an insect."_

"Wait what, are you serious?!"

"What the hell is going on?" asked Piccolo "Is he saying something important that isn't covered with angst?"

"Like you're one to talk." Krillin muttered, earning a glare.

King Kai was beginning to sweat bullets "Say Tien, Goku, the two of you wouldn't happen to know the name of their leader by any chance now would you?"

" _Sorry but I don't think so, if you want I can pass it on the second that I hear anything about that."_

"Well if it's who I think it is then we're in some serious trouble."

" _What do you mean?"_

"You guys just stand by for a minute, I'm gonna check things out down on Namek and get back to you on that."

" _Yeah sure be sure to let us know what you find."_

"Yeah sure no problem." King Kai started sweating bullets "Now which direction is good old Planet Namek anyway?"

Piccolo shot a quick glance over at Chiaotzu "So are you gonna fill us in on what's going on or what?"

"Okay let's see… Oh boy. Well there is some serious power down there, there's no doubt about that. Now let's see if I can close in on the source…" King Kai searched around Planet Namek, only to find his horribly suspicions to be accurate "Oh no. No no no. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! FRIEZA!"

" _What's the matter King Kai?"_

" _Do you have any idea of who this guy is?"_

"...Alright let me make this so clear that even Goku could understand it."

" _Hey!"_

"Saying that the two of you have no idea who you're up against would without a doubt in my mind be the understatement of the century, there's no way either of you can take on somebody like Frieza!"

" _What the heck are you talking about?"_

"Let me make this very VERY clear to you Goku and this is an order, the two of you are not to go anywhere near this guy! When the two of you land on Namek just grab Yamcha and the others and get the hell out of there as fast as you can! I'm not just saying this for your sake either, if you try to fight him then it would endanger literally everything that you know and love! All you have to do is look at Frieza wrong and he will unleash hell upon you the likes of which you have never known! So just this once listen to reason, ergo listen to me!"

" _Wow if he's so powerful then can I at least get a look at the guy?"_

"No you cannot get a look at the guy, and I said before that this is an order!" this earned looks from everyone else, Scarlet and Piccolo in particular.

" _Oh come on, lighten up a little bit."_

"NO I WILL NOT LIGHTEN UP, I AM THE KING KAI!"

"Yeah okay I've had enough of this." Piccolo slapped a hand onto his shoulder "Goku, Tien, you two better not listen to this idiot. Find the Dragon Balls on Planet Namek and wish the three of us back whatever it takes, you got that?"

" _Oh now you're speaking my language Piccolo!"_

"And be sure to tell Gohan and Kai that I expect the two of them to be a lot stronger when I see them again, but that aside believe me when I tell you that won't go to waste. Just let me do some training here, get me to Planet Namek and then I'll teach this Frieza character the true meaning of the word wrath."

" _Oh yeah you know what I like!"_

" _Goku…"_

" _We'll keep on training, take Frieza down, and then what do you say you and I have a long overdue rematch?"_

" _Goku…"_

" _I wanna see just how much stronger you get!"_

" _GOKU!"_

" _What Tien for the love of Kami what?!"_

" _I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to be heading towards a collision with a barrage of asteroids like that!"_

" _...Oh f*ck."_ and then the two of them started screaming before the connection cut out on them entirely.

"Yeah we'll get to that later." King Kai took the chance to round on Piccolo "Let me make this clear to you green man, not a single one of you has the first clue about Frieza or just what he's capable of!"

"Well then I guess you and the woman over there better get to training us so that we'll be ready for the fight."

"Not with an attitude like that, not unless you give me your word that you'll steer clear of Planet Namek! I want you to give me your word or I'll refuse to teach you a thing!"

"Yeah fine whatever."

"I can trust you right? You wouldn't lie to me now would you? And that condition goes for everyone by the way you hear me?! I am the King Kai!"

' _A promise like that is easy to keep, or work around at least. I don't have a hope of being able to surpass Goku if I stick to the same training regimen that he did with so little time that I have here, I'm gonna have to go for the hardest that he's got if I want a chance at levelling the playing field._

"Well alright then, let's get started." Scarlet grabbed onto Piccolo by the shoulder "I'll be supervising your training so come with me, believe me when I tell you that you want to do this instead of training with the big man himself."

"Why?"

"Well a few reasons. First of all, it's my way of thanking you for training my son over the past year or so. Second of all, training you to get stronger will help me to get stronger as well. And thirdly…"

"Now for your first test." King Kai glanced over at the others "Your first test is that you each must tell a clever joke that will make me laugh, but it's only fair to warn you that my sense of humor is quite refined."

"That's the third reason."

"...So what do you have planned for me instructor?" Piccolo shot her a glance of newfound appreciation.

"Well first off we're gonna have a simple spar so that I can get a good grasp of how strong you are right now."

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Yamcha continued to follow Raditz and Dende across the skies of Planet Namek "Hey so if we keep flying like this then how long do we have until we get to the Grand Elder?"

"It should only be about three hours or so." Raditz called back to him "In case it wasn't obvious he lives on the other side of the planet so he's pretty far away-" he suddenly stopped in mid air, his expression turning deadly serious "Sorry but there's been a change of plans, Dende you'll have to take him to the Grand Elder on your own. I have an old score to settle." and then he suddenly took off in another direction.

"What the hell where are you going-" Yamcha suddenly paused as he felt another Ki signature in the distance "Something nearby has a lot of power and Raditz is heading straight for it at full speed!"

"What does that mean?" asked Dende.

"I'm guessing that means that he's going at it with one of this Frieza's thugs."

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Raditz continued to bolt his way across the Namekian skies, his expression being one akin to pure glee "There's no mistaking that power level, after all these years of abuse it's finally payback time! I've been waiting for you to separate from the herd and now I'll give you exactly what you deserve Zarbon! This is my lucky day!"

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Zarbon was searching across the skies of Namek for another Namekian village in order to locate another Dragon Ball, to no avail "Oh come on this is absurd, trying to locate these primitive dwellings without a Scouter is such a complete and utter chore." then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and nearly did a double take "What the- Raditz?!"

Sure enough, Raditz rammed straight into Zarbon, causing him to be sent reeling back a short distance "Hey how's it going, it's been a long time hasn't it pretty boy? I'm so glad to know that you haven't forgotten about me, nothing jogs the memory like me ramming into you while you're thinking about Frieza and your thong!"

"Oh come on that was one time!"

"One time that scarred us all for life, anyway I'm about to send you to join Dodoria down in the depths of Hell."

"Wait what? No you couldn't have possibly killed Dodoria, you're just trying to make some sort of bluff, it has to be!"

"Well isn't it just like you to be so in denial, so you don't believe it then?"

"I do find it hard."

"Like something else on you, well lucky for you the burden of proof sits on the shoulders of yours truly."

"I'm sure that it does but answer me this first, why would you turn against us the way that you did a year ago?"

"You mean against Frieza and I thought it would be obvious, especially after that little bombshell that Dodoria dropped. But even before then I hated the bastard and now that I have the chance to bring him down then how could I not take it. So let me answer your question with a question of my own Zarbon, how the hell could I _not_ turn against Frieza?"

"You're acting like a fool to say such things."

"You're the fool for being his sex toy the way that you are and if you think I'm just gonna let him get his way with the Dragon Balls then I think it's clear that he's the biggest fool of all of them."

"Surely even someone as primitive as yourself knows that even if Lord Frieza doesn't have immortality you still don't have a chance of defeating him as you are right now."

"And it's a damn shame that you lost your Scouter, I think you'd get the rude awakening that you deserve if you saw just how powerful I am right now."

"Well I must commend you for your conviction, but that being said Frieza's power utterly transcends any notion that you or I could possibly be capable of."

"Your endless ass kissing doesn't intimidate me in the slightest, I know that Frieza is afraid of the Saiyan race. You see I know what Frieza fears more than anything else in the universe aside from a God of Destruction, a powerful Saiyan and while it may not be me who will defeat him I know of one who will."

"Do you really believe such rubbish? Frieza may once have bristled at the thought of your kind banding together but just one of you isn't worthy of licking my boot."

"You wanna bet?" Raditz easily caught a fist and flung Zarbon higher into the air.

Zarbon quickly rebounded and fired of his Elegant Blaster.

Raditz didn't even bat an eye as he deflected the Elegant Blaster with ease, leaving Zarbon taken by surprise at what he saw "So you were saying?"

"What the hell, how could he have deflected that so easily?!"

"It's quite simple Zarbon, the bitches love the Zenkais."

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Yamcha grabbed onto Dende and continued flying at full speed "Raditz and one of those thugs must really be going at it, I mean I haven't felt anything like that since the fight with Vegeta back on Earth. Let's just hope that Raditz can take him down before he somehow manages to track us down. Anyway hold on!" and he bolted across the skies.

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Raditz continued dodging all of Zarbon's attacks with surprising easy "This can't be the best that you can do, I thought the almighty Zarbon had far more fight in him than this!" he dealt him a kick to the head, sending him hurtling towards the ground, and then blitzed behind him and dealt him a kick to the spine, leaving him face down in the dirt "You see that? Face down with another man beating your ass, it must be Hump Day (Wednesday) already."

"Oh ha ha." Zarbon let out a sarcastic chuckle as he got his feet and wiped the blood away from his lip "I must commend you Raditz, your progress has surprised me to the point at which I feel that it's only fair for me to show you the greatest extent of my own power something that I've allow to lay dormant for many years. To put it simply I've been hiding another side of myself from the rest of the universe."

"Where in the closet?"

"You've earned that one and only that one but you might as well know before I send you to the depths of Hell, there's a very good reason that I keep my full powers hidden."

"It's because Dodoria tried to come onto you at least three times?"

"Wow you really can't tell Captain Ginyu anything can you? No that can wait for later, anyway to exploit my full power requires me to undergo a drastic transformation and quite a distasteful one at that, hideous is another word for it. Being who I am I'm usually quite reluctant to sacrifices looks for power but when my hand has been forced I have no choice but to release the beast within."

"So what you become a giant ape minus the tail? I'm not gonna lie I like where this is going so far."

"Well I don't become huge per say like you and the rest of your kind do but that aside when I do transform, my power is beyond what you could ever even hope of achieving!"

"Alright you have my attention."

"And you have my erection."

"I think you mean-"

"You know damn well what I mean." and on that semi disturbing note Zarbon proceeded to turn into his beast form, taking Raditz by surprise.

"What the f*ck am I looking at?"

"Yes I know, it's repulsive isn't it? But I can assure you that the trade off in power is quite worth it all things considered as you will soon find out, as in right now!" he suddenly burst forward and dealt Raditz a devastating combination attack, repeatedly sending him crashing face down into the dirt, before he started repeatedly headbutting him in a very brutal manner.

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Yamcha glanced down at Dende in his arms "Hey kid so how much further do you think it might be before we get to the Grand Elder's house?"

"I don't think it'll be that much further now." Dende told him.

"Lucky for us too because I don't think that Raditz isn't gonna win the fight against that other guy back there."

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"DAMMIT!" Raditz broke free of Zarbon's grip bleeding heavily due to taking so many of his brutal attacks "I won't lose, not to you! _Yes that's right Raditz, let him beat you to a pulp so he'll take you back to Frieza's ship, stick you in a healing tank to get some answers out of you, and then go from there once you've received a Zenkai.'_

"You think you're ready to face me?" Zarbon dealt Raditz a brutal spin kick to the face, sending him hurtling into the air before following up with a Possibility Cannon.

Raditz barely managed to get away from the attack and return to the ground and was forced to clumsily evade the brutal and rapid barrage of Ki blasts being thrown at him, before firing a desperate Ki blast.

Zarbon deflected it with ease and then slugged Raditz in the gut "You can fight back as much as you want Raditz, all you're doing is making this more fun for me!" he caught Raditz in a chokehold "Say what you want about how ugly this form comes off, as I am right now I could just up and snap your neck before you could even blink!"

"Not… today… asshole!" in a desperate bid Raditz repeatedly elbowed Zarbon in the kidney, forcing Zarbon to let go ' _Yeah that's right you ugly son of a bitch, go ahead and get your win against me. It'll be the last one you'll ever get.'_

"Oh now I'm gonna enjoy this!" Zarbon proceeded to deal Raditz a brutal combination attack before following up with his Monster Crush "Now let's put you out of your misery!" and he unleashed the Monster Crush, as in he dealt Raditz a powerful pile driver that sent him crashing into the Namekian sea below them.

"FUUUUUU-!" and then Raditz pretty much exploded when he hit the ground, causing the Namekian ocean to break into.

"And here I thought that fool would turn out to be more of a challenge for me but I guess that's what I get. Water water everywhere but dammit, the poor fool's corpse must've been swept away by the current." and then Zarbon transformed back "I can't believe that I had to be provoked to transforming in order to take out the likes of Raditz, but that being said I suppose I should go and report back to Lord Frieza about the details behind our skirmish or he'll really end up laying into me." and then he took off back towards the ship.

Not long after Zarbon had gone, Raditz pulled himself out of the water, badly wounded with his armor being heavily damaged "Why… the hell… did I explode…? Well whatever… all… according to plan… I guess… fuuuuuu…" and then he passed out.

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Dende pointed to a large structure up ahead "Stop here Yamcha, this is it!"

Yamcha screeched to a halt in mid air and looked down at the house atop of the massive plateau in front of them "Well let's just hope the long trip was worth it."

"The Grand Elder has lived in that house for longer than any of us could ever even begin to imagine."

"It's kind of conspicuous, I mean with something like this sitting right out in the open like this people like Frieza or whatever would barely have to look. Maybe it's just me but it doesn't seem all that smart." the two of them landed in front of the house "You know now probably isn't the best time to ask this but what if they've already been here?"

"I… I don't know." this was followed by the door to the house opening and a Namekian stepping out, much to the relief of Dende "That's Nail!"

' _Holy crap this guy is the spitting image of Piccolo, but this guy has at least triple the power that I sensed from Raditz.'_

"Thank goodness, that means everything is alright!"

Nail gave a simple nod "So then you and the visitor from the Planet Earth were able to get here safely Dende, I am relieved. The Grand Elder has become aware of the dark clouds gathering over our home world."

"So he has seen all of the horrible things that have been going on."

"I am afraid so."

"Well the less we have to explain to him the better." Yamcha commented.

"The Grand Elder wishes to see the both of you, please follow me inside."

"But I don't understand, if he knew what was going on then why would he stay here out in the open like this?" asked Dende "A place like this is so obvious that both of you should try to hide somewhere."

"Unfortunately the Grand Elder knows all too well how futile that would be, at the age that he is at right now he simply does not have an option such as hiding. As for me, I have nothing left to do but stay by his side and protect him to the best of my ability for as long as I can."

"So then all of the rumors are true, he isn't long for this world."

"We have other matters to deal with right now, please just come with me."

Yamcha studied Nail for a moment ' _This guy looks like he can hold his own in a fight, he definitely seems a lot stronger than most of the other guys I've sensed on this planet. As a matter of fact, aside from what I'm guessing his Frieza his power is the highest that I've felt on this planet so far.'_ and then he followed Nail inside.

"Now we must go above." Nail floated up into the room above, with Dende and Yamcha both following his lead "I beg your pardon Elder, Dende and one of the visitors have come."

' _Okay so it looks pretty low key compared to the Lookout so far and- HOLY SHIT!'_

As it turns out the Grand Elder was f*cking huge compared to them but in a BFG (Big Friendly Giant) sort of way, with a Dragon Ball sitting above him "Welcome to our domain young one, you come to us from a planet known as Earth yes? Before all else you must allow me to express my deepest gratitude for helping to see one of my children to safety. You have my deepest thanks."

"Well you should be thanking my nephew and his friend, unlike me they actually went to that village and I just showed up at the last minute to buy them some time and then let them get to safety."

"...By the cruel hand of these invaders from another world many my very own children have lost their lives, their sacrifices weigh on my heart like the deepest of oceans." he let out a wheezing cough in order to prove his point "The villains seek our Dragon Balls for their own insidious ends, am I correct?"

"Yes sir that's right."

"To think that such beacons of hope could become twisted in a way so foul, to think that the pinnacle of the wisdom of our people could incur such loss."

"Sorry if I'm just cutting to the chase here Grand Elder but with all due respect, if it's alright with you then I need to borrow the Dragon Ball that you have above your head. I give you my word when I tell you that I won't let any of them get their hands on it, I'd die before I let them have it."

"You and your companions are on a quest to collect the Dragon Balls for yourselves then are you not?"

"That's right, I want to use them in order to bring back a few friends of mine who died in battle because I wasn't there to protect them. Plus if that works out then we might be able to take down the guys that are killing your people."

"And please tell me, how is it that you know about the Dragon Balls?"

"It's because we had a set of our own back on our planet too."

"You mean on Earth?"

"A long time ago when this planet was facing a serious crisis, one of your people journeyed across the stars and came to Earth, and at some point he would create our Dragon Balls. We don't really know why but we never questioned him."

"Oh yes I remember now, he was quite a gifted child and considered a genius. The son of Katas was among the brightest flame along the tribes of old, imagine the creator of Dragon Balls being able to reach as far out into the cosmos as that."

"Unfortunately he was killed by one of the guys that work for the monster that's responsible for all of this, he's a Saiyan named Vegeta and he wanted to destroy the Earth."

"I see, the Saiyans are indeed a formidable race and I do feel for our loss prodigy. However not all Saiyans are evil."

"Yeah I know that, one of my best friends happens to be a Saiyan. His name is Goku."

"And a Saiyan warrior by the name of Raditz, he has become a guardian of our planet with power second only to Nail here. Also permit me to ask, but was this monster who attacked your world by chance a Super Saiyan?"

"If by that you mean super strong then yes."

"...I see. If you would excuse me for a moment, would be so kind as to indulge an old man and step over to my side right here?"

"Yeah sure I guess." Yamcha stepped up to his side, allowing the Grand Elder to place a hand on top of his head.

"Please, may I draw from the past of your home."

"Um… sure I guess."

"My thanks." and then the Grand Elder proceeded to use Yamcha to draw on the past of Earth, mainly to see how Kami and the original King Piccolo had originally split into two separate beings, with King Piccolo going down to the Earth below "Oh dear, yes I see it now. An evil had crept into his being and split their body and power, the two halves remained equal in power but the pure heart of Kami had never been able to subdue the dark mirror image born of the rift between them, and as a result Piccolo was born. Oh the pain of such a poor creature, to have the Namekian heritage within him divided. If only he would be able to become whole again, if so then he might still be among you to this day."

"You… You were able to tell all of that?"

"Yes I did, as well as your intentions. I find that the only thing that are more pure than they is your courage. You still hold pain in your heart over the loss of a loved one."

"My sister Scarlet, I've been looking after her son for about a year and a half now. I just want to do right by her and her son, and I want to protect the people that I care about."

"Yes I saw all and I respect you as the noble warrior you clearly are Yamcha, so holding to the principles of my sacred trust I give this to you." he handed Yamcha the Dragon Ball "I entrust you with the Dragon Ball in my keeping."

"Thank you Grand Elder, I can't tell you how much this means to me." Yamcha gladly accepted the Dragon Ball "Man this thing is pretty heavy."

"And yet alas, even with your current levels of strength I fear that your wish is not likely to be granted, not yet at least."

"Wait what does that mean?"

"I am ancient, and the time that I have left on this world will end within the span of a mere few days. Tell me young one, do you believe that you will be able to claim back the rest of the Dragon Balls already in the clutches of these foes with so little time? It seems as impossible odds to overcome and once I die the Dragon Balls will become extinguished." he started coughing violently."

"You know what I don't care. The wish be damned, no matter what happens I'll protect the one that you've given me with my life, I promise that at the very least Frieza won't get his hands on it." this prompted Guru to smile.

"You have my thanks, I do not possess the necessary strength to protect it myself."

"It's my honor for it, really."

"And I must say that you have truly incredible reserves of dormant power young one, your power is one that I greatly envy and yet so little of it has been tapped."

"Tell me about it, I spent a year training with this martial arts master in the afterlife and learning a technique that can multiply my power. I can only go up to times 5 though and I'm still nowhere near as strong as him." he glanced over at Nail.

"Perhaps we can fix that, now let us see if the floodgates may be opened." the Grand Elder placed a hand once again on top of Yamcha's head "Now let us see if the floodgates may be opened as well."

"I'm not sure if I've really got that much potential as a warrior you know, besides I doubt it would do any good." Yamcha suddenly found a powerful white glow surrounding his body as his hidden potential was unlocked, multiply his power several times over "Uh… woah."

"Be sure to do your best Yamcha but do keep in mind that time is fading fast."

"Woah, just woah. Sorry for what's about to happen. HOLY MOTHER OF HELL THIS POWER IS AMAZING!" he quickly got his shit together "Man I can feel this power surging, I can't believe it! Man this just feels incredible, it's like I've become a whole different person! Thank you so much Grand Elder!" and then he thought of something "Say just out of curiosity would it be possible for you to tap into the power of anyone, like maybe a couple of little kids or something along those lines?"

"If the power is there to tap then yes of course, I take it that you have some people in mind for such a thing?"

"I mean it doesn't have any negative repercussions for you does it?"

"Far from it, all I do is provide a catalyst for what lies dormant and my life force remains unaffected."

"Then would it be alright if I were to bring my nephew and a friend of his up here to see you so you can do that for both of them too? I think it's pretty clear that both of them have way more potential than I do."

"Then bring both of them to me, the stronger you and your companions become the better chance the light has to prevail over the darkness."

"That's great, I'll be back as soon as you can. So about the Dragon Ball am I supposed to take this with me or…?"

"Absolutely my boy, from this point onwards the fate of our world and perhaps the universe as a whole rests in your hands."

"So no pressure or anything." Yamcha glanced over at Dende "Hey you just hang out here for a little while Dende, I'll be back with Gohan and Kai before you even have a chance to know that I was gone."

"Please just be sure to be careful out there." Dende told him.

"Yeah I'll be sure to do just that. WHOO HOO!" and so with his spirits now at an all time high for him, Yamcha burst out of the house across the Namekian skies at record speeds, leaving him overjoyed at his newfound level of power "Oh hell yeah, I can get the boys back here in no time now! How completely and totally beyond awesome is this?! Goku you magnificent son of a bitch eat your heart out!"

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As this was going on, Zarbon reported back to Frieza in his ship that he had taken care of Raditz, even though Raditz's corpse was not found. Frieza condemns Zarbon for destroying Raditz due to his belief that Raditz had a Dragon Ball hidden and needed Raditz to reveal its location, unaware that Cui had hidden one earlier, only for it to be confirmed by another soldier that a Namekian village had been discovered that had already been wiped out.

With this in mind as well as a sense of foreboding that was basically foreshadowing his eventual battle with Son Goku himself, Frieza ordered for a new batch of Scouters to be brought to them in the care of the Ginyu Force, and then ordered Zarbo to go and retrieve Raditz so that they could interrogate him.

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Raditz by this point had ceased crawling in a desperate bid and just resigned himself to recovering his strength in the best way that his family new how "Zzzzz… zzzzz…" in case it wasn't clear that means that he was sleeping.

Zarbon found him not long after that "Unbelievable, to think that he's still alive after he took such a thrashing. You're quite the tough little bastard now aren't you? Of course you are and your resilience means that you're my ticket back onto Frieza's good side. Anyway let's just get going, I need to probe you for the information." he slung Raditz over his shoulder and then took off back towards Frieza's ship.

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Bulma glanced down at the Dragon Radar and then looked up at where Gohan and Kai were in the middle of sparring "Hey you guys come and take a look at this, take a look at the Dragon Radar. One of the Dragon Balls is on the move and it's headed in our direction, so what do you guys think the odds are of that being Yamcha?"

"About as good as you having a wet spot around your crotch." Kai gestured for her to look down, much to her anger and he dodged an attempted slap "So he and Dende made it to the Grand Elder and found some booty and now he's on his way back here to get some booty if you know what I mean."

"Not even a little bit." Gohan pressed a button on the radar "Hey take a look at this, these five Dragon Balls here must be the ones that Frieza has with him but then there's this one out here all by itself."

"Yeah you're right, you think that Raditz hid that one somewhere else?"

"No I don't think so, that was where we noticed a lot of Ki signatures disappear not long before we arrived."

"Well at least it's not that far from here, I guess that's where one of Frieza's thugs found one of the other Namekian villages."

"But he's not there anymore, if he was then we'd sense his energy."

"So what does that mean then, he couldn't find it and then just left?"

"Yeah probably, and for all we know Uncle Raditz might've killed him already which means that the Dragon Ball is still there right next door to us!"

"Fork that thing over spike." Kai snatched the Dragon Radar "You stay here with Princess Wet Spot, I'm gonna go track this thing down before any of Frieza's other thugs track it down and bring it back to the Overgrown thing that my mom used to keep in her drawer." and then he took off in the direction of Elder Tsuno's village.

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Zarbon stood in front of Raditz being stuffed into a healing tank ' _Whatever happens he has to come around, he just has to. If he doesn't then my life will be forfeit along with his and that's something that I cannot afford.'_

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Kai continued following the readings being given by the Dragon Radar "Looks like we're in the clear! No assholes in sight, Dragon Ball on radar, everything is finally coming up for the Crimson Dragon! Yeah that's right whatever bastards are listening, I'm trademarking that for number one, me!"

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 **Now Kai and Yamcha have both made their move to take two of the Dragon Balls out of the game for themselves, but with Frieza's men still on the prowl, with Raditz still on the mend, and with Goku and Tien having been forced into an unexpected detour on their way to Planet Namek, this game has no end in sight at the moment! The race continues next time, on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **Again, I do not apologize for the TFS references in any way, shape or form. If you don't like them then TOO F*CKING BAD!**

 **So like I said, I'm putting Raditz in the position that Vegeta was in, in which he gets the ever loving shit beaten out of him by Zarbon (though he let him win as to not reveal his full power just yet), gets taken back to Frieza's ship for the Dragon Ball they think that he hid but was actually hidden by Cui, and then he steals all of Frieza's Dragon Balls before getting some payback on Zarbon (the last bit happening next chapter).**

 **In case it wasn't clear, the scene with Dende and Raditz talking about how Raditz and Nail were fighting Abo and Cado was a reference to the OVA Yo! Son Goku and his Friends Return from 2008.**

 **The idea of Raditz training with Nail on Namek is actually an idea that I recycled from that manga about the kid that was reincarnated as Yamcha, since he went to Namek before the Saiyans arrived, had his potential unlocked by Guru and then trained with Nail for months. Oh, and just to be clear, since Raditz is on Namek training with Nail that means that Nail will be stronger than in canon, which will have a major lasting impact on the story so keep that in mind.**

 **In case it wasn't clear I plan on doing every DBZ movie (with the exception of the Broly movies for obvious reasons, and the Cooler movies for reasons that will be revealed next chapter), such as:**

 **Dead Zone (during the 1 year before Saiyans)**

 **World's Strongest (during 10 days before Namek)**

 **Tree of Might (during Namek Saga, we'll get there later on)**

 **Lord Slug (after Frieza Saga before Goku returns to Earth)**

 **Super Android 13 (undecided)**

 **Bojack Unbound (after Cell)**

 **Fusion Reborn (after Cell, before Majin Buu)**

 **Wrath of the Dragon (after Majin Buu)**

 **Just so you know, next chapter I'll be diverging from the main story on Namek a little bit and focusing on other characters, such as Goku and Tien in a subplot that I have in mind (which is why I mentioned the asteroid field), what Upa is up to back on Earth all on his own, and what Krillin and Piccolo (who really gives a f*ck about Chiaotzu aside from Tien) are doing while training on King Kai's planet.**

 **Oh, and just for fun I'm gonna start making a list of titles for what Dragon Ball Z Kai episodes would look like based on this fic. I'm mainly doing this because I got bored.**

 **Prologue to Battle! The Return of Goku!**

 **The Visitor is Goku's Brother?! The Secret of the Mighty Saiyan Warriors!**

 **A Life or Death Battle! A Desperate Attack!**

 **Run in the Afterlife Goku & Yamcha! The One Million Mile Snake Way!**

 **Wilderness Survival! A Moonlit Night Awakens Gohan!**

 **The End of Snake Way! King Kai's Bizarre Test!**

 **The Battle with Ten-Times Gravity! The Race Against the Clock!**

 **Shenron Appears! The Saiyans Arrive Sooner than Expected!**

 **Krillin's Struggle! The Terrible Saibamen!**

 **Sit Tight Chiaotzu! Gohan's Roaring Kamehameha!**

 **Will Goku & Yamcha Make it in Time?! Three Hours Until the Battle Resumes!**

 **Farewell Piccolo! Yamcha's Furious Counterattack!**

 **The Power of the Kaioken! Goku vs Vegeta!**

 **An All Out Kamehameha! Vegeta's Terrible Transformation!**

 **Goku on the Ropes! Work a Miracle, Tien and Yamcha!**

 **Dawn of the Fierce Battle! The Star of Hope is Piccolo's Homeland!**

 **The Ship Resting in Yunzabit! Time to Blast Off for Planet Namek!**

 **A Powerful New Foe! Frieza, Ruler of the Universe!**

 **The Rebellion Against Frieza! Raditz's Burning Ambition!**

 **Protect the Dragon Balls! The Namekians' All-Out Attack!**

 **Dodoria's Terrifying Chase! A Truth Revealed to Raditz!**

 **Friends Reborn! Zarbon's Hideous Transformation!**

 **Power Up, Yamcha! Frieza's Mounting Apprehension!**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 6,000

Kai: 5,500

Yamcha: 8,000

Yamcha (Potential Unlocked): 48,000

Raditz: 25,000

Nail: 75,000

Piccolo (arriving on King Kai's planet, weighted): 5,000

Krillin (arriving on King Kai's planet): 2,200

Scarlet (suppressed): 12,000

Chiaotzu (arriving on King Kai's planet): 940

Zarbon: 22,000

Zarbon (transformed): 28,000


	8. Meetings with Demons, Divine Awakenings

Things were relatively peaceful back on planet Earth.

Korin didn't even have to turn away his gaze from the ledge to know exactly who it was standing behind him "I figured it was gonna come to this sooner or later Upa."

Sure enough, Upa was right behind him looking deadly serious "So then am I correct to assume that you know what it is that I need?"

"I do. You know that Goku and Tien are gonna be training harder than ever before, you know that while they're gone it's up to you to protect the Earth and everyone that you hold dear so you know that you have to get a lot stronger than you are now."

"You really do know everything."

"Just a lot of stuff that happens on Earth, anyway if you're as determined as you claim to be and you're really not afraid then I guess it would be alright to head down there and take a sip of the stuff."

"What do you mean? Wait is this the magic water that Goku drank when he had to become stronger to defeat King Piccolo?"

"Yep, I'm talking about the Ultra Divine Water. Goku drank it when he was a kid, it's water that's packed with mystical properties and magical zing that will greatly enhance the abilities of the person who drinks it but first you're going to have to track it down in order to drink it and enjoy the benefits. The journey to get it is pretty perilous, far to the North there's a maze made entirely of ice. First things first you're gonna have to navigate through this icy labyrinth in order to obtain this special water, it's hidden somewhere in a cave at the end of the maze. Many brave explorers have attempted to to navigate through this maze in an attempt to reach the Ultra Divine Water only for them to never be heard from again."

"And Goku was one of the few out of hundreds who actually reach this Ultra Divine Water and survive?"

"Yep you got that right, so now that you know the peril involved what are you going to do? Do you still wish to seek it out?"

"Yes I do, I'm not going to just stand by while Goku and the others are fighting to bring back the others and I'm not going to be afraid of some maze."

"I see, well you've got guts I'll give you that much. Come with me, I'll show you how to get to the start of the maze." he led him into another room.

"So how long is it going to take me to get to this icy labyrinth you mentioned?"

"As long as it takes you to hop into that pot." Korin pointed to a loan pot sitting in the corner of the room "It's a sort of portal that will take you there almost instantly, now before you go I have one word of advice."

"What would that be?"

"If you're dead set on going then there's one thing that you absolutely must avoid no matter what."

"What?"

"Darkness, a Darkness blacker than the night itself. It shields the Ultra Divine Water with an illusion so cunning and mind breaking that you may never be able to escape its empty void once you become ensnared in it."

"I'll keep that in mind." and with that, Upa leapt into the pot.

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One intense sparring match later…

Piccolo rematerialized his weighted clothing and shot a glance at Scarlet looming over him with her white aura flaring "Not gonna lie I didn't think a mere human could become as powerful as you are."

"Keep in mind that I've been training here a lot longer than you have." Scarlet's white aura subsided "But regardless you've only been here for about three days or so and you're already almost as strong as Yamcha and Goku were when they left."

"That's not gonna be enough, I'm gonna need to surpass Goku if I want to have any chance against the likes of Frieza."

"I thought about that so I talked to King Kai not long before you and the others arrived and he told me that one of the problems with that is that you can't access your ultimate potential, the main reason for that being that you've been missing a small part of your essence ever since you were born."

"I'm listening."

"From what I've been told you'd have to go down to Hell, find that missing piece of your essence and then reabsorb it. Do you know where I'm going with this?"

"...I have an idea of it, if it makes me stronger then let's do it."

"That's all I needed to hear, it's times like this I'm glad that I got King Kai to teach me how to use that Kai Kai ability of his." and then Scarlet promptly grabbed Piccolo and they both disappeared in a flash.

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Goku slowly opened his eyes and found himself in what looked like a very high class sort of bed, his body covered in bandages "Oh man I slept like a log, I wonder how many hours I've been out. Hey wait a minute, what the f*ck is going on?! Where am I, what planet is this, why am I in a bed that doesn't have Chichi's scratch marks all over it?!" and then he started hyperventilating like a madman, until he suddenly slapped himself "No Goku get a grip, you've gotta think for a minute. Okay the last thing that I remember is our ship hitting that asteroid field and spiralling out of control, and then… then everything went black for. Dammit what happened after all of that?" he paused in an attempt to locate Tien's Ki signature, only to find nothing "Dammit why can't I sense him?"

"There's no need to freak out so much Goku." that was when Tien got his attention from where he had been meditating on the bed next to him "From what I can tell most of the people here aren't hostile, at least not to us."

"Tien! Wait what happened, how did we get here, where's our ship?"

"First of all we crash landed on this planet about half a day ago from what I've been told, you've been out for a good portion of that time since then."

"Half a day?!"

"Yeah, some of the inhabitants of this planet, such as they are, found us pretty banged up after our ship crashed so they treated our injuries and stuck us in this guest rooms in the palace."

"So what do we do now? Tien we have to get to Namek and who knows how long that's gonna take now that we're stuck on this planet!"

"Calm down Goku, I spoke to some of the guys who saved us and he said that we're gonna have to talk to the ruler of this planet but considering what we're like in his eyes, whatever that means, he should be more than willing to help us. It's kind of weird but the disposition of this Lord of theirs is pretty surprising to me, my original thoughts led me to think that he would be more of a…"

"King Piccolo style sort of leader?"

"I don't know if I would go that far but something along those lines yeah, anyway now we've both been formally accepted as guests of some kind."

"So where is this Lord of theirs anyway, what's he like? You think he's strong?"

"Don't try to fight him Goku, not on a potentially hostile alien planet that we know literally nothing about. Anyway from what I've been able to understand, he hasn't been to this planet, one of many under his control, for about 2 years or so due to having to take care of some family business. His family is known for being pretty ruthless but he's not like the rest of them, sure he can be pretty strict and merciless when things get dire but he's actually a pretty fair ruler all things considered. He's able to quell the aggression within his forces with ease, he can see a way forward without any unnecessary bloodshed, they see him as nothing if not gracious."

"Wow. He sounds awesome." this was followed by sounds of loud salutes coming from outside in the distance.

"Sounds like he's coming back now, all we have to do is talk to him and then we can get off of this planet." Goku glanced out the window and saw the figure in question making his way towards the palace, and then he suddenly froze in pure shock, with Tien turning out to be pretty much the same "Tien…"

"Yeah I know, his power is unlike anything I've ever felt before."

"Do you think this is that Frieza guy that King Kai told us about, and maybe those stories that you heard were a lie?"

"I don't know but whatever the case I think it's safe to say that neither of us stand a chance against this guy. We've gotta be careful."

"Yeah wise choice." that was when a bulke green figure wearing a suit of armor and a yellow Scouter showed up at the door "Come with me chumps, the boss is gonna want to see the two of you."

Goku and Tien shared a look and a subtle nod."

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The right hand man of this lord, being a blue skinned figure with blonde hair, a green colored Scouter and a suit of armor, got down on one knee in front of the Lord "A pleasure as always to see you Monsieur Cooler."

Sure enough, the figure, this being Cooler (Frieza's brother) made his way into the palace and made a hand signal for him to rise "Good to see you as well Salza, I realize that this is quite sudden but I will require you to summon the rest of your Armored Squadron."

"Knowing what the two of them are like that will take some time, if only I would be able to predict the haphazard arrival of the first breeze of spring on this planet I could've already had them assembled here."

"So I am as capricious as the wind now am I?" Cooler let out a chuckle "I do appreciate your candor."

"So am I correct to take it that your business has ended? You seem to be in very good spirits at the moment."

"At the moment yes, however we still face the crisis on planet Gelbo that we have yet to be able to solve."

"I see. Also I find that you may be aware already but two individuals crashed on this planet in their ship mere hours before your arrival."

"I am aware yes."

"Then it's a good thing that I got them." that was when Dore (the green guy with the yellow Scouter) showed up with Goku and Tien right behind him.

"Thank you Dore."

Slowly Tien got down on one knee, forcing Goku to do the same "Allow me to say that it is an honor to meet you sir. My name is Tien Shinhan and this is Son Goku, we both come from the planet Earth."

"...I see." Cooler studied both of them for a good long moment ' _These two have substantial levels of power, they're below that of my Armored Squadron but far above the rest of my forces on this planet and in general._ Salza, Dore, I wish to be able to speak with our two guests in private."

"Of course sir." and then both Salza and Dore left, leaving Cooler alone with Tien and Goku in the main room.

"Very well then you two, come with me. We'll discuss this more in my private gardens and perhaps come to an agreement."

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Upa opened his eyes and found himself in the icy labyrinth "So this is it."

"Hey kid, up here!" Korin called from above "Listen to me Upa, if you manage to find the Ultra Divine Water then be sure to return here to this exact spot and I'll be sure to pull you back out again."

"I understand Korin, thank you." and he walked off into the maze "It's cold in here, I'll have to be careful so I don't freeze to death or anything. I doubt I would be able to explain that one to father." he then continued onwards only to stop when he saw something.

A frozen corpse laid on the side of the path.

"Poor man, he must have gotten lost in the maze. I'd better hurry before I end up like him." he then started to walk forward, only to stop when he heard a crash and looked back to see the path behind him disappear "Okay that's not good, I think it's safe to say now that there's something coming."

That was when a large snow cyclone emerged from the cracks in the ground and took on the form of a massive ice monster, which promptly unleashed a monstrous blizzard.

"I don't have time for this. **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Upa fired a quick Kamehameha at the ice monster, only for it to regenerate "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, it's like I didn't even hit him at all!"

The ice monster lunged at him again, but suddenly stopped as the head evaporated into nothing.

"Okay scratch that, I guess it just had a delayed effect. Now then, down the hatch!" Upa slid down an ice slide on the side of the path until he reached the end and found himself at the bottom of a deep ravine "Well that was fun, now I'd better get moving." he continued walking "I'm gonna have to hurry or I'll end up freezing to death."

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Piccolo found himself alone in Hell ' _Alright Piccolo, just like Goku said. I've gotta find this missing piece of myself, it's the only way I'm going to have a chance of surviving in this upcoming battle.'_

"Hello Piccolo."

As he heard this, Piccolo froze ' _That voice… I'd recognize that voice anywhere. Ever since I was created almost 10 years ago, I had heard that voice every single day. Then came the battle with the Saiyans and I sacrificed myself to save Gohan, and then it just stopped.'_

"It's so nice to finally meet you my boy, after all this time. To be honest, I never thought we would actually get the chance to meet."

"So this is what Goku was talking about. To be honest, this is a day I've been dreaming of but I never thought it was really going to come." Piccolo slowly turned and faced his opponent "I've heard a lot about you… father."

Sure enough, the Demon King Piccolo stood in front of him.

"So you're the great King Piccolo aren't you?"

"I can see that my reputation precedes me, but please just call me Daimao. After all, it's the name that I would've had those feeble humans call me after I had taken over… and it's also the name I expect them to call you my son." the way he spoke was cold and proud, and it was also slightly intimidating.

' _If this were me the first time I died then I might have been intimidated, but since then I've faced foes that he couldn't even begin to comprehend._ Daimao it is. I have to admit I actually like the name, it's short and to the point and it separates you from the pompous and ignorant fools who create names for themselves. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've seen that."

Now Daimao let out a snicker, which left Piccolo rather unnerved "Of course not my son, though I must say that I'm extremely happy to see that you still choose to wear the colors of the Demon Clan. At least there's a part of you that's still loyal to your tribe, despite your… actions over the past decade or so."

' _Loyal to our tribe? Actions?'_

"Why have you not killed Son Goku yet?" his eyes suddenly narrowed.

' _Okay, now I see why people were so afraid of me back during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. I can even feel the sweat running down my spine.'_

"I was going to, but I had more pressing issues to deal with. _That, and my desire to kill Goku has long since been forgotten by me._ The Earth was attacked by warriors known as Saiyans, and yes I did kill Goku in a sacrificial move to kill one of these Saiyans- Goku's brother in fact- but two more showed up a year later and one of them got the jump on me and sent me here. Tell me something father, what good would there be in letting those fools destroy the Earth if I wasn't able to rule it?"

"...Piccolo my son, explain something to me. I died 9 years ago, and you were born in my dying moments 9 years ago. That's almost one full decade, am I correct?"

"Yes that's right."

"You mean to tell me that during all of that time, you weren't able to defeat that wretched fool even once?! Dammit Piccolo!"

"What the hell was I supposed to do? You want me to sneak up on him, kill his friends and family, and then butcher him like some kind of sadist? You want me to hand the heads of his friends and family on trees for him to see? That's the coward's way out. If I was going to take him out then it would be in a fair fight, one on one between us both."

Daimao said nothing, he just started gritting his teeth.

"Yes I teamed up with Son Goku and yes I fought alongside him and his friends against the Saiyans, if you were smart then you would've done the same thing but clearly you're not. There was no way I was going to let those Saiyans destroy the Earth, whether I was going to rule that world or not. Yes I trained Goku's son and Yamcha's nephew and yes I sacrificed myself to save that kid, but he showed me that I had a choice, a choice to follow my own path and not become a slave to the destiny you tried to force on me. I'm not you father, I never was and I never will be."

"Don't tell me about the coward's way out and then try to defend it to me Piccolo, you took the coward's way out. You're throwing away your heritage and your legacy, and for what? Some meaningless morals? Are you concerned about possibly dying? I _made_ you with the sole intention of killing that incompetent ape, and you tell me that you won't do it just because I made you to do it? You're an idiot, a weak fool that lacks any sort of brain."

"There's more to it than that. The Saiyans, if you anger them then their power increases to levels one can only imagine. You made a grave mistake in your approach. You and your _demons_ killed several of Goku's friends which only enraged him and turned him bloodthirsty, if you ever truly wanted me to kill Son Goku then I hope you realize that having me repeat the exact same process that you used isn't the answer."

Instead of lashing out again, Daimao let out a chuckle "Fair points Piccolo, very fair points. I must admit, I'm impressed that you've acquired my intelligence and ability to use logic. Your brothers, they never really had either."

"You mean those pathetic excuses for demons that you created? Piano, Cymbal, Drum, Tambourine, all of them were pathetic weaklings and I have to break this to you but they're _not_ my brothers."

"Watch your tongue Piccolo, even if you are the _ultimate_ demon the fact is that they're still your brothers. Looking back I admit that I made a mistake by not making them strong enough, that's on my. But I will not have you talk about them like they're worthless, don't you understand the importance of loyalty Piccolo?"

"Yes I do, but that doesn't mean that I have to be loyal to you. I learned a long time ago that I don't have to live in your shadow anymore. Father or no father you don't control me, you never have and you never will. You want to talk about making a mistake? Your mistake was giving me an actual brain, because I'm smart enough to see just how foolish your ideals and plans really are."

"Is that so? Well if you're not with me then you're against me. You arrogant weak minded fool, you're going to regret your insolence!"

"So what are you going to do then? Are you going to hit me, make me cry and then pledge my allegiance to you? Come on Daimao, you and I both know that talking isn't how our kind settle things."

"How right you are my son, how right you are." Daimao let out a howl and charged in an attempt to land a right hook across the face.

Piccolo suddenly flickered, revealing himself as an afterimage, and the real one quickly blitzed behind Daimao and thrusted his elbow into Daimao's back.

Daimao fell to the ground and coughed up blood ' _Now that's what I expected to see all of my sons to in battle.'_

"Unlike the rest of your sons, I actually know how to fight. I know every trick in your book, not to mention some more that I learned myself. I guess that's the benefit of having my own brain right?"

"Your own brain huh? Well you see Piccolo…" that was when Daimao fired a Ki blast "If it's a fight that you want then it's a fight you're going to get! Good riddance!"

Piccolo dodged the Ki blast with surprising gracefulness "Sorry old man, you missed."

"Did I?" Daimao fired several more Ki blasts as he rose from the ground.

Piccolo dodged the majority of the blasts, causing them to miss by miles "What are you doing? Did you lose your vision when you fell to the ground? Out of 30 shots you barely managed to scrape me with just one, am I supposed to be intimidated by this?"

"Intimidated? Who said anything about intimidated? You keep going on about my attacks missing, but it's you who's missing the point!"

"What-?" Piccolo looked around, only to see the balls surround him ' _This is the Hellzone Grenade! No wonder 17 hates this attack.'_

"I've been planning this for a long time Piccolo, and now it's time for this to end. Farewell, my son. **Demon Grenade!"** Daimao activated the final step to his version of the Hellzone Grenade, causing the blasts to all swarm in on Piccolo, covering in a massive explosion that filled the sky.

Piccolo let out a loud ear piercing scream, only to draw from Daimao a cackle of joy.

"See this new generation, they just don't know how things work do they? Defeating the veterans, those who had been there before? It's impossible, completely and truly impossible." he began to walk forward ' _If all went well then that means that he's gone and the next Demon King is about to be crowned, and that's enough for us to celebrate the only way demons know how: chaos, fire and anarchy. That's how the Earth should've been under my his rule. For all these years, I had been expecting to one day learn that the Earth was nothing more than ruins where the human race served under the Demon King Piccolo and fought with each other for the scraps. I had imagined a world where they both feared and adored him, mostly the former. But instead the Earth still blossoms, probably in much better shape than it was when I had died. But how could that be? How is it that the son of a malevolent creature like me could not want to rule over the Earthlings? If he was truly my son then he would've taken extreme pleasure in watching the world slowly burn with the flags of the nations being replaced with our colors. What I done wrong then? Had I made a mistake when doing the sacred Demon Transfer technique? Well if this all went to plan then Piccolo will soon be… facing me looking like he's foaming at the mouth.'_

Sure enough, Piccolo stood there once the smoke cleared, looking extremely pissed as if the attack hadn't hit him at all "What was that supposed to do?"

Daimao staggered backwards and fell to his knees ' _How… How could he have survived that?_ How… what? _I spent years working on the Demon Grenade, how could it have failed so miserably?'_

"You want to know something? For a long time I thought that I had to live in your shadows and become the next Demon King." Piccolo flared his white aura "But that was a very long time ago, and now I'm going to make sure the title of Demon King never returns by eradicating it from existence."

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Goku and Tien had both followed Cooler into the palace gardens, the former of the two finally finding "I've gotta admit that I'm pretty confused about who you are exactly, from what I've been told there's supposed to be this guy out in the universe known as a complete and total monster throughout the galaxy, he's conquered hundreds of planets and slaughtered billions of innocent people."

"Goku…" Tien's tone sounded like something along the lines of "Shut the hell up before you get us killed", but he was ignored.

"So I need to know for sure, are you really this Cooler guy that everyone respects so much or are you really Frieza?"

Cooler simply pinched the bridge of his nose "I must admit that you're far from being the first person to be confused in regards to my identity in relation to Frieza, and yet at the same time you may very well be the first one who's tried to be so civil with me. But I can assure you, while we may in truth look alike I am _nothing_ my like younger brother."

"Frieza's brother huh, and yet you're nothing alike?" Goku's mind instantly flashed his own brother, this being Raditz "I guess I get that sort of, but how is it that you're different from him exactly?"

"The answer to that my dear guests, is a relatively simple one. My ancestors built this empire on the blood of their enemies, with the principles that those with natural talent and high power levels at birth are meant to reign supreme over everything else as if they are entitled to such a thing, which is the main reason as to why I was left to take the scraps that my brother and my father didn't want or couldn't get anything out of. However I take those that have latent potential that must be unlocked, and I mold it into something just as capable as what they have, if not even moreso."

"So you believe that hard work and dedication can overcome natural talent, sounds like what my grandfather and my own master taught me."

"They sound like wise men. As for how else I am different to the likes of my brother and father, I believe that the way to become an effective leader is not to inspire fear from my subjects, but rather inspire loyalty. Attempting to fight to keep my subjects down would be a simple waste of energy but rather multiply it, by allowing those worthy to rise through the ranks and prove themselves. The universe cannot doubt the strength that I have amassed, each ally gained only makes me that much more formidable to my enemies. The way to rule is not through fear and force, but through efficiency. Frieza and my father fail to understand that. To put it simply, if I see an opportunity then I will take it as soon as I am able to."

"Uh huh. Last question, are you the same kind of mass murderer that the rest of your family is known to be, or are you the kind of ruler that helps those in need?"

"A difficult question to answer." Cooler did contemplate this question for

"I don't see myself as good or evil, if you must refer to me as something then say that I am neutral."

"Uh huh." Goku and Tien shared a subtle look, and then the former glanced back to Cooler as he overlooked the planet "Sorry about being so cautious, aside from my brother Raditz we haven't exactly made any friends from this organization over the past year."

"So that would make you the famous Kakarot that he mentioned."

"He talked about me?"

"About three years ago, we spoke for about 45 minutes and 38 of those minutes were talking about how he knew that you would be the one to slay my brother."

"I don't have any personal grudge against Frieza, at least not yet. Besides I know that you could kill both me and Tien without even batting an eye, you think that as brothers it's your job to protect Frieza."

"Quite the opposite, he's an arrogant psychotic little bastard and he needs to be taken down once and for all."

"...Oh. Huh."

"Yes."

"Well as much as we appreciate the fact that you're not going to kill us it's not going to do us any good." Tien pointed out "Our ship is damaged and we're way off course, now there's no way that we'll be able to get to Planet Namek in time to help the others and that's if we get through that damned asteroid field."

"Actually Tien Shinhan, perhaps there is a way to solve this problem. You see I can get the two of you a personal escort through a private route through the asteroid field, at least if the two of you do something for me."

"Which is?"

"You both need to get far stronger than you are now." he studied both Goku and Tien for a moment and seemed to ponder "At the moment Tien Shinhan you possess a power level of what I believe to be around 25,000, which is more than most of the Frieza Force as well as surpassing the majority of the elites, with the exception of Zarbon and the Ginyu Force. My anticipation is that you'll run into them later on. Zarbon at full power holds a power level is 28,000 where as the most of the Ginyu Force is in the neighborhood of somewhere between 40,000 and 45,000, with the exception of Guldo, whom I believe to me somewhere around 5,000 or so."

"What about me?" asked Goku.

"Your power level I would expect to be in the neighborhood of 90,000 or so. You would surpass nearly all of Frieza's men with the exception of Captain Ginyu, him holding a power level of exactly 120,000."

"Oh. Wow. Well what's Frieza?"

"In his first form alone he's at 530,000, but in his true final form he can go as high as 120 million."

"...Oh crap." Goku started sweating, with Tien not being much better off "So how do we get strong enough to face someone as strong as that? I mean even with my Kaioken technique to multiply my power I could probably only be like 600,000 or so."

"I believe there is a fix for that. Tell me, do you know of the Saiyan Zenkai theorem? Well a Zenkai is when a Saiyan is beaten to near death and he awakens a greater level of power as a result."

"Huh, you know I think I have felt something like that before, like whenever I lost a fight I got stronger once I healed up."

"Then you most likely know what my intentions are, but rest assured that this is for your benefit." and to prove his point Cooler then proceeded to blitz behind Goku and shoot him in the back, using his Darkness Eye Beam, burning a hole in his uniform as well as knocking him out cold, and then he turned to Tien "Take him and come with me."

"To where exactly?" asked Tien.

"Into this planet's medical facility, Son Goku won't be of any use to you or the rest of your comrades as he is right now so I'm going to treat his wounds in order for him to receive that Zenkai boost, and perhaps show you what state of the art medicine looks like."

"...Fine, I'll follow your lead at least for now." so Tien slung Goku's arm over his shoulder and followed Goku out of the gardens

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Upa took off running as fast as his legs would carry him, his mind drifting to the people that he was going to fight for ' _Father, Goku, everyone… I have to keep moving.'_ he continued running, only to skid to a stop, his eyes wide with shock "F-Father? Goku?"

Sure enough, Bora and Goku both stood in front of him "Yes, in the flesh Upa."

"But you're supposed to be- Oh I get it, this is one of the traps by this Darkness guy in order to protect the Ultra Divine Water."

"What are you talking about Upa?"

"Father you're supposed to be back home in the village below Korin Tower, and Goku you're supposed to be with Tien halfway across the galaxy by now. The only reason I'm here is because I know that I have to become stronger in your absence, nice try but you're not going to fool me so easily."

"So you noticed." their expressions both darkened considerably "The Ultra Divine Water is sacred, it is not meant for the likes of humans. Your presence defiles it, you must leave this place or your life will be forfeit."

"I'm sorry but that's something that I just can't do, especially not when my friends are fighting to bring back the fallen halfway across the galaxy. I know that even if I went I wouldn't be able to figure against people like Vegeta but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't at least give it everything I have."

"...I see." then both _Bora_ and _Goku_ disappeared in a white light, followed by the entire cavern shaking, and the figure of a large black creature emerged in front of him.

"So you've shown your true self at last. Please tell me, who are you?"

" **I am Darkness, the guardian of the Ultra Divine Water, and you have proven yourself to be worthy. Look ahead."**

Upa looked ahead and saw a pot and a cup on a small table "Is this it? Is this the Ultra Divine Water?"

" **Yes. The sacred liquid is very dangerous, one must be both mentally and physically strong in order to survive its effects. For those who are unsuited, it means certain death."**

"But it will make the one who drinks it stronger just like Korin told me right?"

" **There is no guarantee. The Ultra Divine Water takes advantage of special powers held deep within you, if you have no special power within you then nothing will change and only those who carry a special power will become stronger. The others, if too weak, will die."**

"Just like Korin said. So tell me, how many people have drank the Ultra Divine Water before me?"

" **14 people in total."**

"I'm guessing that includes Goku. So how many have survived the effects of drinking it?"

" **Only 1 has survived."**

"And I'm guessing that one would be Goku. Alright, I'll do it. Goku and my Father would be more than willing to risk it, and seeing how they're fighting on the front lines right now it's only right that I do too." he forced down the entire cup, then grabbed his throat and began squirming around on the ground in pain and agony, images flashing through his mind of his time with his father, training with everyone during the year before the Saiyans arrived, and everything in his life up to drinking the Ultra Divine Water, and yet he refused to cry out in pain despite how much of it he was feeling from the effects ' _Come on Upa, you have to be strong for the sake of Goku, for the sake of Father, for the sake of everyone out there fighting!'_

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"But that was a very long time ago, and now I'm going to make sure the title of Demon King never returns by eradicating it from existence."

"You…" hearing that simple sentence filled Daimao with blind rage ' _Does he truly think he can wipe out the demon clan? No, that can't be it. If anything he must be playing a simple trick on me, trying to get me to lose my cool._ I'd watch what you say if I were you Piccolo, I'm still your father after all. I don't see why you're so angry, so hell bent on destroy me. Tell me, what did I ever do to you? All I wanted was for you to follow in my footsteps, that's all there is to it."

"If I was going to follow in your footsteps then Goku would've killed me, if I was going to follow in your footsteps like I told before then I wouldn't be ruling Earth because I would be dead."

"I don't see how that would be the case, from what you've already shown me you're quite strong, far stronger than I had expected after hearing about everything you've been through."

"Do you have any idea what's happened on Earth since you let yourself get killed by Goku? I know that I told you about the Saiyans, but do you really know about that and everything I've been through since then?"

"All I know is that you betrayed me by not killing Son Goku, but how about you enlighten me on just what's gone on so that I know why you've put off eliminating the man responsible for killing your father." Daimao waved his hand and summoned two chairs "Here go on and sit, just because I've been in Hell doesn't mean that I've forgotten to be a gracious host."

"I think I'll stand thank you. _He has something up his sleeve, I can tell._ Tell me, how much do you already know?"

"Well I don't know much about what's been going on to be honest, but I know enough. I know the main things that Son Goku is still alive, the Earth is free, and you died once at the hands of Saiyan warriors but weren't sent to Hell."

"Well then here's the rest of it. After you _created_ me I spent the first three years of my life training until the next World Martial Arts Tournament. There I fought Krillin, one of the ones that your demonic spawns killed, and then Kami. He took possession of some human's body and tried to use the Evil Containment Wave on me, but I deflected it and ended up capturing him instead. Then I fought Goku and I did what you had failed to do, I crippled him and made sure he didn't have a free arm that he could use to defeat me. Somehow though, he beat me by knocking me out of the ring and at that moment I thought I was done for. I thought that now, here we have a man who's facing the reincarnation of the demon who killed his best friend and his teacher, and tried to enslave all of Earth, ,and now he has the demon at his feet. I _knew_ that Goku would find a way to just end it, but instead he healed me."

Daimao said nothing, but his fist clenched.

"For so long I hated Goku and wanted nothing more than to defeat him in battle, but I had to train harder than I could ever foresee myself doing. Then I began thinking, why not just devote my time to practicing a move that would kill Goku with ease? Looking back it was foolish of me to think that and I ended up paying the price for it when Goku's Saiyan brother Raditz and another Saiyan named Beets showed up and trounced all of us, even with Yamcha helping, like it was nothing. Goku planned to sacrifice himself so that I would be able to kill Beets, and I can't say that I objected to the idea. After all, it was what I had been waiting for my whole life. But still, as he lay there lifeless it just wasn't what I had imagined it to be like. I found myself unable to hate him for making such a sacrifice. As he lay there dying, Beets let us know that there were two more Saiyans on their way to Earth and that they would be there in one year. I saw the great potential held within Goku's son and I took to boy to train him in my ways, maybe even use him against Goku later."

"An excellent plan I must admit. Now what, pray tell, became of that plan?"

"Well flash forward about 11 months, the Saiyans come and before I knew it I ended up being killed by one of them to shield the kid. Then I landed in this dimension and met that giant red asshole Yemma, speaking of which when I first showed up there he told me that you were locked up but I don't see any kind of prison."

"He seems to do that often. Is that it Piccolo, is that the story I've been waiting all these years to hear?"

Piccolo's posture tightened up "That's everything you need to know."

' _So it seems that Piccolo doesn't trust me just yet. It's a shame, I actually found his story to be quite interesting._ Speaking of stories Piccolo, you know the story of how Kami and I splitting from each other don't you? The story about the Namekian with no name splitting into two beings, the good side being Kami and the evil side being yours truly?"

"I have all of your memories old man so of course I do, what about them? _Is he going where I think he is with this?'_

"Well Piccolo, I don't know quite how to explain this to you."

' _Oh why not, I'll just humor him and go along with it. Oh am I gonna have a goddamn field day with this.'_

"I've been doing a bit of _research_ over the years about what's known as fusion, namely the combination of two lifeforms genetically similar like me and Kami. Over that time, after a little bit of experimentation with the demons I realized that if a Namekian or demon can split itself into two entities then two entities can combine to form a single being that's even more powerful than the two of them combined."

"Let me stop you right there, if you think that I'm going to fuse with you and let you try and dominate me then you've got another thing coming."

"Well I don't necessarily think it, I know it and I know what's going to happen Piccolo. The two of us, we're going to form a new Demon King and continue the bloodline. Piccolo, I'm well aware that I can't beat you in a simple fist fight even after all the, not with the training that you've done and the brilliant mind you possess. But if you combine that with _my_ brilliant mind and experience and we'd have the ideal Demon King, we could crush Son Goku like the insect that he is!"

"I already told you, whatever desire I held to kill Son Goku faded over time. At this point killing Goku would be counterproductive, and there's no chance in hell that I'd ever fuse with you of all people."

"No chance huh?" Daimao suddenly punched Piccolo across the face, then smashed his head into that of Piccolo "Oh I know that there's a chance, and I know that you're going to be brought back to Earth by Son Goku and those feeble earthlings. They're going to need your strength for the fight coming up, but once you return to Earth you won't be you anymore. At least not the same you that is."

Piccolo clutched his bleeding head and shot Daimao a feeble smirk "Oh really, and who am I gonna be old man? I'd love to hear this."

"Well Piccolo, you- no, more like we- will be the Demon King."

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Tien watched as Goku was placed inside of one of the healing tanks in the medical facility of the palace "So what is this thing exactly, how does it work?"

"I won't bother to go into the specifics but to put it simply this is what we refer to as a rejuvenation tank." explained Cooler "The liquid that's flooding the tank is a chemical compound that we use to increase the speed of the healing process."

"Wow, that's pretty impressive. So how long until Goku is gonna be back on his feet and receive this Zenkai thing?"

"Who knows? I don't knows the specifics about these machines other than how to work them but if I had to guess then I would probably say about an hour give or take. Now in the meantime he will become a great deal stronger but you will still need a way to compensate for that."

"How so? It's not like you can make me as strong as Goku in such a short amount of time like that."

"...Actually I believe there is a way." Cooler pulled out a Scouter and pressed on the communications button "Forte this is Lord Cooler, I need you to report to the medical bay at once."

Sure enough, in a matter of seconds, a green skinned figure in a black cloak appeared in the room and bowed in respect "You summoned me Lord Cooler?"

"Yes I did, do you recall that ability that you had once bestowed upon my Armored Squadron before?"

"You mean the ability where-"

"That is the one yes." Cooler made a gesture to Tien "You can do this for him as well can you not?"

"Of course, but…"

"Yes I am aware of your process, I shall leave the two of you alone." and so Cooler then proceeded to take his leave.

"I take it you have questions for me Triclops."

For the first time since Forte entered the room, Tien found his voice "Tell me, would you happen to be… a Namekian?"

"Yes as a matter of fact I am, although I haven't been back to my planet in… well I do believe it to be about 400 years now, around the time of the great storms that threatened to destroy all of the like on Planet Namek. I was only an egg at the time when I was sent off world to survive and carry on the legacy of my people, imprinted with the knowledge of the ancient Mystic arts of the Namekian race. I was found by Lord Cooler about 20 or so years ago and he offered me a place at his side, I was quite in a bind with a certain foe and he saved me so I joined him to repay the debt that I owe him."

"I see. I guess I'm kind of the same way to Goku and Master Roshi." Tien shot a quick glance over to where Goku was still sitting in the healing tank "I've done things in my life that I'm not proud of but now I can forge a new path for myself."

"Your friends sound wise."

"Yes, they are."

"You're lucky to have them then. Now then, just hold still while I do this." Forte too the chance to place hand on Tien's head "You do have remarkable reserves of strength, your power is enviable and yet you've been able to tap into so little of it. Now perhaps I will be able to open the flood gates." his body pulsated slightly as Tien was suddenly engulfed in a shimmering white aura "And there we are."

"This… This power is incredible, and you mean to tell me that I've had this inside of me all along?"

"Indeed you have, I am merely a catalyst for awakening it."

"Well thank you, now maybe I can stand a chance against Goku."

"Perhaps you can." this was when Cooler came back into the room "Now then come with me, until Son Goku recovers we'll be waiting elsewhere."

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Upa slowly stopped squirming as the pain and agony and he got back to his feet "What… Did I…? Yes I did. I did it, I survived!" then he looked down "It's weird though, I don't feel any stronger. I mean sure I feel a little bit different, but I can't really explain it."

" **It is done."**

"So it is, thank you Darkness."

" **You have been granted this new power, use it wisely."** and with that, Darkness then took his leave.

"I'd better hurry back too." he looked up "It's so clear now, I can see it plain as day." and he flew off into the sky.

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Daimao watched as Piccolo stood in silence after the proposition "Nothing to say Piccolo? Then I'm going to make the assumption that you're considering fusing with me. Don't you understand what could come out of us combining our powers? We would be the most feared being that this universe has ever seen!"

' _I highly doubt that.'_ Piccolo resisted the urge to point out the crisis with Frieza and his men on Planet Namek.

"I understand how this must feel, I do, but you must understand that it is necessary. The Demon King line will die with you unless we combine our talents Piccolo, imagine all that we can do my son!"

"I couldn't care less about what we can do. What I care about is the here and now, and that's me walking away as my own self and not some puppet like the other demons that you've created."

"You're making a grave mistake boy, and don't be so quick to insult your brothers. After we fuse, you'll have the pleasure of meeting them and calling them your- or should I say our- allies in battle. I will admit that they're not the most intelligent, but they make up for that in loyalty."

Piccolo promptly slided elbow into Daimao's chest "Listen old man, I want you to get this through your skull: I'm not going to let you even come close to fusing with me. I had to fight for a long time to rid your voice from my mind and I'm gonna be damned if I let you back in, you understand me?"

Daimao coughed up blood ' _If I remember correctly then all I have to do is beat him to near death and then remind him that death in this realm means him dying for good. After that he'll have no choice but to fuse with me._ Fine Piccolo, this is how we're going to do things then." he lunged and slammed his fist into Piccolo's gut.

Piccolo met the fist with his own counter.

Daimao swept Piccolo's legs and knocked him to the ground, then grabbed Piccolo's leg in an attempt to throw him into a rock plateau.

Piccolo fired an Eye Beam and nearly blew off Daimao's ear.

"You little-" Daimao clutched his ear in pain.

Piccolo jumped at him and buried his fist his gut, then twisted it in order to cause greater pain to him.

Daimao doubled over and desperately gasped for breath.

Piccolo rose both hands above his head "I don't care if you're a Demon King or not, you're making a grave mistake fighting the most powerful Namekian this universe has ever seen and now I want you to understand just how much of a mistake you made. **Masenko!"** he fired off a quick Masenko.

"No chance Piccolo!" Daimao crossed his arms in an attempt to block it but a second too late, leaving him to be knocked through a massive wall of rock.

' _That wasn't enough to defeat him, he's too durable for something like that._ Come on Demon King, show me what you've got. I want to be able to walk away from this fight knowing that I fought a worthy opponent, not one that was nothing but talk. So come on already, let me see why Goku and his friends were oh so afraid of the great Demon King Piccolo."

Daimao promptly fired a Mouth Energy Wave.

Piccolo dodged it, as expected.

Daimao dealt a powerful uppercut to Piccolo's jaw with maximum precision.

Putting the pain aside for the time being, Piccolo threw his shoulders into Daimao's body in a chest bump sort of fashion, which then escalated into the two of them exchanging punches back and forth, trading curses, blood splattering, and even a flip or two along the way.

"You sure that you wouldn't rather just give in Piccolo?" Daimao grabbed Piccolo's arm and slammed his elbow down on it, nearly breaking it and causing Piccolo to recoil "I mean you're clearly wounded, and they do say that fusion will help bring you to full strength, if I were you then I would be practically begging to just fuse right now to spare me even more pain and suffering. You must understand this, I know how you work."

"Well then that would make you nothing but a coward, all you would be doing is running away from a battle. Speaking of running, I have a feeling you'll have the urge to do exactly that in three…" he grabbed Daimao by the arm and held it firmly "Two…" he punched Daimao in the stomach "One." he threw Daimao into the air and fired a Mouth Energy Wave infused with the Dragonfire of Porunga, hitting Daimao dead center in the chest, resulting in an explosion.

Daimao was sent flying further from the blast, a bit further than intended.

Piccolo was standing on top of a plateau within seconds, getting a perfect look of the result of the blast.

Daimao was coughing furiously, but then began to slowly laugh as he rose from the ground, the top of his uniform almost completely destroyed "I must admit Piccolo, you've fought very well. But I believe that there's one more trick from me that you have yet to see, and chances are that you forget that I could even pull this off! Yes it's my ultimate trump card, the move that will put you out of commission. Now you will taste the true power of the Demon King!" a blinding pure white aura began surrounding him and his size began to double.

' _This transformation…'_

Daimao was transforming into a Great Namekian.

' _Dammit, how could I have forgotten that he would be able to do this? I should've realized it the second he mentioned his ultimate trump card!'_

Daimao barked out a deep menacing laugh "Now do you see my dear Piccolo? I am the Demon King, and I _always_ get my way! Now you're going to feel my wrath as I pummel you into near death before I absorb you into my being!"

' _Dammit, what can I do? If he finishes that transformation then the entire magnitude of this fight is gonna change and- Wait a second, that's it!'_ he slammed two fingers to his forehead and began packing as much Ki into them as he could ' _It's times like this when I'm so glad I spent all those years honing and adjusting this technique so I don't need 5 minutes to charge it, or as long as it takes to turn into that Great Namekian form because if it did then I'd either be panicking or a bloody corpse at this point. I hope this works… No, I_ _ **know**_ _this will work. It hit Raditz while he was squirming in Goku's grip and that was more than 10 years ago, this should be easy._ **Special Beam Cannon!"** he fired a Special Beam Cannon, leaving a massive hole in the center of Daimao's chest.

Daimao abruptly stopped transforming and returned to his normal form, only now with a gaping hole in his chest spewing blood out like a volcano.

"You mentioned your ultimate trump card and it was a technique that I knew, meaning that I understood its strengths and weaknesses. If there's one thing I've learned with that technique or anything close to it then it's that hitting you as you transformed will normally interfere with it. I never even mentioned _my_ ultimate trump card and I end up stopping your transformation, funny how that works right? The first rule of fighting, if you know that your opponent knows how your technique works then you shouldn't make it so obvious to your opponents. _Speaking of techniques working, that's ⅔ times the Special Beam Cannon worked in a battle. I mean first there's the thing with Raditz, then I used it in that fight with Gohan, and now here. Still though, the only reason it worked this time was because he was in the middle of transforming and wasn't able to stop it. It's pretty obvious that this move is a liability in one on one fights.'_

Daimao finished shrinking back to his normal form, the gigantic hole in his chest not even close to being healed yet, and began crawling while leaving a trail of blood behind from the wound in his chest "Dammit Piccolo… all I wanted was to recreate the Demon King, and you come in the way of this. Why?"

"Because I understand why Goku and King Kai wanted me to come here, they wanted to see if I had ever truly moved on from my past life and forged a new path for myself. King Kai never was fully convinced, though that's probably because I screwed him over once, and he decided to send me down here as a test. He and Goku wanted to see just what the difference was between the two of us. The difference between is actually pretty simple. You want the power to be the Demon King, I want the power because I know that I'm going to need it. So here's what I'm thinking, I say we do this fusion but only if you agree that I say the host entity."

' _Finally, he sees things the way I see them! At long last, I've finally_ _found my key to get back into the realm of the living!_ Yes Piccolo, I'm so glad that you've at last come to your senses after all of this."

Piccolo remained stoic and gave a simple nod "Yes, it's become quite clear that Goku and King Kai made the right choice in having us meet. Together we'll become a very powerful warrior, one that will be known throughout the entire universe."

"Excellent, I can't tell you how thrilled I am that you've finally realized how much this fusion will benefit both of us. I knew there was an actual brain in that head of yours, even if it took some time to comprehend how important and necessary this move is."

"Yes and before we do this there's one thing that I think you should know, for the rest of time you're going to have to witness your worst nightmare in the form of a Demon King fighting to protect the Earth and more importantly fighting alongside Son Goku." he received a look of utter contempt and hatred "Yeah it's shocking I know, it's okay to be speechless because I would be too. After years of you trying to manipulate me into killing Goku and taking over the Earth, I just brilliantly outsmarted you and it feels absolutely amazing. This was a necessary move Daimao and I'm sure it must make your blood boil to know that you'll be fighting to protect the Earth instead of rule it. You're probably asking why, after telling you for so long that I wasn't going to fuse, that I'm making the decision to go through with this. My answer is simple, Earth is full of both good and bad people, sure most of them are fools but the fact is that it's still a planet that's worth protecting. Besides, it's not like I want to end up back here if you catch my drift."

Daimao let out a snarl and desperately tried to heabutt him.

Piccolo clamped a hand over Daimao's mouth in order to shut him up "Take your defeat like a man Daimao, you were a worthy opponent and on another note it was good to meet you. You're as much of a self absorbed, insignificant moron that I thought you would be and now I get to punish you for trying to control me."

"You'll never… get away… with this! I'll find ways to make you suffer Piccolo, I promise you this! I won't go through with this!"

"That's enough out of you, you've lost this battle and it's only right that you take defeat the way that a true king would. I remember all of those lessons you provided for me through transferring your memories, everything about the honor of royalty and being a man, and now it's time for you to take your defeat like one. Now don't worry, this isn't going to take very long." they were then covered by a blinding light ' _It's definitely working, I can feel his Ki signature draining from his body and fast and now all of the injuries that I've sustained in this fight seem to be fading away like they were never there.'_

Daimao's body quickly began fading away.

' _That's it, go on and disappear forever. There's no way I'm letting even a single trace of you survive this.'_

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Soon enough, Upa found himself back where he had started "Excuse me Master Korin it's me, are you still up there?"

Korin poked his head out in the sky "Hey Upa is that you?"

"Yes it's me alright, mission accomplished."

' _So the kid didn't die after all, he really is impressive.'_

"So you think you could let me back out now?"

"Alright, just hold on a second." Korin whisked him back up and out through the jug, where he landed safely on the ground "Welcome back, I take it your mission was a success?"

"As a matter of fact…" Upa flared his aura slightly "I do feel different though, somehow my whole body feels different. I feel this huge reservoir of power bubbling up inside of me, I feel really at peace too even more than I had ever thought possible."

' _Goku said that he be able to would survive no problem but I never considered just what it would mean, could this boy truly be the one? I've gotta admit I'm actually pretty amazed, Yamcha mentioned the kid had potential but to get the Ultra Divine Water all by himself at his age was something only Goku could pull off. Is it possible that he'll surpass even Goku? Well I guess only time will tell.'_

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Piccolo finished the fusion with Daimao, and stared down at his hands as he attempted to grasp his newfound power ' _This is…'_

"I take it this portion of your training was a success?"

Piccolo looked back and saw Scarlet standing behind him "So how long were you waiting there exactly?"

"Just long enough to make sure you didn't do anything so monumentally stupid that it would doom us all." Scarlet intently studied Piccolo for a moment "You seem a bit taller now, and your eyes don't hold any of the same hate that King Kai had expected."

"Oh please, as if I'm enough of a pushover that I'd let that old fool take over my body? You know, like Goku said I actually did find myself in there and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of how it went."

"I'm surprised that you actually agreed to fuse with him, after all you pretty much despise everything he once stood for."

"I don't know if I would go that far."

"Regardless it's truly remarkable, so how do you feel?"

"Pretty good to be honest, this new power is amazing. I figured I'd grow stronger but not to this extent."

"Good to know." Scarlet held out her hand "Now come on, we're gonna go ahead and head back to King Kai's planet where I'm gonna teach you the Kaioken."

"Works for me."

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Time had passed, and the recovery process had at last some to an end.

Goku pulled himself out of the recovery chamber and slowly took a moment to get a grip on his newfound power "Wow, just… wow."

"I couldn't have said it better myself." that was when Cooler and Tien made their way back into the room "So how do you feel?"

"Like I'm a lot stronger now than I was before just like you said I'd be, it feels like I can barely keep my power under control. It feels pretty insane, I thought that I was already getting close to the maximum strength I could get but I guess this just proves that I don't know my own limitations. I have to admit that it feels pretty good, I just wish that I had the time to stop and enjoy it but I don't. Thank you for everything you've done for us Cooler but we can't waste anymore time, we have to get to Planet Namek now before Frieza kills my son and all of our friends."

"Rest assured I am aware, the coordinates for the flight path to Planet Namek without going through the asteroid field. Both of you come with me and I'll take you there so you can resume your journey." and so Cooler began leading Goku and Tien towards their ship so that their trip to Namek could continue."

' _Gohan, Kai, Yamcha, Bulma, I'm sorry we're taking so long to get there but I promise that me and Tien are gonna be there as soon as we can!'_

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 **With Upa and Piccolo's power levels both on the rise, it looks like the tides are turning in favor of our heroes, but Goku and Tien still have a long way to go before they can finally reach Planet Namek. Frieza and his men have proven to be far more capable than we had anticipated so if any hope against this tyrant does remain then now it is up to Goku to find it, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **This chapter that is meant to serve four purposes for the sake of the story. The first purpose is to give a little bit of insight as to what Piccolo and the others are going to be up to during their training with King Kai and Scarlet (most Piccolo), the second purpose is to show what Goku and Tien are up to during their trip to Namek aside from just training (continuing from their unexpected asteroid based detour), and the third purpose is to establish that the two of them will be arriving on Namek somewhat later than in canon, which will make room for another plot device that I had in mind for later on. The fourth and final purpose is to show what Upa is up to back on Earth.**

 **Since Yamcha spent most of his time on King Kai's world training with Scarlet, I figured why not have Piccolo do the same. His test while training is something that I'm recycling from my other fic from about a year ago, the Rise of a Protector. For those of you that read that, you know what I'm talking about. If not then you'll see later on.**

 **Cooler and his Armored Squadron (well two out of three of them anyway) appearing in this chapter was meant to establish some of Cooler's character through his actions, such as agreeing to help Goku and Tien. I know that a lot of people think that he's basically a rehash of Frieza (looking at you Team Four Star), but I honestly think he could be a really interesting villain if you just dive further into his character. When I imagine it, I see something somewhat similar to the character of Prince Lotor from Voltron: Legendary Defender. At least up until the end of season 6 that is, so basically Lotor's personality from seasons 3-5. Think of it this way, whereas Frieza and King Cold value destruction and suffering with huge smiles on their faces, what Cooler considers when running his portion of the empire is efficiency.**

 **Also, in response to the people who keep asking me to pair Gohan with Erasa: I actually do plan to do that, I've seen a lot of fics where Gohan and Erasa get paired up together, the most famous of which being The Erased Chronicles. The problem is that they're either unfinished, one-shots that are sweet but don't have that much substance, or they're left unfinished. Or the (shudders) three way lemons between Gohan, Erasa and Videl. I'm gonna go for something where Gohan hooks up with a nice normal girl that's nice to him to counterbalance Videl being a complete and total bitch. As for Kai's pairing, I don't really see him and Videl working out very well so, since I plan to continue.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 90,000

Goku (Zenkai): 3 million

Tien: 25,000

Tien (Potential Unlocked): 220,000

Upa: 8,000

Upa (post Ultra Divine Water, initially): 64,000

Scarlet (suppressed): 10,000

Piccolo (weighted): 8,000

Piccolo (unweighted): 10,400

Daimao: 6,000

Cooler (heavily suppressed): 1.3 million


	9. Shattered Scheme, Ginyu Force Arrives

(Normal speak)

 _(thoughts)_

Yamcha continued flying across the skies of New Namek enjoying the perks of having his potential unlocked "Man this is totally insane, when Bulma and the others find out about this they'll never believe this! _Yeah, Bulma… I still feel bad about leaving her for a whole year like that to go and train under King Kai and Scarlet with Goku, but I did it so that I could get strong enough to beat the Saiyans and to protect her and the others. Maybe Scarlet was right when she said that I should think about taking our relationship to the next level. No you know what that should wait until after we wish Piccolo and the others back.'_

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Blueberry continued treating Raditz inside of the Healing Tank "You know you took one hell of a beating big guy, the way I see it you could be in for a long haul at this rate. God dammit as if we're not under enough pressure as it is, unless I can force you to come to anytime soon I'm gonna end up having my head on a pike thanks to Frieza. I guess all I can do right now is wait and keep my fingers crossed, to think my life is about to ride on whether or not I can save your ass Saiyan."

And then Raditz's eyes snapped open.

"...Oh crap."

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Frieza was waiting for Zarbon to update him on Raditz's condition "Tell me, how does Raditz fair at the moment?"

"He's been stabilized my lord, it won't be long now." Zarbon informed him.

"That is excellent news, for you at the very least."

"Yes sir." this was followed by an explosion erupting from not far away "What the- That explosion came from just down the hall!"

"So it would seem."

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Now free from the healing tank, Raditz stepped on the corpse of Blueberry "Well what the f*ck do you know, I guess the speed at which I was able to recover was more than you bargained for now wasn't it? I guess certain things work out for the best, now onto step two of Operation: That's Just Cold."

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Zarbon and Frieza were bolting their way down the hall, only for them to stop mid step at the sound of another explosion "No that had to have come from the treatment room sir!"

"Well don't just stand there, move it you imbecile!" Frieza barked.

"Of course sir." Zarbon opened the door to the Treatment Room, only to find it decimated with a massive hole in the wall, leading him to come to only one conclusion "No this just can't be happening, Raditz has escaped!"

"He what?! Don't just stand there staring at it, give chase immediately you imbecile before I lose my patience!"

"Y-Yes my lord!"

"He can't have gotten far, I don't care if you have to drag that scoundrel back here in a bloody heap! JUST FIND HIM or so help me I'll make you wish that you had never been born!

However, what neither of them had realized was that Raditz was still there hiding around a nearby corner ' _Frieza is with him, good that's exactly according to plan. Honestly this is like taking candy from a baby.'_

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Soon enough Raditz had made it all the way to Frieza's throne room, with all five of his stolen Dragon Balls just ripe for the taking ' _Dear Lord Frieza, I regret to inform you that by the time you read this your undisputed reign will have come to a screeching halt! Also I did not enjoy my stay at Casa de Frieza. Burn in Hell, Raditz._ And now it's time for me to make my move you slimy little bastard."

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Kai continued his way across the skies of Namek following the Dragon Radar "Alright looks like I'm just about there." he continued onwards a short distance until he found the Namekian village that had been slaughtered by Cui, much to his disgust, and he let out a remorseful sigh "Why do these kinds of things have to happen? My heart might be twisted for a five year old but even I can't just leave you guys out here without giving you a proper burial of some kind." he knelt down in front of the body of the elder Tsuno "Don't worry, once the Dragon Balls on Earth are restored I promise I'll do everything that I can to bring you guys back to life. Frieza's gonna get what's coming to him one way or another."

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Zarbon was frantically searching around the ship for any sign of Raditz "You arrogant little son of a- Don't think you'll get away from me, I'll rip you out into the open you one way or another! There's no way that anyone could've scampered off as fast as that, he has to be hiding somewhere nearby."

"Honestly Zarbon I feel like you're mocking me with your incompetence!" Frieza let out a loud scoff from down below.

"Lord Frieza please be patient, I'm sure that there's a perfectly-"

"Do be sure that you keep in mind that I hold you responsible for the untimely flight of our dear friend, if I were in your position then I'd be sure to track him down and be quick about it as well!"

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Raditz watched with a huge smirk plastered across his face as he watched Zarbon search for him outside "Yes that's right you fool, search all over for me and leave no stone unturned. Of course you would never think to check inside of your own ship now would you? But like a wise man once said, in life you have to keep your friends close and your enemies closer." he glanced down at the Dragon Balls "Okay good, he left all 5 Dragon Balls here with him. I hate to come off to you as ungrateful after you went to the trouble of healing my injuries for me but- Oh wait, no I really don't. The only problem right now is that I can't just waltz out the front door with all five of these Dragon Balls just tucked underneath my arm like I'm a space pizza delivery boy or something, I guess this means that I'm gonna have to get creative." he began charging a Ki blast in his right hand "Alright then, now it's time for phase two!" he leaned out of the door of the throne room "Hey genius way to look inside of your own damn ship before running off on some kind of wild goose chase!" and so he unleashed his Saturday Crush technique down the hall of the ship, destroying the engine of the ship in a fiery explosion, and then he proceeded to blast through the main window of the ship, thus making his potential escape with the Dragon Balls that much easier.

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Zarbon and Frieza started making a beeline back towards the throne room "Could you tell where his voice was coming from my lord or is it possible that-" and then they were blocked by a wall of flames.

Despite his blinding rage, Frieza was quick to catch onto Raditz's plan "No dammit he's pilfering my Dragon Balls right out from under our noses! Dammit I can only imagine how much he must be gloating right now!"

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Raditz actually had other things on his mind as he threw the Dragon Balls out of the hole in the window of the ship " **I've got a lovely bunch of Dragon Balls, Do-do-do-do-do! Here they are all sitting in a bunch, doo-doo-doo! One Star, Two Star, all as big as my head! Give them a toss, a planet across, and that's how Raditz wins! Bye bye!"** and then he took off out of the same hole.

By the time Frieza and Zarbon arrived it appeared that Raditz was long gone, and so were the Dragon Balls "Dammit all to hell he's gone, and that miserable ape took off with my Dragon Balls!"

"You thieving little ape!" Zarbon bolted out of the hole in the ship, only to once again find no sign of Raditz "God dammit where has he gone this time?! Frieza my lord, is it possible that he's perhaps still on the ship?"

"This is your mess you imbecile, you find him!"

"Y-Yes sir!"

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And yet again, what neither of them realized was that Raditz was already preparing to flee the scene, only underwater instead of by air ' _Knowing the thought processes of people like those two they'll most likely expect me to flee by air, but you can't survive in this line of work by doing what people would expect you to do. Later bitches.'_ and then he started swimming away underwater.

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"ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!" Frieza slammed his tail against the ground, creating a large crack as he tore into Zarbon "Not only did you lose Raditz but you also let my precious bounty slip through your fingers in one fell swoop! I cannot even stomach the thought that he was able to able to abscond with all five of my Dragon Balls in the twinkling of an eye just like that! I will conduct my own search of the ship's interior, you on the other hand will comb the surrounding areas for all that you're worth."

Zarbon nodded "Yes sir."

"And let me make this very clear to you, if Raditz is not at my feet within the hour then the only thing capable of calming my wrath will be your life! Understood?!"

"...Understood."

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After finishing digging the graves of the fallen Namekians, Kai continued to search for the hidden Dragon Ball, following the radar to the shore of a nearby lake "So the thing isn't inside of the houses huh, the guy that Raditz butchered must've hidden it underwater so that if anything happened to him no one would be able to track it down. Except for the lucky bastard who has this radar, but all things considered that's actually not a bad idea." he dove into the water and quickly popped out with the Dragon Ball in his hands "And that's how the Kai man gets shit done, so with my awesomeness along with Yamcha's luck that means that we've got two Dragon Balls in our corner, but Frieza still has the other five. I guess all we can do for the time being is wait for Raditz and Yamcha to get back."

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At the same time, Raditz dragged himself out of the water in a remote grassy area a fair distance away from Frieza's ship "Alright I doubt that they could have landed too far away from this point right?" he wandered around a little bit until he found the five Dragon Balls all clustered together "I guess I have to thank mother for that awesome curveball that I had inherited from her now don't I? There's only one thing that Frieza can be pitching right about now and that's a massive tantrum that's bigger than he is, not that that's saying that much. I've finally got you right where I want you don't I you arrogant little bastard?" he quickly tucked them away in a small clearing nearby "That's five for me and possibly one for the Earthlings, combine those and then all we have to do is find the one that Cui had hidden before I killed him and then we'll have all 7 of the Dragon Balls. Now I'd better go meet up with Kakarot's friends, I'd better stay under the radar and not fly around like a jackass saying-"

" **I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky!"** Yamcha sang his way across the skies of the Planet Namek past Raditz with his Dragon Ball in hand.

"...Well I was gonna say "Come and get me Frieza" but that works too I guess. Anyway I'd better follow him back to his hideout so we can rendezvous and discuss our next plan of action against Frieza." and so he took off after Yamcha, analyzing him from afar as he did so ' _Well it would seem that someone got a power up from the Grand Elder, right now he could hold his own against most of the Ginyu Force without that much of an issue. I just wish I could've gotten my own power up from him but apparently according to Namekian customs there are several levels of training that one has to go through before they can have their potential unlocked, but then again the Grand Elder said that the more you train the less there is to unlock so at this rate he can't have that much left to awaken by now. God just looking at him dancing through the air like that is making my eyes want to throw up.'_

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Zarbon continued his search for Raditz and was growing more and more frustrated with each passing moment "Dammit Raditz where the hell are you? If only I had a Scouter this would be so simple, the way things are going for me right now I might as well try and hide myself under a rock or something. Honestly Raditz you're determined to be the end of me one way or another aren't you? Wait is that-" he glanced back only to see Yamcha flying in the distance carrying his Dragon Ball "No that must be just another Earthling like the two from before who rescued that whiny little Namekian brat, and am I crazy or is that a Dragon Ball that he's carrying?" and then he glanced further back and saw Raditz following Yamcha "Raditz you little shit, I've locked onto you now and you're going to rue the day you made a fool out of me!" and so he took off after the two of them.

Raditz didn't fail to notice this though "Another high power level closing in on me, that one has to be Zarbon no doubt about it. Isn't that just like him to not know when to leave well enough alone? But I guess I shouldn't complain, getting to kill two birds with one stone on the same damn day. First I steal the Dragon Balls right out from Frieza's nose and now Zarbon is bound to be so frazzled that his guard will be down, and then I can use that to my advantage!"

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"SHOOT TO THRILL!" Yamcha suddenly dropped down onto the ground in front of the cave like a boss (think Iron Man's entrance in the 2012 Avengers movie), startling Bulma into falling off of her rock "Uh, sorry about that babe."

Almost immediately Bulma bolted to her feet and tore into him "What in the name of hell is wrong with you, what are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"I thought we all agreed that you would stay inside the cave, I mean I know that you need the light so that you can read and all but at this rate someone is gonna spot you out here."

"Whatever, I've only been out here for about two seconds or so and- Holy crap is that what I think it is? You actually found one of the Dragon Balls?"

"Wow, you know these things are a lot bigger than the ones back on Earth. So how did it go overall?"

"You should've seen the Grand Elder, turns out he's actually pretty kickass and that's just the start of it! He did this thing where he put his hand on my head and he pulled stuff out of me I never even knew I had."

"...Huh?"

"Okay let me rephrase that, anyway are the boys still inside? I've gotta take a little trip back to the Grand Elder's."

"Well Gohan is inside meditating but Kai ran off a little while ago."

"Wait what?"

"You see another Dragon Ball popped up on the radar near where you guys said that village got attacked and then he went to go and look for it."

"Please tell me you're joking, do you have any idea what my sister will do to me if anything happens to him?"

"Well… she's dead."

"That hasn't stopped her before, and I'll have you know that I happen to like my penis where it is thank you."

"So do I." she blushed when she realized what she said "Uh-"

"Yeah you know what I think this is where this conversation should end because there's a Ki signature right on top of us and it's f*cking huge! And now it's not Kai."

"No it's not." and the Raditz dropped down in front of them "And remind me never to end up alone in a room with the two of you, seriously if I have to listen to another conversation like that then I'd rather take my chances with Frieza."

"Yeah well I'm just glad that it's you, I was so pumped from getting stronger that I didn't even notice you following me."

"Which shows a lot about your intelligence. Anyway the two of you should stay here, I've got some unfinished business to attend to." Raditz promptly turned around and prepared for another fight.

"...Anyone else smell body glitter?"

"And that would be him."

Sure enough, at that moment Zarbon dropped to the ground in front of Raditz looking as confident as ever "Well aren't you quite the interesting one Raditz, you make me look like a fool and now all you can do is just stand there. And I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with the one in the orange jumpsuit, is he a new friend that you've made since you got here is that it?"

"I guess you could say that."

"All of the pieces are beginning to fall into place."

"Yeah, the pieces of your bloody corpse about to fall to the ground in a few minutes."

"Oh yes go ahead and laugh a little bit, you have absolutely no idea how much I'm going to enjoy watching Lord Frieza put that mouth of yours through the wringer. One way or another you're going to tell us where the remaining Dragon Balls are."

"Is that really what you believe?"

"I've heard enough out of you." and so Zarbon charged forward and attacked Raditz with a spin kick.

Raditz ducked underneath the kick and then took to the air as he dodged a Ki blast and a fist aimed at his face from Zarbon.

"I've had it with you!" Zarbon blitzed behind Raditz and aimed a Ki blast at his face.

Raditz blitzed behind Zarbon and dealt him a kick to the back of the head, sending him hurtling towards the ground, and then dodging every punch and kick being thrown at him "So you were saying?"

' _He's gotten a lot more limp than he was before.'_

"There's no need for you to hold back for my sake you know, by all means come at me with everything you've got."

"If that's what you want then I'll gladly fulfill your last wish." and so Zarbon transformed into his beast form and charged upwards towards Raditz.

' _And just like that his energy went straight through the roof, but now I'm not caught off guard or just using him to get the Dragon Balls, which means that I no longer have any use for this waste of space.'_ Raditz kept dodging every attack being thrown at him until he eventually saw the chance to deal Zarbon a kick straight in the eyes, blinding him and giving Raditz the chance to punch him square in the spine, damaging his armor in the process, before following up with a brutal smash attack, sending Zarbon crashing into the Namekian sea below, and then following up with a Double Sunday down into the water.

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Kai was making his way back towards the battlefield with the Dragon Ball in hand when he sensed the battle between Raditz and Zarbon "There's three huge Ki signatures coming from where I left Gohan and Bulma, one of them must be Yamcha and the other one is Raditz so the last one must be one of Frieza's goons. Must be the one with the hair, he and Raditz are really going at it, I don't have any time to waste. **Kaioken!"** and so he boosted his speed using the Kaioken, making a beeline back towards the cave.

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Now visibly wounded, Zarbon landed on the ground in front of Raditz, snarling like some kind of angry animal "How dare you you ignorant little bastard!"

Raditz let out a chuckle "Oh wow and here I thought the mighty Zarbon was all but invincible and yet our little scuffle appears to be taking quite the toll on you. I think it goes without saying that you won't last that much longer as you are right now."

"Is that what you believe? Well what the hell do you, snarky and comedic to the very end just like your father and just like him your power pales in comparison to mine!"

"Oh the painful irony, I thought that you of all people would have at the very least a decent enough understanding of Saiyan biology to know just how much serious trouble you're in right now. You were really foolish to treat me so carelessly knowing that our fight left me on the brink of death weren't you? It's called the Zenkai Theorem, it states that when a Saiyan recovers from the kind of damage that you dished out to me it ends up with them becoming that much more powerful than before."

Yamcha was quick to catch onto what Raditz meant "Of course that makes sense, that must be how Goku was able to get so much stronger after every battle that he lost. But that does raise the question, exactly how much more powerful is Raditz now?"

"Powerful enough to put this creten in his place."

"SILENCE!" Zarbon let out an outright snarl "You can puster all you want, a worthless piece of scum like you can come back from the brink of death hundreds of times over and not even be one tenth as mighty as I am in my present form!" and then he charged at Raditz in a rage.

"Yeah well see about that you oaf." and then Raditz proceeded to punch Zarbon so hard he left a hole in his stomach "Sorry what was that, I couldn't hear your whining over that hole that I just made in your stomach. So how does it feel to be fisted instead of doing the fisting?"

"But… Raditz… I was… just… following orders… I beg you… mercy…"

"So let me get this straight, after all of the years of being spat on and taunted by you, not to mention listening to you mock my father, do you really expect me to show you any sign of mercy?"

"Please… just give me a chance… We could… work… together… and then… we could prevail… over Frieza-"

"Yeah yeah I've heard that shtick already, now let me put this in a way you'll understand better than anyone. As a memorial to my father, I'm about to blow my load all over your insides in the best way that he knew how."

"...What the-"

"No homo." and sure enough, Raditz blasted clean through Zarbon using Bardock's patente Final Spirit Cannon, leaving Zarbon's bloody and mangled corpse to fall into the Namekian ocean where he landed "Besides, if all I had to do to defeat Frieza was team up with someone like him then what would we have to be so scared of." and then he glanced over at Yamcha "You know even if I wasn't here you could've killed him without even resorting to that red aura power up technique that you used against Dodoria."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah I know, I probably would've had to resort to Kaioken 4x to beat that guy before but now I doubt I'd need it at all."

"What is that technique anyway?"

"Oh see the Kaioken is a technique that Goku and I learned when we were training during the year after we died."

"Huh. Nice."

"Hey what's going on?" that was when Gohan came out "I was in the middle of meditating when I sensed some crazy energy coming from outside."

"You meditated throughout that entire fight?"

"I tried to make sure that I was in there as deep as I could get in case Kai came back with that Dragon Ball that he went off looking for."

"You must be talking about that Dragon Ball that Cui hid near that village that he had slaughtered earlier, he probably tucked it away to keep my from finding it in case anything happened to him so if he does get that one and combine it with the Dragon Balls that I just stole from Frieza's ship then we'll have all 7."

"Wait are you serious?"

"Yep, I'm just gonna go ahead and keep being awesome-" he was cut off when a Dragon Ball suddenly hit him on the back of the head, sending him crashing to the ground "Ow, what the hell-"

"And that would be him."

" **Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time! I'm throwing this ball!** Don't stop me now mother f*ckers!" sure enough, Kai dropped down onto the scene in front of them in the same way that Iron Man did in the 2012 Avengers movie "And your brand new junior god delivers!"

"Little too much there Kai."

"Yeah I figured, I just wanted to see the looks on your faces. So now we've got two of the Dragon Balls, you're welcome."

"...Yeah I'm starting to wonder how exactly Kakarot survived on Earth with freaks like this kid running around." Raditz muttered "Anyway you three come with me, I'm taking you guys back with me to the Grand Elder's place and it's gonna take us awhile to get there so you'd better be ready."

"You can't be serious!" Bulma barked "So this was your grand plan, to ditch me in some shitty hole and leave a delicate flower like me all by myself!"

"And you further cement my point, anyway once we get the two brats to the Grand Elder we just might stand a chance against Frieza, at least once Kakarot gets here." Raditz glanced away and began pondering to himself ' _Frieza's next move will most likely be to call in reinforcements to bring in a new batch of Scouters so at most it will take them a few days to get here which means that we have to find a way to settle this before then, to put our boots to his neck will only be a matter of strategy at least until Kakarot arrives._

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Frieza was quickly running out of patience "Zarbon is certainly taking his time, that must mean that he's failed me and I do hate those who fail me. At this point all I can assume are two potential options, those being that he has either fled or else been dealt with. This entire situation has become such a mess, if I had expected such incompetence from my subordinates then I would've called for the Ginyu Force much sooner. Well at least I'm making use of them one last time before their contracts expire."

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Raditz was now leading Yamcha, Gohan and Kai back towards the Grand Elder "It's gonna take us at least a few hours to get there even at full speed."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah I know but once we get there it'll totally be worth it."

"But don't get cocky or anything, we still have Frieza to deal with and I doubt this will make that much of a difference." Kai pointed out "So is this Grand Elder gonna be able to even the odds against that guy?"

"Against someone as powerful as Frieza? I doubt it but look at how much more powerful I am now and I'm not even a Saiyan like Goku or Raditz and I know that you and Gohan have way more potential than I do so if he brings out your hidden power then we're talking about at least a chance to give him a run for his money."

"But still right now aside from Frieza you're probably the strongest being on Namek at the moment."

"Well it's still worth a shot."

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One of Frieza's soldiers were quick to report to him "Lord Frieza I have important news! We've just received a transmission from the Ginyu Force, at the moment they're in the vicinity of Sector 9035YX and should be arriving on Planet Namek shortly."

Frieza nodded in approval "Excellent, at least I'll be able to rely on someone who will give me the results that I desire. But then again, seeing how I'm still intact Raditz's gambit must have reached some sort of stalemate. How infuriating must it be for our treacherous friend to come this close to his goal only to falter at the last moment. Yes indeed he may run wherever he likes but no matter how me may try to hide, however he made try to scrape, once the Ginyu Force brings their cutting edge Scouters with them Raditz won't be able to hide."

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At the same time, with their new power ups, Goku and Tien had decided to call it on their training and get some R&R (or meditation in Tien's case) before they arrived on Namek in a few days time, the two of them being unaware that with Goku's Zenkai boost that he had received from Cooler and Tien having his potential unlocked, as well as the two of them spending even a few days brutally training at 100 times normal gravity, had increased their strength to levels that were completely unprecedented, far exceeding their original normal limitations.

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Soon enough the group had arrived at the Grand Elder's home, and Gohan and Kai were escorted inside.

Yamcha was waiting outside with Raditz with his thoughts drifting with the wind, but at the same time his nervousness was increasing continuously ' _As strong as Gohan and Kai will be once they get their powers boosted this whole plan might still just be wishful thinking on mine and Raditz's parts. Even as I am right now and I were to boost my Kaioken as high as I could, which at this rate is probably times 10 or so, I doubt even that would be enough at this rate. The guy is definitely a monster, I don't have to have seen him to know that. Even with me, Raditz and both of the boys at full capacity the smartest thing that we can do after we see the Grand Elder is to lay low and wait for Goku and Tien to get here and then try to come up with some kind of plan in order to fend off Frieza.'_

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Inside the house, the Grand Elder placed one hand on Gohan's head and the other hand on Kai's head and felt out their dormant power "Goodness this is incredible, you both have such massive reserves of untapped strength that you have locked within. The two of are both Earthlings are you not?"

"I'm a full blooded Earthling and damn proud of it." Kai confirmed in his own way "And he's partially from a race of Donkey Kong rejects."

"...I see. Now both of you please just hold still." and so he opened the floodgates of the untapped potentials of both Gohan and Kai, causing both of their powers to spike higher than they ever had before.

Yamcha suddenly bolted into the room along with Raditz "Sorry to just barge in like this but I felt their power levels spike and-"

"Rest assured Yamcha it is quite alright, the boys both have potential so great that even my ability can do little for them at the moment-" the Grand Elder suddenly let out a cough and then tensed "Oh dear."

"What's the matter?" asked Kai.

"There are several great powers approaching Planet Namek, the sizes of which are truly formidable even compared to the likes of you warriors as you are now."

"Dammit when the wise old man is right then that usually means something bad, especially because I can sense multiple Ki signatures."

"But what does that mean?" asked Gohan "I mean that could by my dad and Tien finally reaching Planet Namek."

"No get a closer feel of it, there's at least five and they all feel evil."

"Dammit." Raditz muttered "I was such a fool, to think that Frieza would resort to summoning the Ginyu Force of all people."

"What's the big deal, who are these guys?"

"Alright think of it like this. Imagine someone as strong as I am right now, no someone even stronger than that, and now that imagine that there are five of these people. Well technically about three or so, one of them is a little bit stronger than you and the other brat used to be and the other is about three times the strength of the original three I mentioned before. Anyway they all have Scouters that can track us from halfway across the planet. Now we have to hurry and act fast or else we're as good as dead!"

"I agree that this does not bode well." Nail noted "I can sense it as well, whoever they are there are five and they're hostile."

"Exactly. Nail I know what you're probably going to say but we're going to need you for this fight if we want any chance of winning against the Ginyu Force."

"I'm sorry Raditz but you already know the answer to that, I cannot leave the side of the Grand Elder as he is right now no matter how stacked against us the odds may be-"

"Please Nail." the Grand Elder held up a hand "Your talents are better use elsewhere. Do go forth, our allies will need your help."

"But sir-"

"It's quite fine Nail. You need not worry about me, I still have a good amount of life left in these old bones."

"...So be it Grand Elder, I will obey your wishes. But first…" he glanced over "I hate to ask this of you but would one of you be willing to stay and guard the Grand Elder in my place?"

' _I knew it.'_

"Please, I cannot leave him unguarded."

"I'll do it." Yamcha offered "For all we know you're probably still stronger than me so at least I know that I can trust you."

"You have my thanks Yamcha." and so Nail quickly made his way out of the house and into the skies of Namek, with Raditz, Gohan and Kai following right behind him.

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Frieza watched as the 5 Ginyu Force branded pods touched down not that far away from his own ship "And there are my trump cards precisely on schedule being theatrical as always, now let the bloodshed begin. Whether it be Raditz and his friends of your group my dear Captain Ginyu, the choice is yours when the moment of truth arrives."

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Bulma glanced up from her magazine and let out a sigh "Honestly why is it that bad things have to happen to good people?" and then she suddenly got pulled off of her rock "You see this is exactly what I'm talking about! What the hell are you guys doing?!"

"No time to explain wench." Raditz promptly grabbed the two Dragon Balls and glanced over at the others "Okay good now I can take the lead now let's go!" and so he took off towards his hiding place, with Nail and the two boys following right behind him.

"Wait hang on a second, what in the name of hell are you doing?! Hey I told you idiots to hold on, seriously would one of you little shits throw me a bone for the love of god! You can't just swoop down and then take off like I'm not good enough to know what the plan is you sons of bitches! I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!" and then she registered the presence of Nail "Wait a second, either I'm crazy or that was some kind of carbon copy of Piccolo with them!"

Frieza emerged from his ship and let out a chuckle "Oh this is going to be good." (cue the Ginyu Force theme song English cover).

"Alright men, you know what to do." the Ginyu Force made their way out of their pods and landed in front of Frieza as they did their introductions and poses.

"Recoome!"

"Burter!"

"Jeice!"

"Guldo!"

"Captain Ginyu!"

"WE ARE THE GINYU FORCE!" and they did their Zarbon levels of WTF poses.

Hell even Frieza was blushing, but that died down and he let out a smirk "My my quite the entrance. Anyway well done Ginyu's, a pleasure to see you as always."

Ginyu nodded "Thank you Lord Frieza, we always aim to please our clients."

"AND BUST SOME HEADS!" Recoome bellowed.

"That too, anyway what's the mission that we have in mind this time? It's most likely going to be the last one before our contracts for you expire."

"Yes I am aware and that's actually part of the reason why I had you five in particular bring the new batch of Scouters, anyway let us get down to business. That traitor Raditz has stolen and then run off with the five Dragon Balls that I've been working ever so hard to collect over the past few days, it turns out that Zarbon and Dodoria weren't enough so now your final mission under me before your contracts expire _and I kill all five of you before you can pose any sort of threat to me_ is to find Raditz, subdue him and then bring him to me and then we'll see if I can't persuade him to tell me where he's hidden them."

"Well if that's all you want us to do then it's as good as done already, our Scouters are already picking up on his power level. He's actually on the move not too far from here and in a hurry by the looks of it- Oh well that's odd."

"Is there something wrong?"

"No it's just that Raditz isn't travelling alone, from the look of it he has three others travelling with him all of them having power levels in the neighborhood of 20,000 or so." (keep in mind that Nail is suppressing his power level)

"Is that so? It must be those same little pests who interfered with us before, so that must mean that they actually have been working together all this time."

"And what do you want us to do with them?"

"I don't really care, you can do _that_ if you want."

"All I needed to hear, this should be a new all time high for the show. Oh yes, and before I forget about that." he picked up a case "Here you are sir, we brought those new top of the line Scouters as you had requested."

"Good nicely done Captain, leaving on a high note."

"Now then Ginyu Force, time to assemble!" Ginyu had the others huddle up in a circle and started doing some kind of group exercise "Speed of light and strength of all, the Ginyu Force shall make them fall! We're the Northern Galaxy's strongest force, we'll beat them all and secure the course! If trouble meets us as we pass, WE'LL SHOVE OUR FISTS RIGHT UP THEIR ASS! Ginyu Force, MOVE OUT!"

' _...Putting that image out of my head, knowing what Ginyu and his men are like and their so called codes, I can only assume and be prepared for the possibility that they will turn against me once their contracts are up.'_

"Lord Frieza!" that was when one of his soldiers rushed up to him "We've just received a transmission from an unidentified pod, all the occupant was the phrase "I'm coming for you" and then it signed off."

"Do you have it's coordinates?"

"It's currently in the vicinity of 9025YX and should arrive on Planet Namek within an hour or so."

"...Well this is an interesting development, perhaps I can kill two birds with one stone, or rather let the two birds kill each other without having to even pick up a stone."

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Raditz was quick to sense out the situation "The Ginyu Force is on the move and they're gaining on us fast! We have to hurry, there's no time!"

"Hey Raditz." Gohan got his attention "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are we in for with these Ginyu guys?"

"Well that depends, have you ever seen Power Rangers?"

"No."

"Ninja Turtles?"

"No."

"Sailor Moon?"

"No."

"Beetleborgs?"

"No."

"VR Troopers?"

"Samurai Syber-Squad?"

"...Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills?"

"Oh yeah!"

"F*ck!" they touched down in front of the area where Raditz hid the Dragon Balls and he began to make a beeline for it on foot.

Unfortunately, that was when Ginyu and the others dropped down in front of him "Well what do you know, it's been a long time Raditz and it looks to me like you've grown quite a bit stronger over the years."

"Yeah hold that for a second Ginyu. SON OF A C** G***LING F*** BEAST! WHY THE F*** DOES ALL OF THIS F***ING SHIT HAPPEN TO ME?! F*** MY LIFE! ALWAYS SURROUNDED BY MISERABLE F***ING C***S LIKE THIS WORLD JUST LIKES TO BEND ME OVER AND F*** ME IN THE ASS LIKE I'M SOME SORT OF C** DUMPSTER! WELL AS FAR AS I CARE, THESE MISERABLE C***S CAN HAVE A F***ING S*****GY WITH A GODDAMN PIG!" he took a moment to catch his breath as he received horrified stares from Gohan and Kai, as well as a sort of WTF look from Nail.

"...Are you done?"

"Yeah just about."

"Okay good. Anyway let's get down to business, and no we're not singing Make A Man Out of You from that Disney movie Mulan."

"That was one time!" Jeice protested.

"Moving on, what we want is those two Dragon Balls that you and the others have there and the other five are right behind us just like them. It would seem that we made quite the score and that will please Frieza greatly, and we… will be doing our jobs so nothing personal. So anyway according to the intel that we received the idea is to collect seven of these wish granting orbs is that correct?"

Nail found himself sweating ' _Raditz spoke the truth when he said that these creatures were formidable, nothing that we can't handle but still far beyond what I was expecting. The purple one in front is far more powerful than the others, I would certainly struggle with him.'_ and then he studied Guldo intently ' _This shorter one doesn't seem like he's anywhere near the same power level as the rest of them but that does raise the question, how did someone like him get mixed in with the rest of them?'_

"Now then tell me Raditz, before I take these Dragon Balls back to Lord Frieza and leave my men here to do the thing is there anything that you would like to say to me?"

Raditz shot him a smirk "As a matter of fact yes there is Ginyu. Look at your men, look back to me, now look back at your men, back to me. I am not your men, I'm flipping you off. Now look down at the ground, look back to me. Where's the Dragon Ball? It's gone, I threw it and there's not a single damn thing you can-"

"Nope. Burter."

"On it boss." Burter suddenly blitzed away and then returned with the Dragon Ball "Here you go boss."

"Thank you Burter."

"It's what I do."

"Oh come on that is so not fair!" Kai protested "Raditz chucked that son of a bitch as hard as he could!"

"Oh you can't beat my speed kid, I'm the fastest in the universe."

"That's what she said!"

"...Touche."

"Anyway we're all gonna die anyway so." Kai threw his Dragon Ball into the air and prepared to fire an Explosive Demon Wave, only for the Dragon Ball to disappear from his sight "Okay what the f*ck?"

"That would be him." Burter pointed a thumb to where Guldo was holding Four Star Dragon Ball with a smug look on his face.

"Oh."

"Dammit." Raditz muttered "I was afraid of this, it would seem that the rumors were true after all."

"What rumor, what the hell are you talking about?"

"That fat little blob, somehow he has this f*cked up ability to slow down or stop time at his own will."

"Yeah that's right." Guldo shot an even more smug look at Raditz "You see Raditz this my revenge for all of the times you used to embarrass me."

"You were the only guy in the Frieza Force weaker than I was, of course I was gonna take advantage of that." Raditz received various looks "Hey you spend a few decades in the Frieza Force and then you can ride your high horses."

"Well you didn't have to treat me like a dog and throw biscuits at me, and now you're going to be the one who rolls over and plays dead-" he got hit with a dog treat which pretty much triggered him "YOU SON OF A-"

"Alright everyone settle down." Captain Ginyu was quick to call him off "Now then, before I take these seven Dragon Balls back to Lord Frieza I think it's time for us to play everyone's favorite game. WHEEL. OF. DEATH!" and then a gigantic wheel from Wheel of Fortune suddenly appeared out of nowhere "Now for the folks viewing this from home the rules are simple, one of my men will spin the wheel and whoever it lands on he kills!"

"What the f*ck, when did you have time to set this up?" asked Kai "And where the hell did you get the cameras, and even more importantly what kind of sadistic mother f*cker with no life watches this shit?!"

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Cooler sat in his throne with a glass of wine in one hand and a bowl of popcorn in the other hand watching Wheel of Death on a gigantic flat screen TV "Honestly I love this show, but I think that when Recoome steps up we're going to be getting a new champion."

"Did we miss it?!" that was when Salza and the rest of the Armored Squadron bolted into the room.

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"Alright first contestant." Ginyu made the call.

"Oh this is gonna be good. Come on give me Raditz please give me Raditz." Guldo went first, only to land on Gohan (labeled as kid with stupid hair), much to his dismay "God dammit, respin respin respin!"

"Guldo we've been over this, no respins."

"Alright then, let's give this sucker a spin." and so Burter went next on the Wheel of Death, only to land on the Vacation spot on the wheel "F*ck!"

"Congratulations Burter, you've just one a free all expenses paid trip to the fabulous Frieza Planet 419!"

"Oh you've gotta be f*cking kidding me! No one ever goes to Frieza Planet 419, not since its species miraculously repopulated."

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"I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"BULMA AND YAMCHA HAVE A KID!"

"THE REAL BUU IS INTO TENTACLE PORN!"

"CELL REACHES HIS PERFECT FORM!"

"PICCOLO, NAIL, KAMI AND DAIMAO BECOME A GUY!"

"GOHAN BECOMES A SUPER SAIYAN!"

"GOTEN AND TRUNK CAN BOTH BECOME SUPER SAIYANS BUT STILL DON'T DO CRAP!"

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"Hey think of it this way mate, it's better than having to go to Frieza Planete 420 like the last time." Jeice pointed out "Space Weed does things to a man."

Raditz let out a groan "Can we please just get this shit over with?"

"Oh yeah right, let's have a go then." Jeice promptly spun the Wheel of Death, only to end up landing on Nail (labeled as the Slug Guy) "Oh why don't you just piss off you great bloomin pinwheel!"

"Well that's just great." Burter muttered "That means that both Raditz and the loudmouth little shit go to-"

"YES IN ALL OF YOUR FACES!" Recoome promptly started gloating in triumph against the likes of Raditz and Kai "Listen up suckers because your time is coming! Soon you're going to be facing the End-All, the Be-All, the Plead-All, REEEEEEEEEECOOOOOMEuhh!"

"I swear I don't even know what's going on anymore." Gohan muttered.

"Yeah join the club." Kai let out a snort "I haven't since we got here. So what now then, do we really have to fight these Power Ranger rejects?"

"Well I think you've already seen first hand that we can't outrun any of them, for now it's best if we all stand together." Raditz told him "I'm not sure if we can actually beat them but I'd rather die than go down without so much as a fight."

"Alright gang it's time for me to head off and bring Lord Frieza our quota, try not to mess up your uniforms and be back by 0500!" Captain Ginyu then proceeded to levitate all 7 of the Dragon Balls using his telekinesis "Now if the rest of you will excuse me Lord Frieza has a date with immortality. Ciao!" and then he took off.

"Not a chance, I won't let you get away with them!" Gohan prepared to hit Ginyu with an Explosive Demon Wave.

"Chill out spike we have to focus on the here and now." Kai called him off "Besides you can't waste any of your Ki, for now let's just focus on beating the schmucks in front of us. We have to get past them before we can do anything else."

"Which reminds me brat, get over here for a second." Raditz beckoned for Gohan to come over to make up a strategy "Don't let how ridiculous Guldo looks fool you into letting down your guard, he lacks power but his psychic abilities will make him dangerous so keep on your toes with him."

Gohan nodded "Right, I understand."

"Now just out of curiosity do you have any idea as to when Kakarot is going to get here exactly?"

"Not really no, but he and Tien are on their way and they should be here soon."

"Soon isn't good enough, we need him here now. At least then the odds would be turned in our favor."

"We'll just have to hold out until they get here."

"Get ready, they're coming."

Sure enough, Recoome and Guldo were stepping up to the plate "Alright then so who's gonna go first? Hey you know what Guldo, why don't you take the honors?"

"Oh yeah right." Guldo let out a scoff "You guys just want me to clear out the runt so the big boys can play, oh yeah such an honor you ass."

Gohan quickly dropped into a combat stance ' _Focus Gohan, remember the image training that you did with Kai and Yamcha back on the spaceship. Focus your Ki, internalize it and then externalize it effectively.'_

"Oh screw it what the hell, this should at least be fun for a second or two I guess. Alright let's get this over with."

' _Now to fire it up!'_ with a furious roar Gohan flared his aura, surprising the Ginyu Force members that had Scouters with them, and he burst into the air and fired a quick Masenko down at the ground.

"Yeah you wish! **Time Freeze!"** Guldo used his ability to stop time to get out of the way of the blast ' _Lousy little bastard- Wait where the hell did he go?'_ he glanced around until he noticed that Gohan had made a beeline to form a sneak attack ' _Okay now I see that little shit over there, looks like he got pretty far too. Okay now all I have to do is- God dammit I'm running out of breath!'_ he was forced to exhale, bringing his technique to an end.

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Recoome and the others were forced to dodge the blast as well "Well what the hell do you know about that, Recoome thinks that the boy has some fight in him after all."

Burter nodded "Yeah the kid has a power level of at least 20,000. Looks like these guys can raise and lower their power levels without having to transform, looks like Raditz has really learned how to pick them. No wonder Zarbon and Dodoria got wasted."

"Recoome agrees."

Raditz was just as impressed ' _I knew the Namekian would be able to train him effectively but with that and the Grand Elder's power up he's worlds beyond what I had expected, I guess he is going to surpass all of us one day.'_

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Gohan was having similar thoughts in comparison ' _It's like I'm just getting stronger by the minute and the power up that I got from the Grand Elder sure help. Not that it's gonna do that much good, this guy is way faster than that and he's way over there now. He must've done that time stop thing that Raditz told me about, I'd better go again!'_ and then he started blitzing around in order to confuse Guldo as to where he was.

"God dammit will you stop doing that you little bastard! **Time Freeze!"** quickly getting fed up with Gohan blitzing around all over the place, Guldo unleashed his Time Freeze just in time, only to find Gohan right in front of him ' _God dammit that was way too close, the kid was right on top of me!'_ he started running until a thought occurred to him ' _Wait hold on a second, what the hell am I running for? I can take care of that little brat right now without any sort of worries or anything!'_ he prepared to attack Gohan with a Ki blast, only for the ground underneath him to give out, causing him to exhale which in turn cancelled his technique "Son of a bitch!"

"I've got you! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Gohan fired a quick Kamehameha blast, only to end up missing and sending Guldo rolling away "No I was so close, I almost had him that time too!"

"Dammit! _No get it together Guldo the kid caught me by surprise, yeah that's it! Now I know his moves and I'm gonna finish him off right now!'_

"Now I'm gonna end this!" Gohan prepared to charge at Guldo.

"Now I'm gonna bust out my secret weapon!" and so with veins just bulging out of his entire four eyed skull, Guldo unleashed his paralysis technique.

' _No what's going on? Why can't I move?'_

"You see that's my paralysis spell you little shit, you won't be going anywhere if I have anything to say about it! My psychic powers are unrivaled in all of the galaxy! You stood there and mocked me, the entire galaxy stood there and mocked me! But now you find yourself another slave to my whim just like everyone else who makes fun of me!" he proceeded to us his telekinesis to assault Gohan with a barrage of pebbles, and then proceeded to prepare to unleash his Guldo Special, as in a finely sharpened tree trunk skewer "Feel the earth fall out from under you, feel your world shatter as your life is about to come to an end! As I.. AM… YOUR…"

"Annoying talking head." and then Kai proceeded to catch Guldo off guard, allowing Gohan the chance to move out of the way before he could get skewered.

Guldo was left stunned beyond belief as his head just rolled right off of his body, which then fell to the ground "Dammit… you little brat… that wasn't fair… this was… supposed to be a fight… between me and the other runt… just me and him…"

"For the record toad face you guys were the ones who set up those rules, that doesn't mean that I agreed to follow them. All is fair in war big guy, that's something you guys should understand all too well."

"Never would I have guessed… this is the way that I would end up going down… not in a million years… killed by some… cocky little brat… this whole thing really is… way too embarrassing…"

"Yeah well you don't have to worry about that for long." and so Kai proceeded to fire a quick Masenko at Guldo, obliterating him on the spot, leaving only his headless corpse behind as a result.

Gohan lowered himself back to the ground "Thanks for saving me like that Kai, you really pulled my butt out of the fire."

"Yeah well you shouldn't have let down your guard like that, what would Piccolo say if he were here? Anyway pull yourself together Spike, this isn't over and we're not gonna get luck a second time."

"Well I still feel a little bit sorry for those guys, they just lost their teammate. They must be devastated."

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(Meanwhile, the exact opposite of what Gohan is thinking)

Jeice took the chance to start up a conversation about a certain topic "So when was the last time either of you guys had to… you know?"

"3 weeks." was all Recoome said.

"Bloody hell man 3 weeks?"

"3 weeks is what Recoome said."

"I did it on the trip here." Burter commented.

"Recoome didn't even have enough room in his pod."

"Yeah well- Hey hold on a second, is that Guldo over there? Is he dead?"

"How tragic."

"...Not telling the captain 123 not it!"

"Not it!"

"Not it- Oh son of a wanker." Jeice grumbled.

"Yeah yeah let's get this over with." Kai promptly shut them up "Oh and for the record you guys, I haven't had to, you know, in about six months."

"Bloody hell man how do you survive?!"

"Pure awesomeness." he flexed in the style of poses that they would know very well "And unlike the rest of them I know how to communicate with you guys."

"...I think we found an enemy that we actually like."

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What none of them knew was that another pod was about to close in on Planet Namek, one figure inside of it with one train of thought on his mind ' _Soon, very soon, everyone will grovel at my feet. Yes even you Frieza, at long last the prince is about to reclaim his throne.'_

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 **As a new evil closes in on the Planet Namek, and with Goku and Tien still nowhere in sight, already waiting on the surface of Planet Namek is an evil unlike any other in the form of Frieza, the most ruthless tyrant the universe has ever known. Elsewhere, Gohan, Kai, Raditz and Nail are preparing for the fight of their lives. Can they withstand the onslaught of the likes of Burter, Jeice and Recoome? The struggle against these fearsome foes continues next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter we get into the real meat of the Planet Namek saga (before the battle with Frieza), the Ginyu Force. Right off of the bat, in case it wasn't clear I used A LOT of references to TFS in this (Wheel of Death, Guldo and the dog treats, Recoome's personality, Recoome's referring to himself in the third person, etc, and that's just the Ginyu Force stuff). How the hell could I not, as some guy in the comments once said, the Ginyu Force is the only group of characters that TFS didn't change the personalities of (with the exception Recoome but that might just be my opinion), simply because there was absolutely no need for them to. Go ahead, tell me that I'm wrong and then feed that opinion to Vegeta. I stand by it. Oh and by the way, I checked it out and Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills is a real show.**

 **I had Yamcha stay behind with the Grand Elder in place of Nail in order to let Nail show off his skills against the likes of the Ginyu Force, which also means that Yamcha will be there with the Grand Elder when Frieza arrives, and as a result he will be fighting Frieza in Nail's place. I'm doing this for three reasons: First of all, it's pretty much inspired by the Yamcha based what if scenarios from the Dragon Ball game Ultimate Butouden, which I feel were basically Yamcha torture porns on some level. Plus it gives Yamcha the chance to show off what he can do against someone like Frieza now that his potential has been unlocked. The second reason is for the sake of Nail. I really like Nail as a character, especially after watching DBZ Abridged. In at least the rough draft of my plans I plan to keep Nail around until at least the Cell Saga. I might give him a power up at some point, nothing guaranteed just yet, but at the very least he'll be around. Third of all, with Yamcha already having a power level rivally ⅗ of the Ginyu Force I didn't want to make it a slaughter fest.**

 **Also, in case it wasn't clear here's the lineup for the Ginyu Force fight:**

 **Gohan vs Guldo**

 **Kai vs Recoome**

 **At least that's the idea for now, but that'll be out the window with another surprise that I have in mind for this arc, something for which Raditz has been filling a great void ever since the group arrived on Namek to begin with. It'll also lead to another divergence from canon that I have in mind when Vegeta finally makes his grand return, although I'm not quite sure how to go about that so I would really appreciate it if you guys would give me some ideas. Also, keep in mind what Ginyu said about their contracts being about to expire. That will be VERY important next chapter.**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 6,000

Gohan (Potential Unlocked, calm): 20,000

Kai: 5,500

Kai (Potential Unlocked): 25,000

Yamcha: 48,000

Nail: 75,000

Raditz: 55,000

Zarbon: 22,000

Zarbon (transformed): 28,000

Guldo: 5,000

Recoome: 45,000

Burter: 43,000

Jeice: 42,000


	10. Galactimania 2019, Calling Forth Porunga

Captain Ginyu continued making his way back towards Frieza's ship, only to end up dropping one of the Dragon Balls along the way "Oh son of a bitch!" he quickly blitzed down and caught it before it fell into the ocean "Okay so I definitely have to be careful, I can't afford to lose one of these. Frieza wouldn't like that one bit and I can't afford to have a blemish on my record on my final mission before my contract with the force expires and I go into Wheel of Death full time."

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Kai stepped up to the plate, with Raditz doing the same and Gohan backing off and heading towards the sidelines alongside Nail "So are we gonna do this shit or-"

"HIT RECOOME'S MUSIC!" Recoome thundered, which prompted Burter and Jeice to start playing the 1993 Doom theme "Alright listen up Raditz and kid who may be just as awesome as we are, though this mostly applies to Raditz. You think that just because you're one of the last survivors of the Saiyan race you're the best there is at what you do, but let Recoome tell ya something brother: You ain't no Wolverine and you ain't got what it takes to step up to a FIVE TIME CHAMPION!"

"Champion of what exactly?" asked Raditz.

"This fight right here is gonna be a blooming slobber knocker it is." Jeice noted.

Burter nodded "You can just feel the intensity."

"Who the hell are you talking to?" asked Kai.

"Who else, the audience. Someone's gotta do commentary."

"Oh. Carry on."

"Recoome intends to." and so Recoome went on "You see Raditz, you can just sit there and brag about how the Saiyans are the mightiest warriors in all the universe and how they're the most ruthless! Well look at where they are now, DEAD! You can talk about your legends and your warrior race and your pride! But that doesn't mean a DAAAAMN thing to this man! Because the name is RECOOME! And it rhymes with DOOM! And YOOOU'RE gonna be hurting! ALL! TOO! SOOOOOONuhh! Now what do you have to say to that?!"

"He's got nothing, I've got this. Hit my music mother f*ckers." Kai stepped forward, followed by Number One (Ichigo's theme from Bleach) playing in the background "Alright listen up now big guy, you think that just because you're a member of the Ginyu Force you're the best there is at what you do! But let me making something painfully clear to you my man, you're no Hugh Jackman and you don't have what it takes to step up to the awesomeness that is ME!"

"Okay okay Recoome thinks that he likes where this is going, the boy definitely knows how to get into it."

"You can just stand there acting all badass and bragging about how the Ginyu Force is the most elite and amazing team in all of the universe, how you're the best of the best and how you're unbeatable. Well look at Guldo over there, he's dead BY MY HAND! You can show off how you're a five time champion and how the two commentators have a little Yin Yang thing going and how and how your Captain makes you look like a bunch of kittens to his tiger, but that doesn't mean a DAMN thing to this man! Because the name is KAI, and it rhymes with DIE, and any minute now you're ABOUT! TO! SEE! WHYYYYYY!"

"...Never has Recoome seen anyone grasp the beauty that is Galactimania so quickly, and never has Recoome been so proud of anyone for that reason either, nor will he be so proud of anyone like that ever again." Recoome was actually shedding tears of pride "And you know something boy, just for that Recoome is going to let you have the first shot."

"Well all I can say to that is, eat your heart out Hulk Hogan. **KAIOKEN!"** Kai proceeded to power up his Kaioken aura, taking the three Ginyu Force members by surprise when they saw the readings on their Scouters.

' _Okay Recoome wasn't expecting this, the boy's power level just shot all the way up to a solid 50,000. Recoome is going to enjoy this, either defeating such a worthy opponent or losing to such a worthy opponent this will be the battle of the century.'_

"Let's go!" so with a roar Kai bolted forward and slugged Recoome straight across the face, followed by a vicious combo of smashing him to the ground and then dealing him a devastating knee to the gut before flinging him into the side of a nearby mountain "And there goes Space Mountain, I doubt Disney is gonna be happy about this. Oh yeah anyway, JABRONI CAN BLOW ME!" and to prove his point he fired a fully powered Explosive Demon Wave at the remains of the mountain, completely obliterating it in the process, the blast and the shockwave forcing everyone else present to take cover.

Gohan was the first one to come back out into the open "That wasn't even a contest, that was some kind of slaughter. Man you're totally amazing Kai, it's almost scary to think how much power and ferocity you're packing now."

"Don't let your guard down again midget, it's not over yet. He's not dead, someone packing as much power and passion for the sport as that guy wouldn't go down so easily."

Sure enough, Recoome emerged from the rubble clearly scathed and wounded but still alive, much to the horror of Gohan "So are you done talking smack? This is one Muscle Tower that won't be brought down so easily."

"Well you're definitely one touch mother f*cker I've gotta give you that much, you're brushing that off like it's nothing."

"Silly boy, there's only one thing that Recoome sells and that is merchandise." he took out some pictures of merchandise (baseball cap, t shirt, action figure, keychain, hand bag and yes the last one is a vibrator) out of nowhere.

"...Can I get a t shirt?" he was promptly thrown a t shirt, which he quick took the chance to slip on underneath his gi "Awesome."

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Jeice shot a glance over at Burter "Oi Burter get this mate, I bet ya Recoome don't even leave a body."

"Oh get real." Burter let out a scoff "Keep in mind that you already owe me a space soda from our last bet."

"Well you still owe me a space burger from the one before that."

"Fine how about this, no bets until we head out to Spacey's after this and we settle any old unpaid bets that we may have."

"It's a deal mate." they shook on it.

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 **And where can you find all of this spectacular space food? At the popular restaurant Spacey's, now with our new Raditz menu. Spacey's, it's good food in space that's better than KFC (which is probably a lie).**

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Frieza was quite pleased to see Captain Ginyu return with all 7 seven Dragon Balls, especially with how quickly he managed to do it "Outstanding Captain Ginyu, simply outstanding is the best way to describe you performance today. Once again you have exceeded my expectations, not only did you recover all 7 Dragon Balls but you did it with such apparent ease that I'm disappointed in myself for not having you and your men in sooner."

Captain Ginyu nodded "Thank you sir, I thought it was best to go out on a high note before my contract expires."

"And at last eternal life is within my grasp, it's right here in the palm of my hand. I want to savor the moment!"

"This calls for a special performance to commemorate the occasion, in your honor I shall perform the Dance of Joy!" and then he started dancing.

"...Yes you know what, perhaps you could do that for me the next time."

"Whatever you say."

' _Oh thank god, that's the last thing I need right now._ Anyway I still can't believe it, my dreams for eternal life is about to be brought into reality. I don't mind admitting it to you, I'm actually quite excited for this!"

"And how could you not be, it's only a matter of seconds before you cement your place as supreme ruler of the universe for all of eternity!"

"Yes! Now then my Dragon Balls, I Lord Frieza command you to grant my wishes of immortality and eternal youth!" and so they waited for the wishes to be granted.

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Jeice and Burter took the chance to sign back onto Galactimania 2019 " _And now we're back mates, while you were gone Recoome caught our challenger Kai off guard and dealt him a brutal blow using his patented Recoome Knee and let me tell you know that it was absolutely devastating and now he's back on the offensive but he can't seem to land a single hit on the poor kid!"_

" **Recoome ELBOW!"** Recoome elbowed Kai square in the center of his skull, sending him crashing down into the Namekian ocean below.

" _Oh and Recoome follows up with a vicious Recoome Elbow!"_

" _It looks like Recoome is just too fast for Kai and that's coming from the fastest guy in the universe!"_

" _That's not really relevant right now Burter."_

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The tension in the air was thick when the two present for the apparent wish realized that nothing happened.

Captain Ginyu was the first to comment on it "Well that's strange, it doesn't seem like anything is happening is it? Or maybe it's already done, do you feel any different?"

"No, no I don't think so." Frieza muttered "But I don't understand, why didn't it work?" and then a certain flashback hit him "Of course, what the second Namekian elder said when I took his Dragon Ball from him! At the time I just thought that he was acting like a sore loser but he said that we outworlders would never be able to unlock their power. We outworlders dammit! There must be some sort of key required to grant a wish on the Dragon Balls, perhaps it's some sort of secret ritual that only the Namekians know of that will unlock their power and grant the wish of the user! So what is it, is it a password or a location, or is it some secret way of arranging the balls?! I need a Namekian here and I need him here now!"

"Well to be fair that may be a slight problem, are there even any Namekians that are still alive on this planet?"

"Well let's find out." Frieza checked his Scouter "Well I just located Raditz and his companions over there, I suppose it's possible that he or one of his little friends might have the answers that we need."

"Well if that's the case then I'll call off my men, as annoyed as they'll be over Galactimania 2019 being cancelled, and have them bring the others back here for questioning. I do remember there being what I thought was a Namekian with them."

"Yes that would probably be for the best- Wait hold on a second, redirect your Scouter in the direction of coordinate 8829401. If I'm not mistaken then I'm picking up what may very well be at least three more Namekians, since we've never bothered to attack that area then it would seem that these three have been lucky enough to escape from our attention until now."

"So what then, do you want me to track them down and get the answers that you need in order to activate the Dragon Balls and make them grant your wish?"

"No such a thing will not be necessary I believe it to be best if I just go and talk to them myself, after all in my time on this planet I've managed to gain quite a bit of experience dealing with the natives. Anyway since your contract will expire before I return just bury the Dragon Balls, call it a hunch but I have a feeling that a certain third party will attempt to seek them out while myself and Raditz's group are occupied."

"Understood, whoever you're talking about and I have a far idea of whom that is they won't get their hands on them. I wish you the best of luck."

"And I thank you for your services captain, and now Namekians you're mine." and then Frieza took off after the three power readings, those being the Grand Elder, Dende and his first real challenger in the form of Yamcha, but we'll get to that later.

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Once again Jeice and Burter signed back on to do more commentary for Galactimania 2019, or more specifically the fight between Kai and Recoome " _And now we're back with the fight ladies and gents, here's what you guys missed." literally nothing, Kai hadn't even emerged from the water yet "Boy did we time that commercial right or what?"_

"SHOT THROUGH THE HEART!" in a reference to a certain Bon Jovi song and with his Kaioken aura flaring, Kai burst up from within the water and dealt Recoome a vicious sneak attack to the gut.

" _Oh and we've got a vicious sneak attack from Kai but too bad for the poor kid because it looks like it didn't do jack shit!"_

While the statement wasn't entirely true due to Recoome spitting out a little bit of blood, he still grabbed Kai by the waist "Recoome is impressed, but now it's Recoome's turn! **Recoome…"**

"Oh shit." was all Kai could think to say.

" **PILE DRIVER!"** Recoome unleashed his Recoome Pile Driver on Kai, slamming him down into the ground below in a massive explosion.

" _Oh and a devastating Recoome Pile Driver there, this match may very well be over now for the poor little bastard!"_

Recoome pulled Kai out of the ground, revealing that the top of his gi had been partially shredded from the impact "Never in all of Recoome's years has he had a challenger as worthy and as valiant as you, but alas it would seem that Recoome will never find someone capable enough to take his place."

"Yeah about that, **NEO WOLF FANG FIST!"** as he powered up his Kaioken to the third level and he freed himself from Recoome's grasp, Kai dealt Recoome a devastating Neo Wolf Fang Fist combination attack, finishing with a devastating kick to the gut that stopped Recoome in his tracks.

" _Oh bloody hell will you look at that, he may have just left Recoome down for the count with that brutal strike attack!"_

"Hey you left yourself wide open Recoome and I took an opening that I saw. And now I'm gonna go ahead with this. The name… is KAI! It rhymes… with DIE! And as of right now… YOU! KNOW! WHY!" and then he let out a wrestler style roar, only for the nonexistent crowd to suddenly go silent.

" _My god… That was absolutely INCREDIBLE!"_ and then the nonexistent crowd suddenly began to go wild.

"Yeah that's right, I'm big, I'm bad, I'm AWESOME!" and then Kai started posing like a jackass.

Recoome slowly pulled himself to his feet "Never has Recoome seen someone so talented and yet so passionate about the sport, he sees now that in him he has found the true worthy successor to his title. The others probably won't understand but Recoome does, that last attack was different from the rest, for the amount of sheer force packed into that elbow was completely devastating. Recoome concedes Kai, the championship belongs to you now. Jeice, Burter, show this fine young man the respect he deserves. Recoome will be taking his leave in order to be able to understand this boy better and what makes him as strong as he is. Recoome may return for the championship one day, but he has much to learn before then. Until we meet again, and that day will be glorious." and with that, Recoome took off into the horizon, leaving everyone speechless in his wake.

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Raditz observed this from the sidelines, with Gohan and Nail both doing the same "I've never seen anyone actually take Recoome down before, that kid is really something."

Gohan nodded "Yeah he says that he's gonna surpass Yamcha one day, and that he wants me to surpass my dad too."

"Well that's a long time coming boy, especially considering that we'll have to fight Frieza sooner or later, and if we're going to defeat him then Kakarot has to have done it."

"Have to have done what?"

"He'll have to have fulfilled the legend, but then again according to all of the old legends it's been over 1,000 years since one has appeared in this universe. A warrior of the Saiyan race that was able to break free of the normal limitations of a Saiyan in order to achieve an unprecedented and unimaginable level of power, but those were just old stories and I never actually believed any of them or took them seriously. At least not at first, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense to me, at least that along with something that my father Bardock told me once when I was a child: Saiyans have no limits."

"Huh."

"And then I could see that even as we were fighting Beets, Kakarot was evolving continuously against him and then I could sense that he had the potential to surpass the normal limitations of a Saiyan warrior and then go far beyond them. Whether it be the special training that he and the other one went through or something far greater I could see it in his eyes, Kakarot was the one who has what it takes… to become a Super Saiyan."

"Woah… hey what happened to Nail, where did he go?"

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Jeice on the other hand was quick to lose his temper over Recoome losing and then just giving up like that "What the bleeding hell?! We were having a right rip snorter here and then that arrogant little shit swizzling piker shows up and then just like that it's Goodnight Irene!" he suddenly picked up something on his Scouter that made him cease his Australian rant "Wait a second, what the hell?!"

As it turns out, Nail was standing behind him and Burter looking ready for a fight, having discarded his vest "The two of you work for the character Frieza that has been slaughtering all of my fellow Namekians, but your senses of honor in terms of battle and feelings of camaraderie tell me that you hold little to no evil in your hearts. I'm going to give you both one chance to leave this planet in peace, I would rather not settle this with violence but you must understand that if you stay then I will be left with no choice but to fight."

"Oh for- Oh you think you're a real tough guy huh? Yeah just because Recoome gave up his championship you think you and your friends are the kings of the world! Well let me tell you now Mr Namekian, we're not like guys like Recoome or Guldo, we're the Purple Comet Duo and we're totally unbeatable! Against the Red Magma and the Blue Hurricane you haven't got a chance in hell!"

"...So do I take that as a no then?"

"What the hell do you think?" the three of them moved the showdown of Green vs Red and Blue onto the main battlefield "Alright you arrogant little bastard, prepare to feel the wrath of the Ginyu Force-"

Nail cut him off with a punch to the face.

"OH GOD! YOU GODDAMN WANKER, YOU PUNCHED ME IN THE-"

A second punch.

"GODDAMMIT YOU JUST HAD TO DO IT AGAIN DIDN'T YOU?!"

A third punch.

"FOR THE LOVE OF F*CK WILL YOU STOP-"

A fourth punch, this one causing him to start bleeding.

"FOR THE LOVE OF PISS! _Okay think for a minute Jeice, what did the captain tell us to do in a situation like this? Let's see, he said that if I ever found myself being punched repeatedly in the face then I should always remember to-'_

A fifth punch rudely interrupted his flashback.

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF HELL HE JUST HAD TO CUT OFF THE CAPTAIN!"

"So… do you actually intend to dodge any of these attacks?"

"Oh so that's what the captain was gonna say-"

"You only realize that now." cue a sixth punch "And in all honestly even I must admit that you deserved that one."

"Son of a bloody- BURTER! SUPPORT! NOW!"

Burter gave a shrug "Well alright, I think that you've got very nice hair, you're a beautiful shade of red and to be totally honest you're the only guy that I can rely on on this team."

"I WANTED YOU TO PUNCH HIM YA DAFT BASTARD!" and yet he still calmed down considerably "Oh but thanks for that mate, to be honest that really cheered me-"

"Punch." Nail punched him a seventh time "Come on now that one was your own fault and you know it."

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF BLOODY HELL I THINK HE BROKE SOMETHING THAT TIME! You know what that's it, I am done screwing around!"

"For once we agree." Nail caught both of their elbow strikes with his bare hands, dealt Jeice a quick kick to the gut and kicked Burter's knees out from under him and then flexed his arms at them, sending out a shockwave that sent both of them flying.

"What in the bleeding name hell was that?!" Jeice managed to stop himself, with Burter doing the same "Where did he get that power all of a sudden? This doesn't make any sense, the Scouter doesn't lie and it says he's only around 20,000 or so."

"We Namekians as well as many other races have the ability to suppress our power level and then raise it sharply in the exact instant that we attack, as well as disguise our power levels at will so that with those devices you can't tell how strong we truly are."

"Oh. Well shit then."

"Hey come on man, keep your cool." Burter told him "You know what Jeice let's have a little bit of fun with this one, I think it's time for us to break out the Purple Comet Crush!"

"It's been a long time since we dusted off that one but yeah I think that sounds good, let's show this slug man what the ultimate tag team can do!"

"Hell yeah!" so they were each engulfed in a ball of energy, Burter's being blue and Jeice's being red, and they both blended together " **PURPLE COMET CRUSH!"** they both blended together in a purple twister that started spitting out Ki blasts in every direction.

' _They're growing desperate, perhaps now I should get more serious.'_ realizing the power of the combination attack, Nail quickly unleashed a miniature Explosive Wave to shield himself from the attack deflecting the Ki blasts being thrown at him.

Once the attack subsided, Jeice and Burter both separated "So what's the deal did we get this guy or what?"

When the smoke cleared it revealed Nail unharmed, at least aside from a few scratches here and there.

"Oh for the love of f*ck what does it take to take out one f*cking slug man?!"

" _Calm down Jeice, listen to me closely."_

"Burter if you're gonna say I love you again then I swear to god…"

" _Hey that was one time at my cousin's bar mitzvah, anyway let's go for plan B. I want you to fire your Crusher Ball at this guy and then the slug man here will try to dodge it I can rush him and slam him into the dirt. I don't care how strong or how fast he is, this little bastard has got nothing on the fastest guy in the universe."_

"Okay you know what hold up a second, we need to talk mate."

" _About what?"_

"About this whole thing about you being the fastest in the universe, first off the Captain has got a higher power level than you doesn't he?"

" _Yeah what's your point?"_

"Well then correct me if I'm wrong but a higher power level would technically mean that he's faster than you right? I mean at least there's a pretty decent chance that it would right?"

" _Well okay maybe but that's not always the case."_

"And Lord Frieza has a higher power level than all of us combined."

" _Okay that one's just not fair, it's like comparing the knights to a king! It's just a load of Chess stereotyped bullshit!"_

"Well anyway if you think about it Guldo had the ability to stop time so maybe this one is kind of stretching it but wouldn't that technically make him faster than-"

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO! THERE IS NO WAY I'M SLOWER THAN F*CKING GULDO YOU STUPID RED SHIT!"

"For god's sake Burter would you just calm down?"

"NO YOU JUST SHUT THE F*CK UP, YOU SHUT YOUR STUPID RED FACE! YOU SAY IT LIKE IT'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT WHEN I'M SLOWER THAN SOME SACK OF SHIT LIKE GULDO!"

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(Back on the ground, not giving a shit about the argument between Jeice and Burter…)

Kai shot a glance over at Gohan "Hey do you think they have a Denny's somewhere on this planet? I don't know about you but I could really go for a Grand Slam with triple bacon all over the place."

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"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE MAN!" Burter was still ranting "Everyone else has something special that makes them recognizable for who they are and what they can do but I don't! What the hell am I?! I'm just the big blue snake guy whose face makes babies cry when they see him!"

"That was just one time." Jeice pointed out "And besides me sister Sheila said that she was sorry about that."

"Whatever it's still true, and it's all that I've got! It's all I've got going for me and it, it's just not fair man!" and then he nearly started sobbing.

"Oh. Geez I'm really sorry mate, it's not like I meant to hurt your feelings or anything. I didn't realize it meant that much to you."

"All I want is to be special, something that I can call my own that makes me recognizable outside of just being part of the Ginyu Force you know."

"Take it easy mate I get it, I really do. But you know what do you have something special going for you, you're me best mate." and note that unlike with TFS, this is gonna be totally sincere all the way through."

"Oh come on now dude."

"No mate I'm being totally serious, remember when I had to move me piano into me flat awhile back and Recoome was too busy with his match? And Guldo was just being Guldo so you know what I mean right? But you were there for me mate, you were the one who got those ivory keys up those five flights in no time at all! I've learned that if there's anyone in the universe that I can count on then it's you Burter, you're me best mate."

"Thanks for that Jeice, and you know what you're my best friend too. Hey you know what, it's our last day on our contracts so let's just dish these clowns and head off to Spacey's and then just have a good old time just like the old days?"

"Sounds good to me mate, let's blow this joint."

"But keep in mind that you still owe me that space soda."

"And don't forget that you me the space burger too."

"You're damn right I do Jeice, you're damn right I do." and on that cheerful note, the two of them took off back in the direction of their pods. What neither of them nor any of those present knew was that they would never make it back to their pods.

Nail was left alone and dumbfounded, but also slightly relieved "Well that was… surprisingly lighthearted." and then he returned to the others.

"So you're just gonna let them ago?" asked Gohan.

"They clearly have no intention to fight and I think I've already demonstrated that I can handle them both without too much difficulty, besides we still have other things to worry about such as their captain."

"Not to mention that Frieza still has the Dragon Balls and even if all four of us and my uncle try to fight him he'd probably just wipe the floor with all of us

Raditz nodded "I'm afraid so, and now that the Ginyu Force is all but dealt with I doubt he's going to underestimate us. Besides even with the element of surprise Frieza wouldn't go down lightly if at all."

"Oh come on now." Kai let out a snort "You can't tell me that you're not exaggerating at least a little bit Sonic the Hedgehog, besides you can't tell me you didn't see how badass I was in that fight against Recoome and what Nail did against the other two so how much tougher than those three could Frieza actually turn out to be. You've gotta be more realistic."

"Okay first of all I'm pretty sure you don't even hear yourself talk, second of all I don't see you raring and ready to take him on."

"...Bite me."

"At any rate he already has all 7 Dragon Balls which means that chances are he's already obtained immortality by now so any thoughts of taking him out are pretty much fantasy at this point so the best hope that we have now is to not run into him."

"Actually I don't believe that to be the case." Nail pointed out "I haven't detected any of the signs of the Dragon Balls being used."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that the most noticeable sign of the Dragon Balls being used is that when they're in use then the sky should turn darker than the soul of the likes of Frieza."

"Or Mr Popo." Kai muttered.

"Something as obvious as that would easily noticeable, which would mean that the Eternal Dragon has yet to appear."

"Which means that Frieza doesn't have a clue about how the Dragon Balls work, you would think that would've come up by now."

Gohan nodded "Yeah I guess but either way he doesn't know what the password is and he probably just thought he would have his wish granted the minute he brought all 7 of the Dragon Balls together."

"And that means that there's still a shot at us bringing Piccolo and the others back with the Dragon Balls and we don't even need Goku and Tien to get here to do it! The only question is, how do we get past that Ginyu guy and get the Dragon Balls back."

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Ginyu wasn't exactly thrilled to hear what was happening from Recoome "So let's try this one again, take it from the top, back from the field, full report."

Recoome let out a sigh "Okay so Recoome says it like this Captain, everything was going fine at first but the next thing we knew Guldo was, well…"

"Oh lord he's dead isn't he?"  
"That he is sir."

"Well in our line of work our lives could be compromised at any moment, that is something that we have to live with. On the plus side that means that Burter owes me 50 Raditz."

"Actually Recoome picked up a transmission on his Scouter, Burter and Jeice are both withdrawing from the mission and heaving out to Spacey's."

"Oh. I see. Well then Recoome I believe that the next step is obvious, as professionals we cannot let this go unabated. Now then just accompany me back to the field and watch me do battle with these foes and then you can head out to join Jeice and Burter, but as Captain of the force I have a job to finish and I shall see it through on behalf of my men. After all, a Captain's loyalty lies with his men. Now then, Ginyu Force away!" and so the two of them took off back towards the battlefield.

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Bulma on the other hand was not having fun on her own back at the hideout "Goddammit I've had it up to here with dad, where in the name of the hell does that old crank get off telling me that Goku and Tien should've arrived on Planet Namek by now?! Surely if either of them had landed on Namek by now then their first priority would be to rescue me! I mean you would think that that's obvious isn't it?"

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Gohan let out a sigh "If only we had some kind of surefire way to get back the Dragon Balls back from these guys. Hey Raditz you know these sorts of guys don't you, what's the best way to go around them without having to fight? There has to be something the four of us will be able to do at least until dad and Tien get here right?"

"Well at least you're more logical than the other brat." Raditz noted "At least you're reasonable about the prospect of taking on Frieza."

"If I have to fight him then I guess it can't be helped but before that we have to make good on the promise we made to bring back the friends that Vegeta and Nappa killed back on Earth a month ago."

"Fair enough but before that-" Raditz paused when he sensed something "I'm guessing the rest of you feel that as well, that means that the Captain himself is coming. Recoome is on his way back here and he's brought his fearless leader Captain Ginyu with him. Even I'm going have my hands full with this one, I think you've already sensed it but he's way stronger than the rest of them."

"Yeah we do, you think you can take him on?"

"Only one way to find out. But in the meantime where did Frieza run off to? I'm not sensing his energy anywhere, you would think that he'd be on his ship hovering over the goods that just got laid at his feet."

"Well he isn't there now, that much I can assure you of." Nail glanced around for Frieza's Ki signature, only to find it in a direction that he had dreaded "I'm sensing a massive evil amount of power coming from that direction. That is Frieza without question, and it is also what I had feared most."

"But isn't that where…"

"I'm afraid so Raditz, he must have found a way to locate the Grand Elder. My guess is that Frieza was unable to get his wish granted so now he's using one of those devices to track down the last Namekians and get the answers that he will need."

"But if he does get the answers that he needs to get his wish granted then he'll just kill the Grand Elder like he did to all of the other Namekians, not to mention that he doesn't know that if anything happens to the Grand Elder then the Dragon Balls will be useless."

"The only hope we have is that Yamcha will be able to stall him for long enough for us to get your wish granted."

"I guess we have to put it all on him for now."

"Yeah here's the thing about that." that was when Captain Ginyu and Recoome both dropped down onto the scene "I did detect a power level in the neighborhood of 45,000 or so but against the likes of Lord Frieza he's not going to last for very long."

"Well from what I've seen he's tougher than he looks, he did manage to one up Dodoria at only a fraction of his true power and if I hadn't shown up to finish off Dodoria then he would've finished the job without too much trouble."

"A feat in itself I'll admit but that means little against the likes of Frieza, and even if he did the rest of you still have to go through me. Frankly Raditz right now I'd peg you at somewhere around 50,000, I imagine that you're holding back so that makes this into what will no doubt be quite interesting fight. I never thought I would get to see the day that Captain Ginyu will get to show off his true power."

"And here I thought I wouldn't be able to get an actual challenge." Raditz shot a glance over towards Nail and the others "I'll hold these two off for awhile, I want the three of you to go get that Dragon Ball location device from the blue haired woman and then find the Dragon Balls as soon as you can."

"My guess is that these guys took them back to Frieza's ship and if he's not there then that means that we can get to them." Kai pointed out "Alright Gohan, Piccolo reject, let's hurry up and get those balls before Frieza reaches the Namekian god's home or whatever. He might even be there right now."

"Whatever you do don't do anything reckless."

"No promises." and so he took off, with Gohan and Nail following right behind him.

"Now then, I guess that leaves us to fight it out Captain Ginyu. Or it would if you weren't one of my allies."

Captain Ginyu exited a battle stance "Yeah yeah Raditz rub it in, keep in mind I'm only doing this because our contracts are about to expire. I'm not openly going against Frieza because I like my life and I like my crew, all I'm doing for you is keeping tabs on Vegeta and that's all there is to it."

"You gave me your speech before Captain, now where is he?" Raditz was answered in a very gorey manner when Recoome was suddenly hit with a Ki blast from behind, sending him flying into a mountain "I think we have our answer."

"Bloody hell man how are you so nonchalant?!"

"Because he's one one of your men not mine. Anyway there's no need to act like a badass or anything Vegeta."

Sure enough, standing before the two of them was Vegeta looking as confident as ever, holding the bloody corpses of Burter and Jeice above his head, which he promptly threw to the ground just to be a dick about it "Well well it would seem that the low class scum has grown quite the pair to talk back to his prince like that."

"You've never been a prince of mine, Kakarot already defeated you once so I should be able to do the same."

"You really believe that now don't you? Well let me give you a little bit of insight as to how in over your head you really are. As I retreated from that hell hole Earth I was originally planning to retreat to Frieza Planet 70 but my course was diverted by enemy fire and I ended up on Frieza Planet 420 as a result. Space Weed aside the planet had 10 times the gravity of Planet Vegeta, so I decided to take some time and use it to my advantage in terms of my training, the fruition of which I'm about to unleash on you."

"So you're after petty revenge because of your bruised ego? That's just typical of you, honestly you're not even worth killing."

"You say that as if you can." Vegeta suddenly blitzed forward and decked Raditz across the face, sending him flying.

Raditz was quick to rebound and began trading blows with Vegeta as he shot a quick glance over at Ginyu "Take him and get out of here."

"You'd really just let us go?" asked Ginyu "Keep in mind that we're still enemies."

"I know you Ginyu, you're not really evil." Raditz ducked under a knife hand attack from Vegeta and dealt him a kick to the face, resulting in the two of them trading even blows "You believe in a fair fight and that's enough for me, and besides I know your code."

"...That I'm a captain before a soldier, and as a captain my loyalty is with my men."

"Yes now GO!" Raditz dealt Vegeta a kick, only for his foot to be caught and for him to be hurled away.

Ginyu made his way over to Recoome and picked him up, sparing one last glance over in the direction of Raditz ' _Show that bastard what loyalty really means and keep this in mind as well, one day I will repay my debt to you. That is, if you can avenge Jeice and Burter.'_ and then he took off back in the direction of the Ginyu Force space pods with Recoome in tow.

Raditz recovered and charged at Vegeta with a kick aimed at him, only for Vegeta to suddenly disappear "What the-?"

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Vegeta burst out from the ground and dealt Raditz a kick to the head and then to the jaw, sending him hurtling away towards a nearby lake.

Raditz quickly stopped himself before he hit the water and charged at Vegeta, resulting in the two of them exchanging close ranged punches flying off at high speed, every single one being blocked, countered and returned, only for both of them to retreat to the ground sporting bloody covered bruises ' _Dammit, I should've known he wouldn't go down so easily.'_

"You seem quite confident for low class scum but you'll learn your place soon enough, another piece of trash soon to be begging for the mercy that you'll never receive."

"...You know what Vegeta, before we keep going there's something really important that I want to ask you."

"Last words eh? Suit yourself."

"Good. Now then… where the hell is your Saiyan pride?" his voice was laced with disgust and contempt.

"My Saiyan pride? My Saiyan pride?! My Saiyan pride is who I am, being the vicious prince that I was always meant to be! I am far more than a mere Saiyan like the likes of you or Nappa, I am the embodiment of everything superior about the Saiyan race! And look at you, the one who has a reputation for being as weak as the Saibamen, and now you've shed your Saiyan heritage to stay on this god forsaken rock and protect a bunch of worthless slug people! A true Saiyan knows that our kind has no duty to protect worthless creatures such as them, we are warriors nod freedom fighters!"

"And where are they now? They're dead by Frieza's hand! Look at us Vegeta, we may very well end up all but extinct but those of us who remain strong because we protect those who can't protect themselves! Look at me, I've killed some of the strongest that the galaxy has to offer like those pigs Zarbon and Dodoria. Look at Kakarot, he's grown strong because he protects the world that raised him and those who live on it. Yes that's right Vegeta, even two of the lowest class warriors are stronger than you both in body and in spirit. You will never become the legendary Super Saiyan, that's why we can and why I will defeat you, because you lost your understanding of what Saiyan pride is a long time ago. That is why you're going to lose to me, and that's why you'll never even get a chance to defeat Kakarot or his allies."

"BE SILENT YOU WORM!" Vegeta charged towards Raditz in a blind rage, resulting in the two of them once again clashing in mid air, trading even blows throughout the skies of Planet Namek.

Raditz elbowed Vegeta straight across the gut and then kicked him in the jaw, his brutal assault forcing Vegeta on the defensive, as well as sending him hurtling towards the ground at high speed.

Vegeta rebounded and charged at Raditz, forcing him on the defensive and slamming him into the side of a mountain before following up Final Galick Cannon at point blank range, which engulfed Raditz in a massive explosion, which Vegeta himself escaped from "Alright enough trying to hide, I can sense energy too you know. Get on your feet so you can die like a man already."

Sure enough, Raditz emerged relatively unharmed, aside from a few burns "Even now you're just proving my point."

"You've become quite the slippery one, even at point blank range you still manage to pull yourself out of harm's way. I guess that means that I'll just have to try harder."

"By all means try." and so Raditz and Vegeta began clashing once again, trading even blows in mid air, which ended with Raditz dealing Vegeta a fierce barrage of attacks to the face and the torso.

Vegeta dealt Raditz a brutal kick to the skull, sending him hurtling towards the ground, which gave Vegeta the chance to fire up his new Big Bang Attack and fire it off at full power "Try to dodge this one if you can Raditz, you might be able to save yourself but your precious Planet Namek and all who are on it are doomed!"

Calm and confident as can be, Raditz slowly stood up and with a mighty roar he deflected the Big Bang Attack into the upper atmosphere, and then fired a Shining Friday at Vegeta, engulfing him in the massive explosion that followed.

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Bulma was having her own issues at the moment, mainly involving something that does make this important "Well this totally sucks, first the stupid spaceship gets demolished so we're stuck on this planet and then the communicator decides to break down on us and the next thing I know the sky will start raining fire or something- Oh thank god the communicator is fixed, at least one thing is working out for me now." and then she got knocked out of her chair by the ground shaking from the battle between Raditz and Vegeta "Oh for the love of f*ck what does this planet have against me?" she pulled herself to her feet and noticed something when she glanced at the Dragon Radar "Well what do you know, all of the Dragon Balls are gathered together in one place and I'm cooped up all by myself in here. Those sneaky little bastards are trying to summon the dragon and have their wish granted without me huh, well we'll see about that." she pulled out a capsule and summoned a jetbike, only for a thought to occur to her ' _Wait hold on a second, if this Frieza guy has all of them then what exactly am I getting myself into?'_ and then the ground started shaking again "Oh for the love of god give me a break Namek, what in the name of hell did I ever do to you?! Hey wait a second I've got it, even if it is this Frieza guy who's got them all I just have to tell the dragon to take me home and then it'll whisk me out of here and back to Earth! Of course, this is simplicity itself! Sorry about this you guys but this is what you get for leaving my by myself, now let's get moving!" and then she took off.

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Raditz watched as the smoke began to clear ' _Well that's just typical of him, he's as stubborn as hell until the bitter end.'_

Sure enough, when the smoke cleared it revealed Vegeta, still alive but slightly scorched and pissed as hell "How dare you… How dare you spill the blood of the noble royal Saiyan bloodline you wretch!"

"You often told me and Nappa that your father was weak but the reality is that he was just trying to protect you, to ensure that you have a future to live for, to ensure that you could become truly strong! He was making the best of a bad situation."

"You dare… DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT MY FATHER! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME, YOU FAIL TO UNDERSTAND YOUR PLACE AND NOW I SHALL INTRODUCE YOU TO A PAIN WORSE THAN HELL!" now at full power due to his absolute rage, Vegeta started laying into Raditz with a devastating combination attack, ending with him smashing Raditz into the ground before calming down somewhat.

Raditz pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out some blood ' _Yep he's as volatile as I remember him being.'_

"You'll have to forgive the slow start, I honestly wasn't expecting that much from you but now that I know but now that I see that you can handle yourself I thought it was time for you to see just how outclassed you really are against a true Saiyan elite and a future Super Saiyan for that matter. A mere fraction of my true potential."

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Kai, Gohan and Nail touched down in front of the cave hideout "Alright there it is, hey She Who is Always on Her Period we're back and we need the Dragon Radar- and she's not here. Son of a bitch."

"I don't get it, did she just run off somewhere?" asked Gohan "Why would she just take off now of all times, and where would she go for that matter?"

"Probably to try the Namekian shaft."

"...I still don't get it."

"I'll explain it when you're older."

"And again I say for the thirteenth time since we've been here, we're the same age!"

"Yeah I know."

"Both of you take a look at this." Nail gestured to some jet bike tracks in the dirt just outside of the cave.

"Those are the tracks from a jet bike but that doesn't make any sense, where the hell would she have to go in such a hurry that she needed a jet bike?"

"Well wherever it is we've gotta find her and fast." Gohan pointed out "We can't let anything happen to her, and besides we need the Dragon Radar."

"Do we really have to?"

"YES!"

"Alright alright fine, hey Nail how about you head over to Frieza's ship and see if you can clear out his remaining forces."

Nail nodded "That would most likely be for the best." and so he promptly took off in one direction, with Gohan and Kai taking off in the other direction.

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Yamcha tensed slightly and glanced out the window ' _This Ki is so powerful and evil. There's no doubt about it, it has to be Frieza._ Well I guess Nail was right on the money when he said that someone should stick around here. That must be Frieza coming, he'll be here any minute now too."

The Grand Elder nodded "It would appear so my friend. Dende, please come over here quickly child."

"Of course sir." Dende quickly made his way over to the Grand Elder's side, giving him the chance to place his hand on top of Dende's head and unlock his potential, leaving him to take a moment to grasp his new abilities.

"Listen to me Dende, you must venture out at once. I rely on you to give our friends assistance in the stead of Yamcha here, I have released your latent power so that you may fly to them all the faster and assist them in any way that you can."

"But elder…"

"Hurry child, there is no time."

"...Of course Grand Elder, I'll do as you ask. Please just try to hold on for as long as you possibly can." and so he took off outside as ordered.

"I will do my best my child, however if the enemy does not claim my life then I fear old age will do their job for them."

"Then that means that the others are gonna have to act fast." Yamcha noted "I'll do what I can to buy them time."

"You have my deepest thanks."

"Call it repaying the favor you did for me by making me stronger." Yamcha glanced out the window and let out a sigh ' _Sorry Bulma, I might not be able to keep my promise not to die again.'_

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Frieza glanced back to see Dende pass him but didn't give a damn "Let the dust mite run in terror, he's not worth the effort when I have the more intriguing bounty right in front of my eyes." he made his way up to the top of the plateau to the outside of the Grand Elder's house, and he exited his hoverchair and waited.

Yamcha slowly made his way out of the house, trying to be as cautious as possible around someone like Frieza "Can I help you?"

"Oh yes allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lord Frieza and I've come on rather pressing business in regards to a certain wish."

"I'm listening."

"You see I've succeeded in gathering the seven fabled Dragon Balls of this planet but it would appear that what I lack is the key to unlocking their power. Namekian or not if you are aware of this location then I can only assume that you may very well have the answers that I seek, what must I do in order to have my wish granted now that I have obtained all seven of the Dragon Balls?"

"Yeah sorry about that but you're not exactly the kind of person that I would be willing to hand out that kind of information too."

"Is that so? Well you would be wise to be careful my friend, stubbornness does not become one whose life is cheap. From what my Scouter has told me there are two of you present, even if you're not willing to talk I'm sure this friend of yours will be much more agreeable than you are right now."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that if I were you, if you wanna try then I'm not gonna stop you but you should know something before you do. The other one inside is the Grand Elder of the Namekian people, he's the oldest living member of this people and one of the few that your men haven't murdered and he's also the one who created the Dragon Balls on this planet. He's not someone you want to mess with."

"Oh is that right? Do go one, you've captivated my attention quite effectively."

"How about this for starters, the most important thing to know about the Dragon Balls is the link that they share with the creator, which means that if you do anything to the Grand Elder then that means that the Dragon Balls will be rendered permanently useless." this actually took Frieza by surprise, but only for a moment.

"You don't say? Well that does make this quite a bit more interesting." Frieza slowly removed his Scouter and fired his eye beams at the house, destroying the upper level window and revealing the Grand Elder "Well this is quite fascinating, there does appear to be a small grain of truth to this nonsense. He's a different creature all together from the rest of his kind, so fatso I harbor no illusions that you will divulge your secrets to me of your own free will but with that being said. Perhaps you would become more forthcoming when the life of another outworlder is made into part of the bargain, I think you take my meaning."

"I do, but it is only fair that you should be warned." the Grand Elder told him "Yamcha here may prove more difficult to manipulate than you suspect, he may not be a Namekian like the rest of my children he has far surpassed nearly all of them and I believe that you will find that you will find him much more resilient than the peaceful Namekian people that you have encountered up to this point."

"...Enough of this postering, I believe that the time has come for me to stop being civil with the likes of you." Frieza promptly placed his Scouter back on.

" _I leave it up to you now Yamcha my friend, please try to buy us as much time against him as you're possibly able to."_

"If you have no intention of giving up your precious secrets without a fight then a fight is what you're going to get but just be ready to start talking, this isn't going to take long."

"It might take longer than you think." Yamcha told him "I'm pretty sure that something like this goes without saying but being as old as he is the Grand Elder is pretty much hanging on by a thread at this point and neither of us would benefit if when you and I go at it he were to get caught in the crossfire, let's take this fight somewhere else."

"To refer to what we're about to engage in a fight is quite the overstatement but I suppose I don't see the harm of it, lead wherever you wish and I shall follow you."

"Okay then." and so Yamcha blasted off into the skies of Planet Namek, with Frieza following close behind ' _Sorry guys, I'll stall him for as long as I can so you can make the wish but there's no telling just how strong he really is.'_

The Grand Elder could only watch as Yamcha and Frieza disappeared from sight "Yamcha you brave and noble soul, please forgive me for this. Please just try to hold him off until Dende reaches Nail and the others, they need just a little bit more time. The fate of our world now rests in the hands, all we can do for now is place our hopes with them."

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"WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS PLANET?!" by now Bulma was being chased by a gigantic pterodactyl "Just for the sake of being perfectly clear me and Planet Namek are never ever gonna be friends! _This is it now, I'm totally done for!'_ and then she noticed a cave in front of her not that far away ' _Yes I'm as brilliant as I am beautiful, if I can just maneuver into that cave them I'm gonna be home free! Just a little bit further!'_ she neared the entrance to the cave, only for another dinosaur to come out in front of her "OH COME ON!" she got thrown off of her jet bike and landed on something "Okay yeah I think that one was a little bit close maybe." she looked down and realized that she was on the back of the pterodactyl "AND WHAT THE HELL DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?! NOT A F*CKING THING!" she got thrown off of the pterodactyl in the direction where the other dinosaur was waiting with its mouth open "And now I'm gonna be lunch, goodbye cruel world!" but then the dinosaur suddenly passed out, causing her to just bounce off of its back, with the pterodactyl collapsing on top of the other one mere seconds afterwards "Uh… okay so what the hell just happened?" she glanced up and saw a shadowy figure approaching her, which prompted her to start screaming and throwing dirt and spouting all sorts of random crap until…"

"Bulma calm down it's just us!" it turns it was Gohan trying (and failing) to calm her down from her little fit.

"Gohan is that…?" Bulma slowly glanced over at her alleged assaulter.

It turns out it was just Kai covered in dirt and pissed to high hell "Every minute I'm near her gets me that much closer to pulling a Frieza and shooting a beam through her chest, Gohan don't you f*cking dare hold me back."

"Oh. Well in that case…" cue the Angry Big Head Jutsu from Naruto "I don't know what you little shits thought you were up to but showing up with some Piccolo look alike out of the blue and then taking off without an explanation was totally not cool! This not telling my anything crap stops and it stops now! You left me alone in a cave for the love of bloody hell, do you have any idea that does to a girl with a fragile constitution like mine? Let me answer that for you, NOTHING GOOD!"

"Okay Bulma let's just calm down for a second." Gohan tried to calm her down while sharing a subtle glance with Kai, motioning for him to grab the Dragon Radar out of Bulma's pocket while she was distracted "What are you so upset about?"

"You wanna know why? It's because I'm always alone on this rock and this stupid planet has it in for me! Now I have to walk back to the hideout on foot because the jet bike is in a complete heap!"

"Okay Bulma, let me ask you another question. If me and Kai either me or Kai would just drop everything and stay here with you then what would that accomplish?"

"...Just take the f*cking radar before I realize what I'm doing."

"Already did, just wait for us back at the hideout and we'll be back to get you once our wish has been granted. Come on Kai let's go!" and so Gohan and Kai took off, leaving Bulma screaming with fury.

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Frieza was still following Yamcha across the skies of Planet Namek, growing rather impatient in the process "How far away must we be?"

Yamcha gave him no audible reply ' _Just keep on stalling Yamcha, you've gotta buy the others as much time as you can.'_

"That's it, this area will do just fine." Frieza suddenly blitzed in front of Yamcha, clearly out of patience "I will have no more of your stalling, we will conduct our business here."

"...Fine, I guess this will work." so Yamcha dropped down to the ground, with Frieza doing the same, and he promptly removed the black t shirt he was wearing underneath his gi as he prepared to fight.

"My my perhaps it is something about this planet that prompts warriors to throw their lives away so readily at the drop of a hat like this, but before we begin I must ask. Are you by any chance one of the Earthlings in league with Raditz?"

"That's one way of putting it I guess, his brother happens to be a friend of mine and those two Earthlings that you saw earlier are his son and my nephew."

"So then it would seem that the sins of the uncle shall fall upon the uncle. It really doesn't have the same ring to it."

"No, but I think this does." Yamcha dropped into a stance and slowly began flaring his white aura, and with a quick growl it shot up to his current max.

Frieza scanned Yamcha with his Scouter "Well this is quite interesting, your power level just shot up to 48,000. That's far from being a small feat, you really do stand apart from those other Earthlings and you are far beyond the other quivering insects that seems to be churned out in droves by the rest of this planet. I am impressed, and I have to say that you would make quite the fine addition to my staff if you only had the wisdom to shift loyalties but before you let my glowing compliments go to your head it's only courtesy that I give you a clear picture of just how far in over it you really are. I'll have you know that my power level is exactly 530,000 at the moment. There's no need for you to allow that to alarm you too much however, I personally doubt that I'll be using much more than 1/10 of that."

"You're gonna regret that soon enough, because I'm nowhere near my full power right now either as a matter of fact." Yamcha's white aura began turning a deep shade of crimson, his muscles bulging ' _Well what do you know, the Grand Elder's power up makes using the Kaioken a lot easier than it was before._ **Kaioken… times FIVE!"** he quickly unleashed his Kaioken at the fifth level.

"240,000? Now this is a great deal more impressive, for once I actually find myself being excited at the prospect. Now then, let's see if you can back up all of that bravado." Frieza quickly flared his aura, shattering the ground beneath him as he fired a single Death Beam.

Yamcha was quick to bolt out of the way of the attack, as well as dodge the barrage of Death Beams that followed, a thick layer of dust and smoke covering the battlefield as a result of the explosions ' _Man he's definitely as much of a monster as I thought he would be, at this rate I might as well go for broke.'_ with a roar he held out both of his hands and deflected one of the Death Beams, destroying a nearby island in the process "Not gonna lie that actually stung pretty bad, I think I've got my work cut out for me this time around."

"Exactly, you see when a snake battles against the likes of a dinosaur who do you believe will emerge the victor?"

"Is that right? Well I personally believe that with enough hard work and training even a lowly snake can evolve into a dragon and then the dinosaur will have his work cut out for him as a result."

"You believe that to be the truth?"

"As a matter of fact I do."

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Raditz slowly pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out some blood as he dropped into a combat stance "Well I think we have one more thing in common Vegeta, we've both been holding back in this fight."

"Oh please, as if." Vegeta let out a scoff "You really expect me to believe that you've been fighting me with less than your full effort? I didn't think you were the lying sort like Beets had been."

"Well I'm just full of surprises now aren't I? And now I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to Kakarot. Former Prince Vegeta-"

"Former?!"

"-you've violated all three of the unwritten codes that every single Saiyan must follow. You always fight with honor and pride, you never turn your back on your family, and you never turn your back on another Saiyan. Beets and Nappa both broke all three of these codes and they paid the price as a result, and now you will do the same! Prince of the surviving Saiyans or not you will pay for your crimes!" Raditz suddenly blitzed away and dealt Vegeta a fist across the face.

Vegeta rebounded and retreated into the air.

Raditz blitzed above him and dealt him a heavy smash attack, sending him hurtling towards the ground, and he caught him and grabbed him in a pile driver "Kakarot doesn't have the time to waste in dealing with the likes of you, after all he's going to be the one who will finally do the impossible and defeat Frieza. Yeah that's right, you're going to lose out on your dream of becoming the legendary Super Saiyan to Kakarot, a low class warrior and the younger brother of your killer!" he let go of Vegeta, leaving him in a brutal pile driver "And now I'm gonna finish you off, consider yourself dethroned!" and using all of the power he could muster Raditz fired off his Vacation Delete attack, engulfing Vegeta in a massive explosion.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed Vegeta, still alive but heavily charred, unconscious and unable to move.

' _He's still alive after the thrashing that he took, he's persistent I'll give him that much. But no matter, he's not getting another chance and I've got bigger threats to deal with. I can sense that the human with the scars is fighting Frieza and they seem about even right now, and Nail has split off from the boys and is making his way towards Frieza's ship. I think I know what I have to do next.'_ and so he took off, but not before grabbing Vegeta and snapping his neck, thus ending his reign of terror ' _I did my part in this war for the time being Kakarot, now it's up to you to do yours when you get here.'_

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At the same time, Gohan and Kai were both making their way towards Frieza's ship with the Dragon Radar in hand "The radar says we're getting close, hey Kai that means that we're that much closer to bringing back Piccolo and the others!"

Kai nodded "Yeah I know, who would've thought that the Princess of Mount Bitch would be so compliant."

"You realize that we basically just pick pocketed her."

"A skill that I got from my uncle being a former bandit."

"Wait my dad was for real when he said that? I thought he was joking."

"Whatever the point is that Bulma's probably having her time of the month, the way I see it she could really use a little bit of wink wink nudge nudge (tongue clicking and whistling)."

"I still don't get it."

"And that's the beauty of it."

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At the same time, Nail had already made his way to Frieza's ship and quickly lowered himself to the ground, catching their attention almost immediately "I'm going to give all you one chance to leave this planet in pease, I would rather not settle this with violence but you must understand that if you leave then you will leave me with no choice but to fight."

"Get this slug bastard!" and then pretty much every mook there charged at Nail like an army of, well, mooks.

15 minutes later…

Nail let out a sigh as he dusted himself off and glanced back at the charred corpses of the soldiers lying around the ship on the ground "I did warn them." he glared down at Frieza's ship ' _The game is about to come to an end Frieza, if his elite has to come during that battle then it must only mean that the Dragon Balls are still around here somewhere. If that is the case then it's only a matter of time before Raditz and his comrades find them using that device of theirs, I have no doubt in my mind that they'll be here before long.'_

"Hey Nail!" that was when Kai and Gohan dropped down onto the scene and noticed all of the charred corpses "Well it looks like you've been busy."

"It took about 15 minutes and I gave them the chance to leave quietly, they chose not to take that chance so they have no one to blame but themselves."

"Fair enough, so what's the ETA on the Dragon Balls?"

"I haven't looked yet, besides with that device you have it's not like I need to."

"Well the Dragon Radar says that the Dragon Balls aren't on the ship, if I'm reading this right then the signal is coming from somewhere just outside." Gohan told him.

"Are you able to pinpoint them?"

"Yeah it's actually not that far from here." Gohan gestured to a certain dirt spot in the ground a few feet away "The radar is pointing to right here."

"My guess is that Recoome and the rest of those guys buried the Dragon Balls here to hide them in case we came looking for them, but of course they didn't know that we have a radar to track these little f*cks. Or that we can just do this." Kai fired a simple Ki blast at the spot in question, revealing the Dragon Balls covered in dirt but all 7 present "And just like that we found the motherload."

"Yeah we did it Kai, we found all 7 Dragon Balls!" the two of them high fived "And we didn't even need my dad or Tien here to do it!"

"Yep." and then their expressions hardened "So this is then, now we're gonna bring back Piccolo and the others just like we promised. Hey did we ever think about how these Dragon Balls work exactly? I mean to think that the Dragon Balls here would work exactly the same as the ones back on Earth do is kind of redundant."

"Oh yeah, so what do we do?"

"Allow me to do the honors." Nail stepped forward "You must simply as the Eternal Dragon to come out but you must say it in the Namekian language."

"Oh. Well that makes sense."

"You know I bet the Namekian dragon is huge." Kai commented "What do you say we go and find out?"

"Actually… maybe we should wait until Raditz gets here, after all without him we would never have been able to get this far."

"I do believe that is fair." Nail noted "I can sense him on the way here as we speak, that must mean that the so called captain of the Ginyu Force has been dispatched."

"No that's definitely not it, I sensed them leaving the planet a little while ago. Raditz was fighting someone else, whoever it was it was insanely evil."

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Another battle was taking a turn for the worst.

Yamcha found himself being forced to one knee with clear obvious wounds being visible all over his body ' _Yeah okay, this one might have seemed like a better idea when it was still inside my head. But don't forget about your secret trump card though, maybe you can get one last potshot in on him and with any luck buy the others a little more time.'_ he hid his hand behind his back and began charging Ki into that hand.

Frieza did have a few scratches and bruises here and there but it was nothing significant, and he was still pretty much the dominator in this fight "Well I must say that you have an interesting form and a surprisingly well hone technique, not that it will do you any good but still. I'm sufficiently impressed, to hold your own against the likes of me is a feat that only the likes of my brother and my father have been able to claim before. I mean granted I have yet to transform against you and I see no need to but still, you've shown a level of power far beyond even the likes of Captain Ginyu. But that being said surely you realize that you're hopelessly outmatched here, so how about you stop with this fruitless resistance and simply tell me what it is that I wish to know."

"I've got a better idea actually." Yamcha quickly pulled himself back to his feet and flared his Kaioken 5x aura for one final assault " **SPIRIT BALL… BARRAGE!"** he suddenly revealed a large number of Spirit Balls that he had hidden underground, and using a series of swift finger movements he caused them to close in on Frieza, each on hitting him dead on and engulfing him in a massive series of explosions, much to Yamcha's delight as he finally powered down his Kaioken technique ' _Yes it worked, I spent like a month with Scarlet creating that technique during the year when me and Goku were dead in case there was some kind of opponent I needed to get the jump on.'_

Unfortunately for him, when the smoke cleared Frieza had only received a few scratches, but his armor was scorched for the most part and the shoulder protectors had been left considerably cracked, though he wasn't as pisse d as he was amused "Well you do get some points for creativity but I'm afraid that nothing in your actually rather large bag of tricks is going to work on me, I believe that now the time has come for you to accept the situation for what it is and relent or do we have to follow the present course to its natural conclusion? It's only natural that the choice be yours but I simply cannot understand the will that you find in persisting to defy me so readily. Do you fight for the sake of the fallen or will your guilt be satisfied by laying down your own life as well." he suddenly blitzed in front of Yamcha and dealt him a fist to the gut and a Death Beam through both of his shoulders, as well as both of his knee caps, leaving him to crash to the ground in a heap "This is the final warning that I will be giving you my friend, either you will tell me how I can make the Dragon Balls grant my wish for immortality or you may prepare to embrace oblivion."

"Yeah… here's the thing about that." Yamcha slowly lifted his head and let out a chuckle despite coughing up some blood "Yeah here's the thing, even if I did tell you now the information wouldn't do you any good."

"Oh and why is that?"

"My nephew and Raditz have the password and the Dragon Balls right now."

"...What?"

"You remember that little Namekian kid that you passed on the way to the Grand Elder? He's on his way to my nephew and the others with the password, by now he's probably already there and they're about to summon the dragon."

' _The little dust mite?!_ You mean… HOW COULD I HAVE FALLEN FOR SUCH AN OBVIOUS ROUSE?!"

"Don't ask me, I'm just the guy who was stalling you and maybe trying to prove something to himself. But anyway if I had to guess your biggest mistake then it would be not stopping him, either that or the purple lipstick."

"I WILL F*CKING MURDER YOU!"

"Whatever!"

"I'LL BE BACK FOR YOU YOU SCUM!" and then Frieza blasted off back in the direction of his ship.

' _Well, I did everything that I could. I got my ass kicked but at least I can say I held my own against the most powerful being in the universe so I guess that's something. Kai, Gohan, all of you, the rest is up to you now.'_

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What they didn't know was that Scarlet had been watching the intense battle between Yamcha and Frieza all the way from Otherworld through King Kai, and she gave a small sad smile ' _Looks like you've gotten really strong little brother, and I know that you're just going to continue getting stronger.'_

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The Grand Elder gazed out at the skies of Planet Namek, his expression solemn and rather guilt ridden "Why did I not tell our visitors how to summon the dragon while they were here to see me before? My mind has been sapped of some of its clarity by age and now forced one of our visitors to endure the beating of his life." he let out a weak hacking sort of cough, feeling himself being drain even further "Please, may Dende and Nail be able to help our friends soon. The time left for me to exist on this planet grows ever shorter with each passing moment."

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Frieza was making a beeline back towards his ship, checking for the Ginyu Force with his Scouter, to no avail "Why am I not picking up any readings from the Ginyu Force?! Those damned fools! This is absurd, how could they all have been beaten! I don't believe it, so this means that Raditz and those other miserable earthlings have somehow managed to best my most elite team of fighters?! If that is the case then they may already have the Dragon Balls! YOU WRETCHED VERMIN! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO STEAL MY WISH, I AM THE MIGHTY LORD FRIEZA! I WILL ALLOW NO ONE TO STAND BETWEEN ME AND MY ENTITLED IMMORTALITY! YOU HEAR ME?! NO ONE!"

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At the same time, Raditz was making his way towards where Nail and the others were, only to stop when he sensed something "There's another energy signature headed straight for Nail and the others. Wait a second, I know that energy!" he charged in the direction of that energy until he noticed Dende flying in the distance "It's Dende! HEY!"

Dende whipped around to find Raditz floating in front of him "Raditz you're alright, more or less from the looks of it."

"Yeah I kind bit off enough for it to be hard for me to chew, I'll tell you about it later but for now we have to hurry. Right now I can only assume that Nail and the two runts found all seven Dragon Balls that Frieza was keeping at the ship but I personally don't know how to get the Eternal Dragon to come out since I've never seen it happen before. I guess I was just lucky to find you on the way there."

"Finding me wasn't a stroke of luck, the Grand Elder must have known that you guys were going to have trouble and he actually sent me here so that I would be able to teach you the password. I mean granted Nail probably knows it already but I think he just wanted to think ahead."

"Makes sense, so what exactly are we supposed to say to the Dragon Balls exactly?"

"We simply have to ask the Eternal Dragon to come out but we have to say it in the Namekian language or else it won't work."

"Namekian language huh? Well I should've seen that coming, I wish you guys would've said something about this before Frieza ever even arrived on this planet and that would've spared us a lot of grief and struggling."

"Well his ways are a bit of a mystery sometimes, maybe he didn't think you would be able to get them all together but that doesn't really matter right now. The important thing right now is for us to hurry up as fast as we can, the Grand Elder is barely hanging on at all and if that itself isn't bad enough Frieza is on his way now too."

"Well then we don't have any time to waste, come on let's get moving."

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As he and the others were moving the Dragon Balls away from Frieza's ship, Gohan began reflecting on the events leading up to this point ' _You know it really isn't that bad, I mean sure I've seen a lot more people die than most people my age or really most people in general, and I kind of come off as if it's not a big deal but then again that's probably because I hang out a lot with someone as nonchalant as Kai. Then again Kai is the only person that I know that's actually my age and he's one of my best friends aside from a green man who constantly hits me. I guess that's just life for some people.'_

"Someone is close." Nail's voice snapped him out of his thoughts "There's two of them and both of them are hiding their Ki signatures."

"So that means that one of them must be Raditz and…" Gohan glanced up to see not only Raditz, but also Dende approaching them and he lit up as a result "Dende! Alright you guys made it here!"

"How the hell did you guys get here so fast anyway?" asked Kai.

"I was on my way back from finishing up a certain fight that I'll tell all of you about later but believe it or not I found Dende here was on his way to help all of you guys, I found him before he was even halfway there." explained Raditz.

"So that means that we have two green guys that know how to summon the dragon." the four of them lowered themselves to the ground "So who's gonna do the honors?"

"I shall." Nail slowly stepped forward and prepared to summon the dragon, when…

"Okay guys, I hate to ruin the mood but I think we've got company." Gohan pointed back in the direction in which they were sensing a massive evil Ki signature "And they're definitely not friendly, I think that might be Frieza."

"All the more reason as to why we must make greater haste and make your wishes before it is far too late." and on that note Nail proceeded to utter the password in the Namekian language, only for nothing to happen.

"Okay so is it supposed to look like nothing actually happened or did you screw up the words or something-" Kai was cut off by the Dragon Balls beginning to glow and the sky being covered by a thick layer of darkness "Okay so that's a pretty good sign so far, the balls glow and the sky turns dark."

"Is this what happens when you use them on Earth?" asked Gohan.

"At least from what my uncle tells me."

Sure enough, in a magnificent and brilliant column of light, the Eternal Dragon manifested himself in front of them, ready to grant their three wishes.

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 **At long last, in the climax of the long war on Planet Namek, the Namekian dragon Porunga has finally been summoned. Will Gohan and Kai at last be able to have their wish granted by this mysterious and ancient being? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And now we see even more changes from canon, such as Captain Ginyu and his men revealing their true colors and actually surviving (with the exception of Guldo). I always thought that these guys, aside from being absolutely hysterical, were really interesting, especially when Goku expressed beliefs that Ginyu could be good since he was an honorable fighter. The idea originally came from this DBZ fic I found called from Enemy to Student. Also sorry if some parts don't turn out that well, I kind of experience a little bit of burnout when writing out the parts with Captain Ginyu. But I did do a little bit of revising, so now Burter and Jeice were both killed by Vegeta out of pure spite, while Ginyu and Recoome are now the only members that are still alive. But all five members of the Ginyu Force will appear in the next few chapters or so, keep that in mind.**

 **In order to compensate for the lack of evil Ginyu Force in this arc I added in our very own Saiyan prince Vegeta. I had pushed him off to the side for this arc so that he could make a dramatic return which would lead to an epic showdown between him and Raditz, something that I got the idea for from watching the What if Nappa Turned Good scenario, showing Raditz and Vegeta having clashing ideals and beliefs as to what a Saiyan should be, with Ginyu being added in to the show (to an extent) in order to demonstrate where his true loyalty lies as a captain: his men. But that doesn't mean he's going to be a full on good guy. Like Cooler, he and his men are going to be considered neutral at least for the time being.**

 **Yamcha fighting Frieza is meant to replace the Nail vs Frieza fight and show off a little bit of what Yamcha can do now that his potential has been unlocked. Also, it's sort of a F*CK YOU to Ultimate Butoden, or more specifically the What If scenarios that basically are meant to mock Yamcha, which I think is completely unfair.**

 **Just so you know, since next time is when the battle with Frieza will begin and I thought it was best to leave things here for now, I thought it was only fair to let all of you know that since I'm about to start my next semester of college, my update speed is gonna be downgraded considerably. Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of stopping with this story but I have to have my priorities in check so please just be patient with me.**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 20,000

Kai: 25,000

Kai (Kaioken): 50,000

Kai (Kaioken 3x): 75,000

Kai (Kaioken 3x, Neo Wolf Fang Fist): 80,000

Yamcha: 48,000

Yamcha (Kaioken 5x): 240,000

Raditz: 55,000

Raditz (full power): 165,000

Nail: 75,000

Recoome: 45,000

Burter: 43,000

Jeice: 42,000

Captain Ginyu: 120,000

Vegeta: 75,000

Vegeta (full power): 150,000

Frieza: 530,000


	11. A Hellish Battle, Frieza's True Power

Kai looked up at Porunga in pure unrestrained awe "Holy shit, hey Spike are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?"

Gohan nodded "I know this is awesome, Bulma and Yamcha only showed me pictures of what the one on Earth looked like but compared to him…"

"It looks like this one is on steroids!"

"Not what I was gonna say but it does sound about right."

"To the people of Planet Namek he is known as Porunga and in our language that word means God of Dreams." explained Nail "Not even I have seen him in person before, the last time these Dragon Balls were used was when the Grand Elder was still in his prime."

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King Kai was watching this from Otherworld, with Scarlet, Piccolo and the other two dead mooks (Krillin and Chiaotzu), and lit up at what he heard "Well what do you know, it looks like someone's wishes are about to be granted!"

"About time." Piccolo muttered "I've been waiting for the chance to put my newfound power to good use."

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Porunga looked down at Nail, Raditz and the others " **You who have gathered the seven Dragon Balls and summoned me to this domain, speak to me your heart's desire and as the maker of dreams I shall grant you any three wishes."**

"Wait a second we get three wishes? Alright that's awesome!" Kai caught Gohan in a quick high five "I don't know about you guys but I for one want a certain something that's about three feet long!"

"I don't get it." Gohan muttered "Seriously what is it with you saying all of these things that I don't get?"

"What's the big deal, I just want a three foot-"

"Enough screwing around you two." Raditz promptly shut them up "Just decide on what you want to wish for quickly, in case either of you forgot let me point out that Frieza is on his way here and he's mad as bloody hell."

"Oh yeah I guess that's a fair point. Alright then Big Green."

"Don't call me that." Nail muttered.

"Ask the big guy up there to bring everyone on Planet Earth who were killed by the Saiyans back to life."

"Very well, I understand." so Nail uttered the wish to Porunga in the Namekian tongue, followed by a long silence.

"So is it working?"

" **...That wish is beyond my power to grant, I am limited to transporting only one person back from the dead at a time."**

"Oh that is just straight up bullshit!"

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King Kai cringed as he heard the bad news "Alright fellas it looks like I've got a little bit of bad news, from the look of things it would seem that they only get to bring back one of you guys per each wish. So yeah this isn't looking good."

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" **Speak again to me the desire of your hearts, as I said before as the maker of dreams I shall grant you any three wishes within my power."**

"There's always a catch isn't there." Gohan muttered "Well either way we have to hurry and make our wishes before Frieza gets here and finds out what we're up to, still though if we were gonna bring all of them back then that would take all three wishes and who knows if we'll need the last one. I can't just choose like that though."

"Well that's an easy fix." Kai told him "Look as f*cking stingy as the new dragon might be this might still work out for us in some way."

"What do you mean?"

"For starters let's just use the first wish to bring Piccolo back to life."

"Are you sure?"

"Use your brain for a minute, Piccolo and Kami are bound to each other which means that if we wish Piccolo back then that means that Kami will be brought back as well and if Kami is brought back then the Dragon Balls on Earth will be restored."

" _Gohan! Kai! Can either of you hear me? It's me Piccolo, say something if you're able to hear me!"_ a voice echoed through the heads of both of them " _Answer me this is Piccolo speaking to you!"_

"Yeah you don't have to scream Piccolo me and Gohan can hear you loud and clear, what's the deal anyway?"

" _I'm in Otherworld and I'm speaking telepathically to you through the Kai!"_

" _Hey that would be King Kai to you, I'll have you know that I put in a lot of work in order to earn that title!"_

" _Yeah whatever no one cares. Anyway I like where your training of thought is going with that first wish Kai, using the first wish to bring me and Kami back so that the Dragon Balls will be restored as a result."_

"And since Krillin and the Pokemon can't be brought back by those Dragon Balls a second time should we just use the other two wishes on them?"

" _No I have a better plan in mind for the second wish, once I've been resurrected I want you to transport me directly to where you are on Planet Namek. I'm eager, no more like hungry for battle and at the moment I can't think of anyone better to take it out on than the bastard that's responsible for slaughtering so many of my people!"_

" _Have you gone completely insane- Oh for f*ck's sake will you loosen your grip!"_

" _Shut up you blue imp! Anyway training in Otherworld has done wonders for my strength far beyond anything I thought was possible, Frieza has no idea what he's in for! Summon me to Planet Namek right away, do you understand?"_

"Yeah don't worry Piccolo, Gohan and I will take care of it. We'll be seeing you in the next few minutes."

" _Okay good, you can use the third wish for whatever you want."_

Gohan nodded "Alright we understand Piccolo, but right now I can't think of anything better than having you here with us."

"Save the ass kissing, let's get this over with." Kai told him.

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Piccolo finally released his grip on King Kai "Now all I have to do is wait for those two to make the wish."

"Now see here you!" King Kai rounded on Piccolo in his rage "What in the name of hell happened to leaving well enough alone? You arrogant little- You promised me that you would never go up against Frieza!"

"Oh is that right, well I recall making no such promise."

"I beg your pardon?!"

"Well then again I'm not known for having the best memory."

"You… YOU FIBBER!" King Kai prepared to pounce at Piccolo like an angry dog.

"Easy there King Kai let's just calm down a little bit." Scarlet promptly held him back from attacking Piccolo "Yeah I think it goes without saying that none of us actually need or want this right now."

Piccolo just looked away with a confident smirk plastered across his face ' _I don't know or care what exactly Frieza's reputation is, by the time I'm done with him both him and it will have been reduced to a pile of ash.'_

"He's not entirely wrong you know Piccolo, over the past year and half of my training I've met a lot of formidable warriors both up here and down in Hell that ended up here because of Frieza and his actions."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

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Gohan glanced over at Kai "Okay so let's get these first two wishes out of the way while we still can before Frieza gets here. Nail listen up, we've got our first wish ready. We need you to tell the dragon that we want to wish back the Namekian by the name of Piccolo, the one that was living on Earth when he died."

Nail nodded "The Namekian warrior Piccolo, I understand." and so with that being said he uttered the wish in the Namekian language up to Porunga.

" **Very well, your first wish is within my power, and now I shall grant."** Porunga's eyes suddenly began glowing red as he granted the wish.

Gohan and Kai ' _I can't believe this is happening. Let's just hope that it works, I can sense Frieza closing in on us and fast.'_

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Frieza continued flying back towards the ship at full speed, noticing a cluster of readings shown on his Scouter "I can see five distinct readings. The game is up, I've got a lock on all of you vermin now!"

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Scarlet glanced up from where she was still holding back King Kai to see Piccolo's halo suddenly disappear "Well what do you know, it looks like they pulled that one off."

"Yes!" Piccolo let out a roar of triumph "After all this time I'm at last back among the living once again!"

"...You realize you've only been dead for about a month."

"Don't care, I'm alive again! And now Gohan, Kai, both of you hurry up and grant my next wish!"

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" **The first of your three wishes has now been granted, speak to me your second wish so that I may fulfill it."**

"Okay I've got this one." Kai glanced up at Nail "Listen up big guy, for our next wish we want the dragon to transport Piccolo from Otherworld here to Planet Namek so that he can help us beat the ever loving shit out of Frieza. Oh and you'd better make it fast, Frieza's gonna be on top of us in the next few minutes."

"Very well, I understand what it is that you're asking." so Nail turned to face Porunga and uttered the second wish, this being to have Piccolo transported to Planet Namek, in the native Namekian language.

" **Your second wish is also within my power and now it too shall be granted."** Porunga's eyes glowed red as he granted the second wish.

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Scarlet released her grip on King Kai and watched as Piccolo suddenly disappeared from their sight and the small planet entirely ' _I hope you know what you're getting into Piccolo, but good luck down there and be sure to take care of my son for me.'_

"You think he'll be able to make a difference against this Frieza guy?" asked Krillin.

"I suppose now only time will tell. Well I don't know about you three but I kind of have a date with a few people down at the Check In Station, later." and then she suddenly leapt off of the planet and bolted down Snake Way.

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Piccolo glanced around at the grassy blue landscapes and the green oceans "So this is Planet Namek, this is my homeworld, this feels so strange and yet so familiar to me at the exact same time. I can feel it, the soil of my ancestors singing to the blood coursing through my veins as I stand upon it. Still though I don't have any time to get lost in nostalgia, I have to hurry and track down Gohan and Kai before they get themselves killed." he glanced around, only to find that there was no sign of them "No there's something wrong, I should've been teleported closer to them than this." then he sensed something and froze on the spot "Could this be Frieza's power that I'm sensing? So it would seem that he's every bit the monster that King Kai and the others had claimed him to be. I can sense four others near him, Gohan and Kai must be there. Well then, just you wait!" and he blasted off into the black colored skies of Planet Namek.

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Frieza was still bolting towards the group at full speed when he noticed the light of Porunga in the distance "What in the- What is that column of light?! The readings on my Scouter are emanating from that direction, if my Dragon Balls are being used then HEADS WILL ROLL AND BLOOD WILL BE SPILT!" and he shot forward at even greater speeds.

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" **The second of your three wish has now been granted, speak to me your third and final wish so that I may grant it."**

Gohan and Kai shared a look and glanced around "But that doesn't make sense, if the wish worked then where's Piccolo?"

"Perhaps I should have mentioned this sooner." Nail spoke up "But I'm afraid that your wish was not specific enough for Porunga, in order for your friend to be brought to this exact spot then the wish would have to be exactly specific."

"Oh so it's sort of like The Monkey's Paw, when you make a wish you have to be careful with the hubris that comes with it."

"Nerd." Kai let out a cough that was far from sounding subtle.

"You think we should use the third wish to bring him here?"

"No that's kind of redundant, Piccolo's a pretty fast guy so he should be able to make it here on his own without taking too long. Besides in the meantime I want my three foot-" Kai was promptly cut off when the light began to flicker, Porunga suddenly disappeared, and the Dragon Balls dropped to the ground, now nothing more than ordinary balls of stone "Oh god dammit I'm never gonna get my hoagie."

"I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen." Raditz pointed out "Dragon Balls turning to stone out of nowhere, the dragon just fizzled out randomly, I have an idea of what's going on but I really hope I'm wrong." he was answered by Nail bowing his head in silence "Yep it's what I thought."

Dende just fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face "The Grand Elder…"

"What's going on?" asked Gohan.

"The Grand Elder has… he's passed out of our world…" this left Gohan looking absolutely horrified, with Kai, Raditz and Nail just mourning in silence "The creator of the Dragon Balls is no longer with us, and without him it's over…"

"Yeah, that's gonna be a bit of a problem." Kai jerked a thumb backwards.

Raditz glanced backwards and his expression paled "Frieza…"

Sure enough, standing before all of them was Frieza in all of his terrifying glory, and yet he still smiled at them "I really do hope that the lot of you are satisfied, you've succeeded in dashing my hopes entirely against the craggy shores of your ignorance. And what has become of the Ginyu Force I wonder, I have to ask did you really do away with all of them?"

"Sure let's go with that. _Well that's two that you and your men owe me now Ginyu.'_

"Well as much as I feel that I should commend you for such a feat I'm afraid that this simply will not do at all. Indulge for a moment, you've all said your goodbyes yes?" he lowered himself to the ground in front of them "What a shame as well, to see the Dragon Balls turn to stone at the very moment that your final wish might have been granted if you had been able to figure out what it was. It's quite the bitter pill to swallow is it not Raditz? Of course it would be even more so for myself, as a matter of fact in all of my years I don't believe that I've ever been so angry as I am at this very moment. How very irritating it is for me to have not been able to see the writing on the wall! And now… NOW YOU WILL PAY!" he suddenly let out a shriek of pure, unyielding rage that caught all of them off guard "YOU VILE FILTH SUCKING MAGGOTS! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY THAT YOU CROSSED MY PATH! PREPARE YOURSELVES TO EMBRACE OBLIVION!" this prompted Dende to hide while Gohan, Kai and Nail took on combat stances.

Raditz on the other hand was standing firmly in the center "So you're finally letting your true colors show? Fine by me Frieza, go ahead and do your worst but let me just tell you that if you think this will be easy then you couldn't be any more wrong if you actually tried."

"Oh of all of the things that you might have said Raditz, I dare say that you must have forgotten about just how truly terrifying I can be. Why don't I refresh your memory." with a mighty roar he flared his aura, shaking the entire battlefield with his raw power.

Kai and Gohan shared a terrified look "Well I think it goes without saying that we're gonna f*cking die."

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At the same time, Scarlet arrived at the Check In Station and made her way over to the gigantic desk where King Yemma was residing "Did I miss it, has the fight started?"

"Nope, you know the drill." King Yemma jerked a thumb towards a large door on the other side of the room "They're waiting in there with the gigantic TV, from what I can tell about what's going on the fight with Frieza is about to start."

"Great, thank you King Yemma." and so Scarlet bolted into that room only to find what looked like some kind of gigantic media room showing the battle on Planet Namek that was about to begin.

One of the two figures sitting in front of the TV turned around to see Scarlelt and just waved a hand at her "Sup Ponytail?"

"I thought that we agreed that I would be the one to come up with the nicknames here Palm Tree."

"That was a cheap shot."

"What can I say, in my family we take them where we can get them. You know for being dead the two of you look well… Bardock, Gine."

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Piccolo continued his way to the battlefield when he sensed Frieza's power spike ' _That massive power level just increased exponentially, call it a hunch but it feels like this Frieza has just sprung into action. Wait a second there's another smaller power level somewhere down there, could that be Gohan or Kai? Well either way I'd better check it out.'_ so he dropped to the ground in the area that he sensed the Ki signature, only to be disappointed at what he saw "Oh great it's just you."

As it turns out it was Yamcha, still badly wounded from his confrontation with Frieza, and he gazed up at Piccolo "Well what the hell do you know, looks like the boys were able to pull it off after all… As if there was ever really any sort of doubt…"

"Looks like you're already aware of what's going on."

"Why do you think I tried to fight Frieza on my own? It was just to buy the two of them some time to make the wish."

"Well good for you, now I'm sure that you'd understand if I just let you to your fate but then again I'm sure Kai would just charge me in a blind rage and I really don't need that right now when I already have Frieza to deal with." he slung Yamcha over his shoulder "Alright you idiot, let's get going already."

"You know I've gotta admit I'm kind of surprised, here I thought I had gotten about as strong as I could but then you come in and you'rea already more than 10 times stronger me. Let me guess, you trained with Scarlet didn't you?"

"Yep."

"Figures. Say what you want about her sense of humor, she's one hell of a teacher when it comes down to it."

"Of that I have no doubt." and so Piccolo and Yamcha continued their way towards the battlefield.

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At the same time, Frieza finished powering up and used his telekinesks to rip a chunk of earth right out of the ground "And now you're going to get that little memory refreshor that I mentioned before." he fired a quick Death Beam at Raditz, something that prompted Nail and the others to take cover.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that!" Raditz quickly dodged the Death Beam, as well as the barrage of them that just kept on coming, creating a massive explosion and a cloud of dust and smoke as a result.

"You know what, f*ck this." Kai shot a glance over at Gohan and Nail "Look I think it's only fair to say that at this rate Raditz is pretty much f*cked, how about the three of us just go for broke already?"

Gohan glanced back at Nail, then back to Kai, and hed nodded "Yeah you're right Kai, I'm with you all the way.

"You're damn right you are." the three of them blitzed around and surrounded Frieza on three opposite sides and they prepared to fire their strongest attacks (Kamehameha for Gohan, Nail Gun for Kai, and Mystic Flasher for Nail), only to be forced on the evasivev by Frieza firing a continuous barrage of Death Beams at the three of them.

"Nail! Gohan! Kai!" Dende suddenly rushed out towards them, only for Frieza to take the chance to fire a Death Beam at the lot of them.

Raditz suddenly blitzed in front of them and deflected the Death Beam with a sweep of one hand, destroying a nearby island in the process "So Frieza are you done throwing your little hissy fit yet?"

Frieza just let out a chuckle "You sound so confident and sure of yourself my dear Raditz, it's almost as if you actually believe that you can defeat me. When a group of ants go up against a dinosaur who do you expect is going to emerge the victor?" this left Gohan practically trembling whereas Kai and Nail were both sweating.

"Oh is that a fact? Well I think that if the four of us all work together in this fight then you'll have your work cut out for you."

"You think such a thing, you believe it to be true?"

"I don't just think it, I know it for a fact." this was met with a chuckle from Frieza.

"My my such a sense of humor from you."

"Well if you don't believe me Frieza then just take a look at them, in case you haven't noticed their power levels are increasing exponentially. Nail could take out any of your men with the exception of Captain Ginyu single handedly and the two runts could each take him out on their own, they both possess hidden reserves of dormant power far greater than either of them are aware of. As for me my power level is growing far beyond my expectations, for all we know I may very well become the legendary Super Saiyan!"

"...Tell me something Raditz, do you really expect me to take such desperate boasts at face value in such a way?"

"Well I guess you're about to find out?" and that was the last straw for Frieza before he began to loose his temper.

"I'VE HEARD ENOUGH OF YOUR PATHETIC LIES!" and then Frieza charged at Raditz in a rage.

Not backing down even for a second, Raditz caught both of Frieza's hands and managed to hold him back, resulting in the two of them entering a power struggle.

Frieza kept trying to push Raditz back and gain some ground, only to no avail as he read the numbers on his Scouter "You impudent… arrogant… wretched little…" and then his Scouter exploded, which prompted both of them to break away "Well isn't this rather quaint, it would seem that there was a small grain of truth in your assertion after all."

Gohan and Kai both shared a look, along with Nail ' _Maybe Raditz is right, if the four of us work together then we might actually stand a chance of beating Frieza. I mean sure his power is insane but ours isn't too shabby anymore either. I think I get what he's getting at too, thanks to all of his time training on this planet with the Namekians Raditz has been able to push his power level to the limit and beyond. But then again Frieza is still acting so calm, something doesn't feel right about all of this.'_

Sure enough, that was the moment in which Raditz chose to f*ck everything up "Okay so are you going to transform or do I have to drop that bombshell to the other three behind me?"

"A little bit late for that." Kai pointed out dryly "Also I'm gonna take a chance to enjoy the fact that I'm not the one who said or did something as stupid as that."

"Ignoring the brat back there, if you're so sick of us being in your way then why don't you just show us your true form and then be done with it?"

"Well well well, it would seem that someone has been doing his homework hasn't he?" Frieza let out a condescending chuckle "So you've caught onto my little secret then have you?"

"I might have caught onto a thing or two from Zarbon, every now and then you'll end up running into one of those creatures in the universe that are able to alter their shape in ways that not many would actually know about, for example Zarbon's kind modify their forms in order to conserve enerrgy or just to use it for camoflauge."

"Well I'm afraid that my case can be considered somewhat exceptional, I choose to remain in my present form in order to keep my power from running amok."

"Yeah yeah enough with your stupid bluffs, you're not going to change that much."

"Is that a fact? Very well then I suppose, truth be told I'm only too happy to put your doubts to rest. Now be sure to pay close attention, this isn't the sort of thing that you'll be able to see every day. You had best prepare yourselves, considering I had no need to transform when I had reduced Planet Vegeta to a cloud of dust and rubble. Yes that's right, King Vegeta himself even made a hasty retreat at the first hint of the power my current form alone is capable of. Of course your own father charged me head on all by his lonesome in a desperate attempt to stop me and he failed miserably."

"I wouldn't let that go to my head if I were you, my father wouldn't want me to get lost in sentimentality and if he fought you to the bitter end then I guess that means that it would be insulting to him to do anything other than the same."

"You really are just as foolish as he was Raditz, but now feast your eyes for now you will see what he did not!" with a flash of light and a powerful surge, Frieza shattered his armor into pieces, which were promptly scattered all over the place, as well as cutting Raditz across his cheek in the process.

Raditz quickly wiped the blood away from his cheek and tried to put on a brave face "So that's your big reveal then is it? Blowing off a suit of armor, is that really the best that you're capable of after all of that hyping yourself up?" he was met with only a chuckle ' _This may have been a mistake.'_

"Oh my dear Raditz, how is it that someone who has been through as much as you have be so limited in terms of imagination? You've been such a dissapointment, if only you had had the courage to submit then you would've been far better off."

"Not a chance."

"So be it then." and with a furious roar Frieza completed his transformation, in which he evolved into a much larger version of himself with his horns now protruding upwards.

' _...Yeah okay this is one of those ideas that seemed a lot better in my head.'_

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Bardock just slapped his face "He just had to inherit that from me didn't he? Now that idiot is gonna get them all killed."

Gine nodded in a very sage like manner "Yeah that's one of your traits that we could've gone without."

"Don't f*cking remind me."

Scarlet watched the fight intently ' _It's weird but through this screen I can feel just how insanely powerful Frieza is, Kai and the others are going to have their hands full.'_

' _Dammit Kakarot where the hell are you, you're supposed to be there to defeat Frieza and save the others!'_

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Piccolo and Yamcha both sensed this as the two of them continued making their way towards the battlefield "What in the name of hell was that?! I don't know how but Frieza's power level just shot up like a rocked, this is insanity! We'd better pick up the pace or Gohan, Kai and the others are gonna be done for!"

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Gohan shared a horrified look with Kai "There's no way this is real right, it's gotta be some kind of trick that he's playing on us."

"No it's real, and now we're gonna f*cking die." Kai told him flatly.

"Such power…" Nail muttered, having stayed silent for a large majority of the fight up to this point "I had known that his power was immense but this is just monstrous."

"Welcome to my world big guy."

Frieza finished his transformation and turned to face the group, about half of them being pale as bloody hell "You're in for it now, when I'm in my second form it makes the one that you're familiar with look as gentle as a sleeping kitten. Oh come on now Raditz, you can't tell me that your iron nerve has chosen now of all times to just up and leave you in the lurch. What do you have nothing to say, you who spat in my face as eloquently as you did not just a few mere moments ago?" he dug his tail underground and nearly skewed Nail and the others with it in the blink of an eye.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, we're f*cked."

"I did try to warn the lot of you, it really is quite a chore keep as much power as this tied to a leash so tight. It tends to get away from me quite a bit, but then again I suppose that's just how capable the beast within is when you're trying to hold back a power level of 1 million."

"Which completely justifies my earlier statement."

"Smart boy, if only you could learn when to shut up."

"No, there's no way!" Raditz protested, now reevaluating how he made life decisions "No one has a power level that massive, not even you! There's just no way!"

"Is that right? Well then what do you say we go ahead and put it to the test?" and so with a simple wave of his hand Frieza unleashed his Death Storm attack, blowing the four of them, as well as Dende, away as the attack resulted in him causing a tsunami that covered almost the entire planet.

When the tsunami subsided, Kai and Gohan, along with Raditz, had been forced into the air by the explosion "Hey Nail where the hell are you?"

"You need not worry about me." as it turns out Nail was holding onto Dende not too far away from them "My duty is to protect the people of Planet Namek, right now that basically means only Dende so his life is more important than mine."

Frieza let out a menacing chuckle "Well done runts, Raditz and Namekian, I really must applaud you for your swift withdrawl but you should be made aware that that was just how I say hello in this form. Even a lowly Saiyan like Raditz could be capable of that. Oh yes Raditz that look on your face, I'm guessing that means that you really didn't have any sort of inkling that a being as powerful as I am could exist after all. Now then, which one of you should be the first one to experience a pain worse than Hell? Let's see here, I think… YOU DIE FIRST!" he suddenly charged at Nail faster than any of them could anticipate or react, in which he prepared to unleash his HAIL Frieza attack.

"Dende no!" Nail was just barely able to throw Dende out of the way before Frieza suddenly impaled him with his horn as he coughed up some of the traditional purple Namekian blood, which also began pouring from the wound.

Kai and the others looked on in horror ' _He's so fast, I couldn't even see him move let alone be able to avoid that.'_

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" _ **Now beginning the final approach to Planet Namek, landing procedures will automatically commence in 45 minutes."**_

Goku let out a loud yawn as he pulled himself out of his bed and made his way over to his closet, and he let out a chuckle at what he saw "You know it was really nice of King Kai to send me some new clothes but he didn't have to send this many of them for me. Well whatever works I guess right?"

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About 15 minutes passed.

With a towel around his shoulders, Tien made his way to the upper level and found Goku just standing in front of the window, staring out into the endless void of space "What are you doing?"

Goku gave him a simple shrug "Nothing really, I'm just thinking. About how this Frieza is supposed to about as strong as the likes of Cooler, and well you saw how well that turned out for us."

"Yeah no kidding, it's a good thing we ran into him."

"I guess so. We've only got about 30 minutes before we land on Planet Namek, and then we're in for the fight of our lives. It's kind of strange though, I don't feel scared or nervous about it or anything. If anything at all then I'm perfectly calm, I know what's waiting for us down there but still I feel nothing at all. I guess training at all of that intense gravity knocked a few of my screws loose or something, or maybe something about us meeting up with Cooler has me like this."

"Maybe. Be honest with me Goku, do you think we're ready to face this Frieza after everything we've been through?"

"If you want me to be 100% honest Tien… I have no idea." Goku suddenly let out a nostalgiac sounding chuckle "You know this kind of brings back memories of when we had to deal with the original King Piccolo."

"I was completely useless in that fight, I'm not going to let history repeat itself against someone like Frieza."

"He'll go down, the two of us and the others will make sure of that." the two of them bumped fists.

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Scarlet cringed as she watched Gohan tear into Frieza "Hot DAMN am I the only one who felt that one?"

"Yeah I hate to break it to you but I'm pretty sure my well of pity got dried up and bottomed out a damn long time ago." Bardock told her dryly.

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The situation on the battlefield was still grim, to say the least.

Raditz and the others looked on in horror at what was happening to Nail at Frieza's hands, and he had to control himself so that he wouldn't go insane in a blind rage ' _Nail… no… No get it together Raditz, flying off the handle.'_ he would be regretting that statement in a minute, not that anyone else there knew that.

"How unfortunate, I had hoped that I was going to have the opportunity to toy with you a little bit more." Frieza licked some of Nail's blood from his lip "But I did warn you ahead of time that my power tends to get away from when I'm in this form."

"No… I won't… go down… without… a fight!" summoning as much of his strength as he was able to, Nail kneed Frieza right in the face, only for his leg to be caught almost instantly.

"Well this is a pleasent surprise, perhaps you have a little bit of fire left in you after all. That will make this more fun for me." he swatted both Gohan and Kai aside with just his tail when they tried to make a rescue attempt.

"No… both of you… stay back…" and then Nail lost consciousness as the blood on his wound began to dry, only for more to begin pouring out.

"And just like that whatever spark he still had." Frieza promptly threw Nail off of his horn as he licked the blood from his lips, leaving Nail to fall into the Namekian sea below, much to the horror of everyone else.

"Nail NO!" Gohan attempted to charge down into the sea to save Nail, only for his way to be blocked suddenly by Frieza.

"Don't bother trying to save him, all you'll be doing is going after a wet corpse that's already long dead. If I were either one of you then I would rather focus on saving myself, not that it's going to make any sort of difference whether you're a Namekian dust mite or a few sniveling brats from Earth or a pitiful Saiyan ape none of you have even the slightest chance of escapiny from my wrath." he glanced over and noticed a white light in the distance "Well well what do we have here?"

Raditz glanced over and cringed as he saw three Namekians approaching the battlefield ' _No dammit you three, go back before it's too late!'_

"I'm legitimatly surprised that I missed a few of those slugs, not that it will do any of them any good."

"What was that about Namekians being slugs?" the three of them suddenly blitzed onto the scene in front of Frieza "Well either way at least we were able to make it here in time."

"Dammit you three this is suicidal! Moolin, Maima, Tsumuri, don't try to be some kind of heroes against him! All you're doing is throwing your lives away!"

"You think we don't know that Raditz? Of course we know we don't stand a chance but that doesn't mean we're just gonna lie down and die without even trying. After all Nail isn't the only capable warrior of the Namekian race."

Frieza let out a chuckle "Well if pieces of trash like yourselves do intend to throw your lives away then I suppose I have no right to stop you."

"Come and say that to our faces!" the Namekians all removed their vests and charged at Frieza at full speed as they prepared three simutaneous Full Power Energy Waves.

Unfortunately for them, Frieza simply waved one of his hands, ripping two of them to shreds and leaving the last one (this one being Tsumuri) to fall into the sea the same way as Nail did mere moments before.

"NO!" Gohan prepared to charge down towards Tsumuri in order to save him, only for his way to be barred by Frieza once again.

"As I said before it's too late, not that it would make any difference."

"No… it's not too late… Get out of my way…" Gohan started snarling like some kind of angry animal, taking everyone present by surprise "I said… I SAID GET OUT OF MY WAY!" in a burst of power he dealt Frieza a sharp kick to the head and a fierce barrage of punches and kicks to the gut that sent Frieza spiralling down into the ground "GOHAN SMASH EFFEMINATE ALIEN! GOHAN STRONGEST THERE IS!" and then in a way that would make a lot more sense if the Hulk was a character from anime, Gohan unleashed his Gekiretsu Madan attack, nailing Frieza in a masive barrage of Ki blasts that also engulfed him in a massive explosion as a result.

Raditz was taken aback by the sudden outburst ' _What the hell is going on? The kid's power level just exploded and now it's even higher than Frieza's! You mean that the kid's been holding back this much power this entire time?!'_

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(At the same time, down in the Namekian ocean)

" _Tsumuri are you sure you want to do this? You realize that this techninque is forbidden amongst our people."_

" _Of course I know that Nail but what choice do we have? It's either this or whatever legacy our people has die by the hand of Frieza, the way I see it we have nothing to lose."_

" _...I give you my word my brother, regardless of whatever may happen from here on out I will not let your sacrifice be forgoten."_

" _That will only apply if we win."_ and cue the bright white light.

(See if you can guess what's going on)

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Raditz looked over at Gohan in pure awe in disbelief at his power ' _This is completely insane, when the kid's emotions run wild he loses control and then taps into some vast reservoir of power that not even the likes of Frieza can withstand. The question remains though, does this kid have even more potential towards becoming a Super Saiyan than even you Kakarot?'_

Gohan suddenly snapped out of his rage "I have to get Nail, he and the other Namekian will drown down there!"

That was when Dende suddenly rose up from the water carrying a wounded Nail "It's going to be alright, he's not dead yet! He's just wounded and it's not even that bad!"

"Okay good. We've got you Nail, just hang in there for a little while longer!"

"Stay focused Spike, in case you've forgotten let me point out that Big Green isn't our biggest concern at the moment!" Kai pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

"Even I know that Frieza wouldn't go down that easily!"

Sure enough, Frieza emerged from within the crater left by the blast and then dusted himself off as he looked up at them "So it would seem that Raditz was right about you boy, there is a great deal more to you than meets the eye. I'm not going to lie to you, that actually did cause me pain at least a little bit. But I wouldn't let that go to your head, like I told you before none of you stance a chance against the likes of me. All you've done is make my desire to kill you that much greater.

"Well shit, hey Gohan I'm seriously hoping that you saved some of that power because we're gonna have to go all out all or nothing against this asshole." this was followed by Frieza suddenly powering up.

Gohan was left looking mortified by this "Okay is it just me or is he somehow making himself even stronger than he already was?"

"He must've been supressing his Ki all this time."

"But I thought he said he couldn't control his power!"

Frieza shot them an arrogant smirk "You remember the pain that you dealt me boy? Well guess what, now I'm going to return it thousands of times over!"

' _His power just spiked, at this rate I don't think we're gonna be able to hold out for that much longer.'_

"Now then let the real fun begin." Frieza suddenly blitzed upwards and dealt Gohan a sharp kick to the gut, causing him to cough up blood "Oh come now don't tell me that that was all that it took to take the fight out of you already, I can assure you that your torment is only just getting started." and then he backhanded Gohan with his tail, sending him crashing to the ground in a heap "It would seem that I let myself get worked up over nothing, you really are nothing but a little brat."

"Yeah well I'm not!" Raditz took the chance to attack Frieza from behind with his Saturday Crush attack "Don't forget that you still have me to deal with Frieza, an oversight like that one is just going to get you killed! This is why you shouldn't turn your back on a warrior of the Saiyan race!" and to prove his point he added on with his Weekend blast attack, engulfing Frieza in yet another explosion, and he began laughing triumphantly "So what was that you had been saying before Frieza about me not standing a chance against you? You were a fool to take me as lightly as you did, that is to say that you WERE!" and then he realized the mistake of running his mouth, which was now dropped with the rest of his jaw at what he was seeing.

Yeah as it turns out, Frieza wasn't even scratched by the assault and just shot Raditz a sort of mocking look "Now now Raditz you'll just have to wait your turn, once I'm done with this brat and the other one I'll be sure to take my time in dealing with you." and he lowered himself to the ground, leaving Raditz somewhat demoralized "Now then, how about you and I just go ahead and pick up where we left off?"

"Fine!" Gohan suddenly charged at Frieza in a blind at rage, launching a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Frieza promptly kneed him in the gut and grabbed him by a few strands of his hair, causing him to cry out in pain, and then he dropped Gohan and kicked him in the gut again "Oh am I going to enjoy this." he started stomping down on Gohan's head, causing him to scream in pain "So what would you say if I were to tell you that it was time for me to put my foot down? Well it's not like your opinion matters either way, sayonara brat."

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Piccolo and Yamcha continued their way towards the battlefield as they sensed the commotion from afar ' _Gohan's life force is getting weaker, I can barely sense it now. Just hang in there a little while longer Gohan and I'll be there as soon as I can!'_

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Frieza continued his attempts to crush Gohan's skull and he shot Raditz yet another taunting glance "Oh come now Raditz whatever is the matter, do you really expect me to believe that you're not going to bother trying to save him? Or could it be that you're simply paralyzed with fear over just how powerful I am right now? Well you don't have to worry about that or even move a muscle, just give me one more moment to finish crushing the life out of this one and then I'll be more than happy to put you next on my list!" he continued crushing Gohan's skull with his foot "Sure you could try to save the brat but even if you wanted to do so it's not like you could do anything against me right now, you're just as helpless as this brat. Dammit I lost my place, where was I? Oh right, committing filicide." he prepare to finish Gohan off, when…

" **Kaioken 5x!"** with his crimson aura flaring wildly, Kai suddenly burst towards Frieza and dealt him a sharp kick in between the eyes, sending him tumbling backwards as he clutched his eyes in pain and agony "Bet you forgot about me didn't you?" he slung Gohan over his shoulder and threw a Ki blast at the ground, creating a smokescreen.

"You little, you know what I'm changing my kill order! Boy with the red leotard you're going to die first!"

"Not likely monster." the smoke cleared to reveal Nail, now about an inch taller and with his wounds fully healed ' _A clever plan on Kai's part, creating a makeshift smokescreen to take advantage of the fact that Frieza cannot detect energy signatures without one of those devices of his.'_

"You damned Namekian how the hell is it that you're still drawing breath?! I ran you through on my very own horn, there's no way that you could've survived!"

"Well I did and now I'm more powerful than ever before, and now I intend to have vengeance in the name of my people who all died by the hand of your forces!" Nail blitzed towards Frieza and slugged him clear in the gut, and then followed up with a barrage of Ki blasts in the form of the Gekiretsu Madan attack, sending Frieza crashing into a nearby mountain, before finishing the assault with a Mystic Flasher, engulfing him in a massive explosion that leveled the entirety of the mountain ' _As I said before Tsumuri, your sacrifice will not be forgotten and it will not be in vain. Not as long as I have any say in it.'_

Frieza almost immediately burst out from within the rubble, pissed off to high hell mainly because the end of his tail had been blown off "You arrogant little- How dare you mock me you slug!" and he charged at Nail in a rage.

Nail quickly took off in the opposite direction of Frieza ' _I may not be strong enough to take him on directly but at the very least I should be able to at least slow him down or keep him occupied for as long as Dende will need. The only problem is that he's faster than me so he'll be able to catch up to me- Wait a second, maybe I can lose him in those crevices down there!'_ he dove downwards into a set of crevices in a desperate attempt to get Frieza off of his trail as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, Frieza blitzed in front of Nail, which prompted him to retreat back towards the center of the crevis "Quite the cowards isn't he? He can go ahead and run as much as he wants but all he'll be doing is delaying the inevitable." he blitzed in front of Nail and cut him off at the exit again, the process repeating itself in pretty much every single crack in the chasm several times over, at least until Frieza got sick of it "Alright this is getting boring." he fired a simple Ki blast at the crevices, filling them with smoke as a result "Okay now come out of there before I lose my temper."

It was only a few seconds before Nail pulled himself out of the crevices, coughing up a large amount of smoke, and he quickly bolted once again.

Frieza quickly blitzed in front of him for the umpteenth time "Alright that's far enough for you slug man, I'm not thrilled that you survived my last attack but the fact that you have the audacity to clip my tail and then lead me on this wild goose chase is making my blood boil more than ever before so this time I intend to rip you apart until not even the smallest piece of you remains intact!"

' _This isn't good, I only have one chance!'_ Nail fired two quick Ki blasts at Frieza and then dove down into the water below, struggling to hold his breath.

"His pathetic attempts to escame from my wrath aren't going to be enough to save him from the hell that awaits him. I will personally tear you limb from limb, now come out and show yourself to me already!" he fired a barrage of Ki blasts into the water below, which caused Nail to burst up from the water gasping for air "And now-"

" **FLASH BOMB!"** thinking quickly, Nail unleashed a white Ki blast and fired it upwards into the air, causing it to burst, blinding Frieza and giving Nail the chance he needed to escape, but not before getting one more potshot at Frieza with his Mystic Flash.

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Raditz was looking down at the ground as he noticed something ' _What in the name of hell, where did he learn that?'_

As it turns out Dende was checking on Gohan "Oh thank goodness he's not dead, he's just unconscious. Don't worry, I'll heal you right away." and in a surprising move, he used his newly awakened powers to heal Gohan.

' _What the f*ck is going on?'_

"Everyone hury, Frieza's stunned so we have to take this chance!" Nail suddenly burst back onto the scene "We have to hurry, my Flash Bomb isn't going to keep him occupied forever!" he glanced down at Dende and Gohan and he gave a small smile "I see so he healed your nephew as well Raditz, that's good."

"And it never crossed your mind to tell us the squirt could heal people?" Kai shot him a certain look "Why the hell would you not tell us about that?"

"You say that as if you assume that I already knew, if I did then I would certanly have mentioned such a thing to you. I'm not so shallow as to keep important secrets like that, so the question is why are you so angry about that?"

"Because you never bothered to mention that we've got ourselves a White Mage!" and then he started bragging to no one in particular "Oh yeah that's right bitches, we got ourselves a White Mage and like a wise man once said nobody f*cks with the White Mage!"

Dende glanced over at Gohan "Who is he talking to exactly?"

"My guess is whoever can listen to his ego." Gohan let out a sigh "Thanks for the help Dende but you better go and hide, I can sense that Frieza will be here any second." he bolted back up into the air and began powering up in his rage ' _This is insane, it feels like somehow I got even stronger now that Dende healed me!'_

"Well that's one of the good things about being half Saiyan for you." Kai told him "From what I can tell your power has gone up pretty high, I don't know about you but I think that's just what we needed to get an edge over lizard lips over there."

"DAMN YOU!" that was when Frieza burst back onto the scene "First that Namekian and now that brat over there, how the hell do you keep coming back from the dead like this?! How many times do I have to kill you pests before you just stay dead?!"

"As many times as it takes for you to stop whining like a little bitch." Kai promptly powered up his Kaioken aura.

"You brats really don't know when to quit now do you?"

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Gine and the others continued watching from the Check In Station "Wow Kakarot's son and the other boy are really brave to go up against Frieza like this, but do you think that they can hold their own against him?"

"Don't worry, those two boys have the seeds of greatness in them." Scarlet turned away to wipe away a few tears, but she couldn't wipe the proud smile off of her face ' _Kai my son you've gotten so strong, and I know that you'll only keep getting stronger. I just wish that I could be there to see you growing up in person.'_

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Piccolo and Yamcha were still making their way towards the battlefield ' _Gohan's back to full strength now and his and Kai's power levels are both on the rise, could this mean that they're trying to take on Frieza on their own? No I think they're gonna go with that for now, but all the same we had better speed up.'_

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Gohan and Kai finished powering up and shared two simultaneous nods as they both glanced back at Nail and Raditz "Kai and I are gonna double team him, we might be able to buy some time until Piccolo get here or we might even beat Frieza but still we at least have to try." without waiting for any arguments or protests he and Kai both lowered themselves to the ground and he glanced back at Dende "Listen to me Dende, I want you to go and hide somewhere out of sight before you get caught in the crossfire."

"R-Right." Dende quickly took the chance to hide somewhere on the battlefield so that he could still see what was going on.

"So do you think we can do this?"

"Well I think we're about to find out." Kai got into a combat stance as the first level of Kaioken continued to flare.

Frieze landed on the ground in front of the two of them and smirked "Well well it would seem that the two little brats have gained some backbone but it won't make any difference, soon the two of you will be begging for mercy just like all of the rest of them."

"Yeah I think we'll see about that soon enough, but until then keep those hideous lips of yours shut." Kai blitzed forward and aimed a kick at Frieza's torso.

Frieza leapt into the air to dodge it.

Gohan was waiting for him in mid air and began trading even blows with Frieza, his Zenkai allowing him to keep up with him, and he began to gain an advantage once Kai joined in on the clash, with the former dealing Frieza a kick to the torso and the latter dealing him an uppercut to the jaw, the two attacks sending him flying away from them.

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Raditz and Nail shared a surprised glance between the two of them "Unbelievable, those two little brats are actually giving Frieza a run for his money."

Nail nodded "I suppose you weren't lying when you said that those two had potential well beyond either of us, perhaps now we really do have a chance of victory after all."

"So do you think that the two of us will be able to get out of this alive?"

"I suppose only time will tell, but either way Frieza has hurt so many of my people and now they're going to get the justice that they deserve. I just wish that I or another Namekian would be able to give it to him."

"You might be able to get your chance, I can sense that Frieza is still hiding a great deal of his power right now."

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Bardock and the others looked on in surprise "Hot damn you called it big time Scarlet, those two kids are so strong it's insane- Okay I'm calling bullshit, how the hell are those two little brats almost as strong as me right now? You know what screw it, Scarlet ready that teleporting stuff so I can go down there and show those little shits up." he bolted off of the couch.

Gine stopped him in his tracks without even getting up "Bardock if you walk out that door then I will withhold _that_ for the next 6 months."

"I went without it for almost 20 years, I can do it again."

"Walk out there and you'll have to." she gave Scarlet a high five without even bothering to look at her.

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Frieza found himself being pushed back by the combined assault from Gohan and Kai "You arrogant little-"

"DODGE!" Gohan suddenly dealt Frieza a vicious uppercut kick to the jaw, sending him flying away a great distance, only to be forced to dodge a counter punch almost immediately.

"I'm losing patience with you little brats!" Frieza backhanded Gohan away and then began pushing Kai back until he had his back against the side of a plateau, and then finished off his assault with a barage of Killer Ball blasts, engulfing him in a massive explosion, much to the horror of Gohan and everyone else, but Frieza was as confident as ever "There's no sense in hiding from me, I know that you're still alive down there now stand up and show yourself to me already."

"Way to kill the mood asshole." Kai pulled himself out from the rubble and spat out a little bit of spit and blood before joining Gohan in mid air and the two high fived without even looking at each other.

"The two of you are quite slippery, one of you comes back from a thrashing from me even stronger than before and the other one manages to wriggle out of harm's way even after being hit at point blank range. I can see that I'll just have to try harder to get rid of the two of you." and so he charged at the two of them.

Gohan and Kai continued fending him off ' _Oh man I can't believe this, if feels like I'm so much stronger now it's like I'm a different person! I guess Kai's nonchalant attitude had it pegged from the start, we might actually be able to win this! Maybe aside from his reckless nature and insanity Kai knows what's what in life._ Hey Kai you ready to go on the offensive?"

"Way ahead of you, you break off from him and charge _that_ move while I keep Lizard Lips over here busy." Kai told him "I'll be fine for a few minutes, just do what you gotta do so we can wreck his shit."

"Alright, just be careful." and so Gohan retreated to the ground as he put his hands together in front of him as a yellow Ki sphere began charging in his hands.

"Alright now someone's shit is about to be wrecked."

"Yes that's true boy, and it's yours!" Frieza backhanded Kai using what was left of his tail, and then he proceeded to force him underwater, and he was the only one to rise back up to the surface.

Gohan looked down in horror "Kai are you okay down there?"

"There's no need for you to panic boy, he's going to resurface in a moment and of course I wouldn't want you to miss it when I end his miserable life.

' _Oh no, he's gonna be hit by a sneak attack! No get a grip Gohan, Kai is smarter than that so of course he can take it.'_

"BOOYAKASHA!" Kai burst up from the water, only to be hit by Frieza's Full Power Energy Ball and blasted into a mountain, which promptly exploded as a result.

"KAI NO!"

Frieza let out a chuckle "And that's one less pest that I have to worry about killing, now then who's next?"

" **KAIOKEN 3X!"** Kai burst up from the rubble, his Kaioken flaring to the third level and now he was just as pissed as Frieza "If I was gonna go down as easily as that then Gohan would actually be able to walk away from this with his sanity intact, but that's not how this story is gonna go!"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Frieza blitzed forward and grabbed Kai by the front of his gi, snarling like some kind of angry animal.

"Someone who's gonna wreck your shit. **Kaioken 4x!"** Kai let out a shockwave as he powered up his Kaioken to the fourth level, his crimson aura flaring and pushing Frieza off of him "Okay now Frieza pay close attention to what's about to happen, I'm gonna show you why Saiyans aren't the only creatures that you should fear in the universe!" he blitzed towards Frieza and slugged him straight across the face before following up with a vicious Wolf Fang Fist combination that blew him away "And that's for what you did to my uncle!"

"And this for what you did to me!" Frieza whacked Kai with his tail and then proceeded to launch an attack at Kai in the form of his Punishing Blaster, much to the horror of Gohan and the others.

"Guys it's okay, I've got this! **Kaioken… times FIVE!"** Kai pushed his Kaioken as high as he was able to and with a mighty roar, he deflected the Punishing Blaster back at Frieza, forcing him to dodge the attack "NOW GOHAN!"

"RIGHT! **LIGHT GRENADE!"** packing as much Ki into his blast as he could, Gohan fired off a full power Light Grenade at Frieza, the blast engulfing him and resulting in a massive explosion. Gohan then landed on the ground and bumped fists with Kai "How do you think he liked that one?"

"He think he choked on it, nice work with the Light Grenade by the way."

"And you busting out the Kaioken like that was totally amazing, I just wish Piccolo was here to see this!"

"Well from what I can sense he's on his way."

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(At the Check In Station)

"YES!" Bardock started pumping a fist "That's my grandson and the other little shit, go ahead and show Frieza what you're made of!"

Scarlet shared a look with Gine "Is it just me or did he just do a 180 on the boys because you tried to withhold sex from him?"

"Yep." was all Gine said.

"Well in that case, you go girlfriend." they high fived.

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The smoke from the blast cleared to revealed that Frieza had blocked the Light Grenade at the last second, somehow even more enraged than before "You… You…"

"Gohan hang back for now, I'm gonna try and gauge the big guy's power level so we can come with a new plan of attack." Kai made a hand motion for Gohan to hang back while he slowly stepped forward, his Kaioken 5x aura still flaring as the tension in the air grew thicker "So are we gonna do this or what?"

"You've really got quite the mouth on you now don't you? Well then I suppose it's up to me to fix that." in a sudden burst of speed, Frieza slugged Kai straght across the face followed by an elbow and then smashed him to the ground, and then he prepared to fire off another fist aimed at his spine.

Using his Kaioken to enhance his speed, Kai bolted out of the way just in time, only to soon discover that ' _Dammit this son of a bitch is a lot faster than I have him credit for, now what am I supposed to do?'_

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Gine looked on in horror "This is bad…"

"Dammit!" Bardock snarled "Even then Frieza was just toying with the two runts, he wasn't even fighting at full power until just now! He's just been toying with them all over again!"

"Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions." Scarlet told him "Frieza is as tough and as cruel as they come sure, but I know my son and I know that he's not out of tricks just yet."

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Kai pulled himself out of the rubble, the top of his red martial arts gi being halfway shredded, and he spat out a mix of both dirt and blood ' _F*ck this is bad.'_

Frieza let out a condescending chuckle as he lowered himself to the ground "You'll have to forgive the slow start, in all honesty I really wasn't expecting much from you or the other brat but now that I've seen that you're this capable of handling yourself I thought it was just common courtesy to show you _my_ true power, which in reality is a mere fraction of what I'm truly capable of."

"Your power, it's like there's no limit to it. I can't believe that I actually thought that I could pose a threat to you… Is that what you're expeting me to say to you? Well sorry to disappoint you big guy but I'm not the kind of kid who likes to just lie down and die, so now I'm gonna show you what happens when someone pisses me off! **Kaioken… times… SEVEN!"** with a furious strain filled roar he pushed his Kaioken to his absolute limit, this being the seventh level "Well what the hell do you know, I guess we've both been holding back."

"You cannot be serious, am I really expected to believe that you've been fighting me with less than your full effort? That's just nonsense, I knew you were far too overconfident for your own good but I never expected you to be the lying sort."

"Yeah well I'm just full of surprises now aren't I? Anyway enough talk, now I'm gonna show you why I'm more deserving of your fear than any Saiyan could ever hope to be!" Kai kept on flaring his Kaioken aura ' _The problem is that I can't push my Kaioken any higher than this or else my body won't be able to handle the strain.'_

"Go for it Kai, I know you can do it!" Gohan started cheering for him on the sidelines from where he was watching alongside Raditz and Nail "Go and show him what you're made of!"

"That's the idea!"

Frieza studied him closely "I see, so with this red colored technique of yours you can amplify your combat assets considerably. Does that sound about right?"

"That's the idea at least yeah." Kai blitzed forward and dealt Frieza a powerful kick to the torso, sending him tumbling backwards.

Frieza recovered and retreated into the air in an attempt to gain some distance and prepare a counterattack.

Kai suddenly blitzed behind Frieza and dealt him a Nail Gun to the shoulder, sending him hurtling towards the ground below, but not done with him just yet he grabbed onto Frieza and pulled him into a pile driver "I told you before that Saiyans weren't the only creatures that you should fear, maybe you'll learn how to listen when you get to Hell and find the demons of your past waiting for you there." he let go and let Frieza rocket downwards, sending him crashing to the ground and burying him under a large amound of rubble.

Gohan and the others looked on in awe "Alright way to go Kai, just finish him off and then we can go home!"

"Not just yet, I'm gotta put the final touches on so that I can make this look exactly like a real life Jackson Pollock paintain! **NAIL GUN!"** and so Kai fired a Kaioken powered Nail Gun downwards, resulting in a massive explosion.

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Gohan and the others had to shield themselves so that they wouldn't be blown away by the force of the explosion "Is it over, did he get him?"

"I wouldn't be too sure, take a look up there." Raditz pointed upwards to what he was seeing, much to the dismay of Gohan and Nail.

"Oh come on!"

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Sure enough, Frieza was floating atop the gigantic mushroom cloud of smoke with few minor burns ' _That was far too close for my liking, not that they need to know that.'_

"Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Kai muttered "Leave it to an evil space emperor to pull a last second escape out of his ass."

"I did mention it to you beforehand but what you've seen up to this point is but a mere fraction of my true power."

"Yeah I figured as much."

"Such a foolish and naive child, you just cannot seem to help charging in here oblivious to the true peril you're in right now. How about this, I'm willing to treat you to the same feeling of pure terror that the rest of your friends had the pleasure to experience only once. Yes perhaps this would be the simplest way to make you understand just how truly in over your head you are against the likes of me, you see each time I transform myself I can increase my power several times over and as it just so happens I still have two transformations beyond the current form that you see right now. So are you beginning to see the big picture yet?"

"Here's the picture that I'm seeing, you're bluffing. You know that even a little brat like me is stronger than you now so you're trying to pull something out of your ass! If you really can transform twice more then I say go ahead and prove it!"

"Very well then, allow me to demonstrate. You scum should consider this to be an honor, you will be the first ones to ever lay eyes upon me in this next form." his body began radiating a red and black aura "Prepare yourself brat, for you are about to witness the second transformation of the almighty Lord Frieza!" with a furious roar he began his transformation, in which he grew a set of spikes out of his back which promptly curved upwards, and the armor pads on his shoulders flung themselves outwards like a set of shoulder pads. His original horns receeded and turned white in color, erupting in pairs along with the length of his head, which had become extremely elongated.

' _...Okay this might have been a mistake, Piccolo was right when he said that I had to learn to shut the hell up.'_

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Gine studied Frieza for a moment "Wait a second I don't get it, it doesn't look like he's changed that much has he?"

"No it's like he's a whole different person." Bardock told her grimly "Even without being able to sense his energy I can tell that his power is on a completely different level in comparison to what it was before, not only that but from the look of things he's able to exercise a far greater degree of control over his power."

Scarlet nodded "Not to mention that he's healed, the damage that he got from the boys in their combined assault and from Kai's Nail Gun is gone so there's not a single scratch on him. This isn't looking good, I'm not sure that they'd be able to beat him while he's like this but either way I guess they'll still have to try."

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Once he finished his transformation, Frieza shot a smirk over at Kai "So what do you think boy was it worth the wait?"

"I think you're as f*cked up as they come." Kai muttered "Not to mention that Ridley Scott is gonna sue someone for that."

"What are you talking about?" and then his alien tongue started jabbering "Let me touch your skin!"

"My point exactly."

"Now if you're ready then let's begin round two shall we? Come on what are you waiting for, I'll let you make the first move. You did seem to have quite a bit of confidene in your speed and that technique beforehand not too long ago as I recall so why don't we start by putting that to the test then shall we?" and so Frieza pounced at him.

" **Kaioken times 7!"** pushing his Kaioken as high as he was able to, Kai bolted into the skies and blitzed around a little bit in order to throw him off ' _With so much added bulk and muscle on him it can only slow him down, no matter how much power he may have gained it won't mean anything if he can't get close enough to me to use it!'_ he screeched to a halt when he suddenly noticed Frieza waiting in front of him ' _Son of a bitch I walked right into that one.'_

"It's about time you caught up with me, I was wondering when you would join me. I doubt you would want to be late for your own funeral." he flicked a simple Ki blast at Kai, blowing him backwards before he could even blink, and he began easily dodging all of his attacks as if he was the wind itself, and then he began going on the offensive with a vicious combo attack, not even giving Kai a chance to fight back, blowing him away without even breaking a sweat "You know as fun as this has been I'm afraid that playtime is over."

' _Dammit this is bad, now what the hell am I supposed to do?'_

"Now that you realize that that technique of yours is of no use against this form that feeling of helplessness that I had been hoping to inspire must actually be settling in quite nicely. Let's see if we can add a little bit of terror into that mix then shall we?" he fired a Death Beam directly at one of Kai's kneecaps, then the other.

' _Dammit he's too fast, at this rate I'm gonna have to hope for some kind of miracle or I'm done for!'_

As if he was reading Kai's thought and did the exact opposite, Frieza began attacking him with his Crazy Finger Beam, blowing holes through Kai left and right.

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Gohan could only look on in horror "No this is bad, Kai was already giving it everythinig that he had against Frieza and now he doesn't have a chance of dodging! I can't just sit around and watch this, I have to help him somehow! Hang on Kai I'm coming!" and with his rage boosting his power he charged towards Frieza in a desperate rescue attempt.

"No you can't, you'll fair no better than he did!" Nail attempted to go after Gohan to pull him out of there.

"Wait Nail, hang on a second!" Raditz caught Nail by the ankle "You know as well as I do that you won't be able to do anything but get in the way at this point!"

"But we can't just sit around and do nothing!"

"I know that, I have a plan but I need your help to pull it off! Listen to me carefully, if we want to have any chance against Frieza then I need you to attack Frieza with everything you've got without holding back! I can have Dende use his powers to heal me and once I receive the boost from the Zenkai that I'll get from being on the brink of death I might be able to become a Super Saiyan, at least then we'll stand a chance against Frieza!"

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 **In a matter of moments Frieza has already proven that his second transformation is a terror to behold! Gohan races to aid Kai in his struggle against Frieza, but can he free his friend from the clutches of this monster? And with Piccolo and Yamcha still on their way to the battlefield, and Goku and Tien still on their way to Planet Namek is there any hope left for them against this tyrant? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, the battle with Frieza gets seriously underway, along with some significant changes from canon. For starters, Nail is present and does not fuse with Piccolo (compensated for by Piccolo fusing with Daimao in Hell back in chapter 8), and now thanks to that fusion Piccolo is strong enough to combat Frieza in his third form instead of just his second form. So unfortunately Nail ends up getting the Krillin treatment for the most part here since he's not as strong as the likes of Gohan, Kai or Raditz. Surprising as it may be, he's actually the weakest of the four of them right now, which is the main reason why I included those other three Namekians from the filler scene at the Grand Elder's house that get slaughtered by Frieza. As for the names, I don't think that they were ever given official names in that scene or at all so I just searched on the Dragon Ball website and found three random Namekian names and I decided to use those.**

 **To compensate for Piccolo not being there to combat, I had Gohan and Kai do a team thing against Frieza in his second form. Unlike Goku and Vegeta in the anime when they were fighting Jiren in the Tournament of Power, Gohan and Kai know how to work together effectively against an enemy.**

 **In regards to Nail's fusion, he fused with a guy way weaker than he is so that fusion isn't as effective as it was when Nail and Piccolo fused, so while he's a crap load stronger now, he's still not as strong as Piccolo.**

 **Now then, I want your honest opinion on something in regards to what I plan to do during the battle between Goku and Frieza. Here's what I'm thinking, you know how Goku is almost drowned by Frieza and then he goes Kaioken 20x? Well what if instead of Kaioken 20x, he goes Super Saiyan instead? Keep in mind that would mean that I would also be cutting out the Spirit Bomb as well, along with having to have anyone else die in real life in order to trigger the transformation. The reason I'm saying this is because, well to put it simply, the Spirit Bomb did literally nothing to Frieza in the long run. Yes he was visibly injured and he lost part of his tail, but it didn't stop him from going full power or have any long term effects like it did when it was used on Vegeta in the Saiyan Saga. As far as I'm concerned Goku might as well have not used it at all against Frieza. Of course to make up for that I'll be replacing it with a lot more internal motivation from Goku from various different characters, but either way I want feedback from you guys before I set anything in stone. Oh, and adding onto this Goku and Tien will be arriving on Planet Namek next chapter.**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 200,000

Gohan (enraged): 800,000

Gohan (Zenkai): 1.25 million

Kai: 250,000

Kai (Kaioken 3x): 750,000

Kai (Kaioken 5x): 1.25 million

Kai (Kaioken 7x): 1.75 million

Kai (Kaioken 7x Nail Gun): 17.5 million

Nail: 75,000

Nail (post fusion): 800,000

Random Namekians included for plot convenience: 10,000 each

Raditz: 450,000

Frieza (First form): 530,000

Frieza (second form): 1.2 million

Frieza (second form, full power): 1.5 million

Frieza (third form): 1.9 million


	12. Ultimate Nightmare, Moment of Truth

Kai continued with getting the shit blasted out of him by Frieza "WHY THE HELL IS THIS STILL HAPPENING?!"

"Because you're an arrogant little brat that needs a spanking!" Frieza continued assaulting him with his Crazy Finger Beam "And besides, this is too much fun!"

"LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!" Gohan suddenly burst onto the scene and dealt Frieza a sharp kick to the face, ending his assault on Kai and sending him crashing to the ground, which ended up giving Gohan a chance to prepare a powerful attack "I'm through letting you pick on my friends, I'm ending this battle and I'm ending it NOW!" he furiously cupped his hands at his side and began charging a blue ball of Ki " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HAAAAAA!"** using as much power as he was able to muster up for one attack, Gohan fired a full power Super Kamehameha downwards.

Quickly regaining his awareness, Frieza tried to push back the Super Kamehameha "I can just send it back!" at least that's what he tried to do, but in the end he was pushed downwards and backwards into the Namekian ocean, engulfing him in the ensuing explosion.

Gohan powered down his Super Kamehameha and was left panting heavily "That was… way too close… but this is bad… I put just about… everything that I had… into that blast… I don't think I have… anything left in me now…" this turned out to be the wrong thing to say, mainly because a Death Beam came hurtling towards him from underwater.

Kai pulled himself out from the rubble ' _No, I'm not gonna make it in time!'_ and so he fired a weakened Explosive Demon Wave, which just fizzled out in his hand ' _Dammit!'_

Gohan shut his eyes and waited for the impact, until…

" **MASENKO!"** a Masenko out of nowhere suddenly crashed right into the Death Beam right before it hit Gohan, cancelling it out in a blinding explosion.

Gohan and Kai both glanced over and their eyes widened at what they saw "Piccolo!"

Sure enough, the figure floating before them was Piccolo, his hand outstretched and smoking from firing a Masenko, with Yamcha floating right behind him, at least until he fell to the ground in a heap "Sorry to keep you guys waiting, I had to pick that one up. You guys might have had a pretty hard time but it's obvious that the two of you have gotten a lot stronger, I'm proud of the two of you."

Gohan took the chance to catch his breath "Thanks for that Piccolo but I don't think there's anything else that I can do against Frieza, I put everything that I had into that blast and now I'm spent."

Frieza pulled himself out of the water and began to analyze Gohan "Well this is peculiar, the power level of that little runt has taken a rather sizeable jump. Somehow recovering from that thrashing that I gave him seems to actually have made him more powerful. Wait a moment, of course that child must have Saiyan blood! But how, who is that brat? I made sure that the Saiyan race was all but extinct, Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz were the only three that I allowed to stay alive after that. The question is then, who's daddy? He doesn't much take after Vegeta or Nappa so I guess that would leave Raditz, no there isn't enough of a resemblance for that to be the case I suppose. Well I guess it doesn't matter now." and then he glanced over at Piccolo "And now there's yet another Namekian who was able to escape my attention. Yes and there's something different about this one, he's far more imposing than even the likes of that other Namekian over there. Of course his fate will still be the same as the rest of them, in a matter of moments he'll be joining the rest of his kind in oblivion."

Piccolo studied Frieza at the same time "So that's the dreaded Frieza then is he? I get it now, he's even more hideous than I could've imagined. Now then, I think it's time to give this monster a taste of his own medicine. I'll fight him on my own, Gohan you take the uncle and nephew over to get some help and make sure the others stay out of my way."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Gohan.

"I wouldn't be saying it if I wasn't."

"...Alright, just try to be careful." so Gohan dropped to the ground, slung Kai over his shoulder, and slowly carried him towards where Dende was hiding.

Piccolo on the other hand took the chance to lower himself to the ground and ripped off his weighted cape and turban.

"You know you made quite the foolish move coming here." Frieza lowered himself to the ground in front of Piccolo "You should've just hidden away in a corner somewhere like the slug that you are."

"You say that like it's supposed to intimidate me."

"What I fail to understand is why you would be so eager to pick a fight you know you don't have a chance of winning. Perhaps you're showing off for someone, or maybe it's just that you have some sort of death wish. But if you wish to die so soon then I suppose I have no right to stop you then."

"We'll see about that soon enough." Piccolo dropped into a stance and began flaring his white aura, the veins in his muscles bulging, and with a furious roar he reached his maximum power.

"Well well what do we have here?"

"I am Piccolo, the son of the Demon King Piccolo, the Yin to the Yang that is Kami."

"Kami, what the devil are you-"

Piccolo cut Frieza off when he blitzed in front of him and dealt him a fist to the face, followed by a rapid barrage of attacks.

Frieza caught Piccolo's fist and kicked him in the jaw, sending him flying away.

Piccolo rebounded and charged at Frieza, resulting in the two of them trading even blows across the skies of Planet Namek, before Piccolo dealt Frieza a sharp kick to the back, sending him crashing to the ground.

"No seriously, what the devil is a Kami?"

"It means God, now bow." and Piccolo fired an Explosive Demon Wave at Frieza while he was down, engulfing him in a massive explosion.

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Raditz gripped Nail by his collar "Don't make me spell this out for you Nail, you know as well as I do that every time a Saiyan recovers from a near fatal injury his power increases exponentially so we can use that to our advantage! I need you to hurry up and blast me through the stomach with everything that you've got before Frieza has time to perform his final transformation! I need you to do this for me Nail! It won't work if the injury is self inflicted so that means that it has to be you! Look once you blast me and Dende heals me I'll be restored to full strength in a matter of seconds-"

"Enough." Nail slapped a hand over Raditz's mouth "You know that Namekians have sensitive hearing so I cannot work with you on this if you continue screaming at me. But now that you've ceased with that…" he promptly fired a Full Power Energy Wave at Raditz, blowing a blood oozing hole through his stomach.

"That's… more like it…" using what little strength he had left, Raditz pulled himself towards the ground "Sorry about this Kakarot… it looks like… I'm going to beat you to it… to becoming… a Super Saiyan…"

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When the smoke cleared after the blast had died down, it was revealed that Frieza had doged the attack at the last second "Well such a shame for you, it would seem that you missed. I could let you try again for a Space Zeni if you want."

"Go ahead and get cocky, let's see if you can dodge these ones too!" Piccolo started firing off a barrage of Ki blasts.

Frieza began nonchalantly dodging every Ki blast thrown at him, only to get bored and stop dodging, only to notice Piccolo continuously firing Ki blasts at him anyway "You realize that I stopped dodging right? No seriously, are you even trying to hit me?"

"NO!"

"What the devil do you mean no?" Frieza suddenly glanced around and noticed that the Ki blasts had surrounded him "Oh. Ooooooh. Oooooh shit."

"Now let's see if you can dodge this, go ahead and say hi to the other Namekians you slaughtered on the other side! HELLZONE GRENADE!" Piccolo had the Ki blasts all swarm in on Frieza.

' _And add to that, it even has a cool name.'_ and then Frieza was engulfed in a massive explosion as a result.

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Gohan found himself almost blinded from the strong winds and the blinding white light that resulted from Piccolo's Hellzone Grenade, but he still put himself in front of Dende, with Nail doing the same, in order for him to be able to heal Yamcha "For crying out loud what in the world is Piccolo doing over there?"

"For all we know he may be ending this." Nail told him "But regardless of how his battle turns out we must be ready to fight to the bitter end."

"I don't think it's gonna come to that, all we have to do is hold out for a little bit longer until my dad and Tien get here and then they can take care of Frieza."

"I certainly do hope that your faith in your father is justified, if not then not only all of us but the entirety of the universe will fall to Frieza's might."

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Piccolo took a moment to recover from the Ki drainage that he had experienced, only to almost immediately freeze in pure terror and disbelief "Oh you can't be serious, that's just not even realistic!"

Sure enough, the smoke cleared to reveal that Frieza had shielded himself from the attack at the last second, only now he was pretty much beyond pissed "Yeah okay I think I've had just about enough of this. _This just isn't going to do, I think it's time for me to wipe these Saiyans and the rest of these insects off of the face of the universe once and for all. Not that I ever put that much stock in those ridiculous old legends about the Super Saiyan that they just kept on blabbering about, but I always have believed that it's better to air on the side of caution.'_ the bead of sweat dripping down the side of his head would tend to suggest otherwise ' _That and those Zenkai boosts of theirs are actually rather worrying to an extent. Well then in that I case I suppose it would be caution to the wind.'_ he let out a sinister chuckle that got the attention of everyone present "You know I think that little display just proved that it wouldn't be too difficult for me to obliterate all of you as I am in this current form, but rather than do that I think I'm going to enjoy myself a little bit and leave all of you with one final vision more terrifying than the likes of Hell itself!"

' _Yeah I'm pretty sure that I don't like the sound of this.'_

"You may consider this to be my parting gift to all of you, I will allow you to witness a nightmare that surpasses that of even the horrors of Hell itself! Bear witness to my true ultimate form!" and with a strain filled roar, Frieza began the transformation into his final form, shaking the ground beneath him and summoning a group of dark clouds, his entire body beginning to glow and then crack apart.

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At the same time, Nail was explaining to Gohan and Kai about the concept of a Zenkai, at least based on what Raditz had told him "From what Raditz tells me every time a warrior with Saiyan blood recovers from a near death experience their power level increases exponentially, you understand that do you not?"

Kai and Gohan were quick to catch on "And that's why Raditz asked you to blast him halfway down the Highway to Hell, if he comes back from the dead one more time then it might turn out to be our best chance of beating Frieza or at least stalling him until Goku and Tien finally get here."

"Exactly."

"Not a bad plan really, it's not like any of us have a chance against him right now. Hey Dende how are you coming with the healing process on my uncle?"

"Just a moment, I'm almost done." Dende quickly finished up the healing process, finishing up with healing Yamcha's wounds.

Unfortunately, Frieza had witnessed this from afar during his transformation ' _So that's the explanation, that's how these pests keep on coming back from the dead!'_

"Okay I'm done, he's back to 100%."

Yamcha slowly pulled himself back to his feet "Man you're right, I really am back to 100% and I feel even stronger now too! I guess part of that is just that the Grand Elder's gift that just keeps on giving but I've gotta ask, do all Namekians have the ability to heal like that?"

"No I'm afraid not, only some Namekians have the ability to heal just like only some Namekians are warriors like Nail and your friend over there."

"Yeah as cool as that is we've got other problems, Raditz is in pretty bad shape over there and we need you to heal him for us." Kai gestured to where Raditz was lying on another nearby island with a giant hole in his chest, followed by a furious shriek sounding in the distance "Oh yeah and that's still happening too right about now so I think you might wanna hurry with that or we're all gonna die."

"R-Right." and so Dende quickly rushed off to heal Raditz's wounds, leaving Kai alone on that island with Gohan, Yamcha and Nail.

"So what's next-"

"Gohan! Kai!" that was when Piccolo dropped down onto the scene, followed by what seemed to be a a shrieking noise, and then a shattering noise, and finally a blinding white light and a shockwave that followed that.

"And I'm guessing that's what we're all pissing ourselves over right now?"

"Frieza just completed his final transformation, which means that we're probably all doomed right about now."

"I don't suppose it would mean anything if I said that we should just try and hide somewhere since he can't detect Ki signatures?"

"That wouldn't do any good for any of us, Frieza's not the kind of bastard who would waste time with searching and instead he's just blow up the entire planet. It's not like there's anything stopping him right now, without the Dragon Balls he doesn't have any use for this world or any of us."

"That's what I thought. Well we're f*cked."

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Goku and Tien prepared themselves for battle, the former taking the liberty of strapping his newly inherited Golden Power Pole onto his back and the latter removing his shirt, as their ship continued to draw ever closer to Planet Namek ' _Hang on guys we're almost there, just a little bit longer.'_

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Yamcha glanced in the direction of where Frieza's Ki signature was located "I'm gonna assume you guys can feel that power too, I can barely wrap my head around that.

"All of you get ready, he's coming into view." Piccolo quickly readied himself for the inevitable slaughter that was sure to come at them, with Gohan, Nail and Kai all doing the same.

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Realizing the peril of the situation they were in, Dende made quick work of Raditz's injuries and brought him back to full strength "Okay it's done, you should be able to move now and be back to full strength."

Raditz pulled himself back to his feet and took a moment to get a grip on his new power "So this is it then huh? Well then I suppose it's now or never." he glanced over to see the image of Frieza revealing himself from within the smoke "So this is Frieza's true form then is it? At last we finally get to see what we're really up against, the only question is what are we really up against right now? And now that I have this new power will I be able to stop him? Have I really become the legendary Super Saiyan, or is that honor still yours Kakarot?"

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Bardock studied Frieza's final form intently "Okay either I'm missing something or the big change is a complete and utter letdown, I thought he would come out looking like Scarlet after that party last month but now he looks totally scrawny."

"You couldn't be further from the truth." Scarlet told him grimly "You should know damn well that the power of your opponent has nothing to do with their appearances on the outside, even from here I can tell that Frieza's previous forms have nothing on what he's like right now. I hate to say it but even with Raditz as strong as he is now, after all of that time I spent with Piccolo training him and all that Kai and the others went through to collect the Dragon Balls in order to wish everyone back it might have all been in vain. Piccolo won't be able to protect either of the boys this time, not from someone like Frieza."

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The tension in the air continued to grow ever thicker on Planet Namek.

Frieza aimed two fingers in the direction of Gohan, Kai and the others "Bang." and with the utterance of only that one single word he fired two Death Beams from his hand one from each of the two outstrectched fingers past the likes of Gohan, Kai, Piccolo and Yamcha, and the beams closed in on both Dende and Nail, engulfing both of them in two simultaneous explosions as a result. When the smoke cleared, it revealed that Dende and Nail had both been reduced to little more than charred, lifeless corpses. They were dead.

Gohan could only look on in pure horror "Dende… Nail… no… NO!"

Piccolo and Yamcha both looked at Frieza, sweat dripping down their faces ' _How the hell did he do that, I didn't even see him fire those attacks! It was completely instantaneous, there was no time to react! What in the hell has this monster become, what have we gotten ourselves into with this?'_

Frieza withdrew both of his fingers and let out a whistful sigh "Oh I feel real good about my life right now."

"You just f*cked with the White Mage, you sick son of a bitch that's forbidden just like doing the Lambada!" and then Kai started freaking out "HEALER'S DOWN! NEED A RES! OUT OF MANA!" and then he just started screaming randomly, only to end up being smacked on the back of the head by Piccolo "Thanks I needed that."

"The brat's little tantrum aside I think that will speed things up, now I may still have five of you to deal with but at least now two of you pests are out of the way right?"

"Dende… Nail… no…" Gohan was snarling like some kind of pissed off animal "Why did have to be them? Dende wasn't even fighting!"

"But we were, that's the problem." Kai told him grimly "Frieza saw Dende healing Yamcha's injuries from earlier so he must've realized that he was gonna have a tough time taking all of us out when we had Dende here as the magic reset button to heal all of us, and that made him the prime target in Frieza's eyes. As for Nail, my guess is he did that just to be a dick."

"He's gonna pay for that, I won't let him get away with this!" Gohan prepared to charge at Frieza in a blind rage, only to be held back by Kai "Let me go!"

"Use your head for a minute, I might be as insensitive and insane and reckless as they come but not even I would go charging in there like some kind of crazed animal!"

"He's not wrong you know." Frieza suddenly blitzed behind all of them before they could even react, and he glanced back to see Raditz floating upwards in order to spectate.

' _Dammit he's so fast that none of us could even see him move!'_

"I did promise you before did I not, that I would allow all of you to bare witness to a nightmare beyond the horrors of Hell. Of course I had hoped that I would be able to include all of you in this slaughter but from the looks of things it would seem that two of the three Namekians will not be joining us. It's such a shame when you think about it, when you see the two of them in the next world I suppose you'll have to tell them what they missed."

"That's it, I can't take this anymore!" Gohan charged at Frieza in a blind rage and launched a furious barrage of punches and kicks, only for Frieza to just duck under each attack with such ease.

"Bring it on you damn freak!" Yamcha charged in next, with Kai right behind him, and the two of them unleashed barrages of their own, but Frieza just kept on dodging them.

"Well we might as well go for broke." and with that set in his mind, Piccolo charged at Frieza as well, only to not have any better luck than the others.

"Is this supposed to do something?" Frieza just kept on dodging each and every attack being thrown at him.

"Alright you know what, F*CK THIS!" Kai bolted into the air and fired off a full power Nail Gun, with Gohan, Piccolo and Yamcha all firing a Masenko, an Explosive Demon Wave and a Kaioken enhanced full power Kamehameha respectively, all four of them firing their attacks from four different angles.

Frieza merely rolled his eyes and leapt upwards into the air in order to avoid being hit by the blasts.

"AND WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" Kai and Gohan both unleashed two simultaneous Kamehameha blasts, only for the smoke to soon clear to reveal that there was no sign of Frieza "Son of a bitch he disappeared again, now where is old Lizard Lips hiding?"

"DAMMIT WILL YOU MORONS SCREW YOUR HEADS ON STRAIGHT, HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" Raditz roared at them out of nowhere.

"What the-?"

Sure enough, Frieza was standing right behind them "Hello again." and then he fired another Death Beam, this time directed in the direction of Gohan.

' _Shit!'_

"GET OUT OF THE WAY YOU IDIOT!" thinking quickly, Raditz suddenly blitzed forward and knocked Gohan to the ground, causing the Death Beam to soar overhead and then destroy a nearby island in an instant.

"Hot damn I couldn't even follow that attack, it's like it was almost instantaneous. Yeah I'm gonna have a lot of processing to do once we get back to Earth."

"You're welcome, that is my response to your rant."

Yamcha and Piccolo looked at each other, and then at Raditz, and then back at each other, both of them deep in thought ' _Raditz was the only one of us who was able to see Frieza fire that attack at all, just how much stronger has he gotten with that Zenkai?'_

"Anyway all of you had better duck because I'm about to turn left and I don't wanna smack you with my dick, besides I want to make sure that all of you can bare witness to my victory over the likes of Frieza." and so Raditz stepped forward.

"Well that's not at all pretencious." Kai's tone was practically oozing sarcasm "So where are you going with this exactly big guy, you really think you can take him down with this new power of yours?"

"I think we're about to find out, and I honestly don't want to sound pretentious but yes I think I'll be able to beat him soundly. The rest of you just stay back and keep your eyes peeled for the time being, you can just go right on ahead and enjoy the show."

Frieza on the other hand was rather amused by this and let out a chuckle "Well it would seem that someone has got their brovado back, either that or it would seem that the helplessness of your situation has made you delusional. You really think that you'll be able to fight me? Well no not really fight, more like flail angrily when you think about it."

"Make your jokes while you can Frieza before you realize what it is that you're actually up against right about now, I can see the absolute peak of your power wheras I'm only beginning to tap into mine. You see Frieza you're not dealing with the average Saiyan warrior anymore, I've realized the legend and become the thing that you fear most. Yeah that's right Frieza, that day has come at last. I am Raditz, son of Bardock, survivor of the Saiyan race, and I have become the legendary Super Saiyan!"

Frieza's eyes shot wide almost instantly.

"Go ahead and admit it Frieza, you're jealous of my Super Saiyan swagger because you know that it's going to be the end of you."

"...Oh my." Frieza actually just let out a chuckle "Well this is quite a surprise, I never expected you to have such a sense of humor."

"Oh sure go ahead and scoff at me as much as you want, in the meantime allow me to show you what a true warrior of the Saiyan race like yours truly is capable of and why you were right to fear the legends!" Raditz dropped into a stance and began powering up, a sphere of light surrounding him, his teeth grinding furiously and his veins throbbing from the strain that he was feeling, his body beginning to crackle with electricity.

"Holy shit I wish there was a way that I could put this on the Internet!" Kai received numerous WTF looks from everyone present, including Frieza "I mean there's about to be some serious fireworks so we should hurry and find some cover, yeah that's what I totally meant to say all the time."

"...Just come on." Yamcha took to the skies, with Piccolo and Gohan doing the same, and Kai following after a moment "I'm not really sure what all of this Super Saiyan stuff is all about but whatever it means Raditz's new power is totally amazing!"

"That was the point of him having Nail blast him and then having Dende heal him, thanks to that Zenkai boost he would receive his power would shoot up like a rocket and he'd at least be able to put up a fight against Frieza."

"Oh, well if that was the plan all along then it looks like it worked wonders."

"The question is though, is it gonna be enough?" this was followed by a roar from Raditz that would've left blood on the mic, an unimaginable shockwave and a blinding white light that covered the entirety of the battlefield.

When the smoke cleared and everything died down, Gohan was the first one to regain his sight and open his eyes "Wait what happened, is it over already?" he looked down at the battlefield, only to see Raditz and Frieza both standing where they were as if nothing had happened "Wait what the heck is going on? They're both just standing there, it's like nothing even happened at all!"

"That's where you're wrong, everything has changed. Try sensing out Raditz's Ki signature for a minute and then you'll understand, it's all just bubbling beneath the surface."

"What do you mean?" Gohan glanced down at Raditz and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head at what he was sensing "Oh man you're right, I can barely wrap my head around how much power he's got now. It's like he's a whole different person!"

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Frieza on the other hand wasn't even remotely impressed "So am I correct to asume that that little light show of yours was actually intended to intimidate me in some form?"

"You don't know the half of it." Raditz let out a scoff "You should consider yourself to be lucky that you lost your precious Scouter when you did, if you could read my actual power level right now then I know for a fact that you would tuck that tail of yours right between your legs and then run away screaming for the mercy that you'll never receive. Yes that's right Frieza, it's because you wouldn't be able to deny the fact that my power level is now even greater than yours could ever hope to be! As it stands I'm just going to have to show it to you first hand, you'll see it soon enough once I bring you to your knees. Oh come on what's the matter Frieza, have you run out of witty comebacks of yours? You're not scared now are you?"

"...Yes okay I think that's enough of that, I've heard enough out of you but since you're so determined to carry out this farce I suppose I might as well humor you and let you play Super Saiyan for the time being. Let me see your so called legendary power first hand."

"Oh believe me Frieza, you will." so Raditz levitated a rock out of the ground and hurled it forward with a palm strike.

Frieza swatted the rock aside and shattered it without even batting an eye.

"You're not going to get away from me Frieza, not this time!" Raditz charged towards Frieza at full speed and began launching a furious barrage of attacks, causing Frieza to go on the evasive, and by that I mean he was just cranking his head to the side with every strike being thrown at him, and yet Raditz just kept on attacking "Yeah how do you like that one Frieza, Kakarot won't even get a shot at you before I get through with you!"

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Gine looked on in awe as Raditz continued his assault against Frieza "He's so much stronger now it's incredible, Frieza has transformed three times and yet Raditz is pushing him back onto his heels! He just might actually beat him after all!"

"No." Scarlet cut off her cheers, her tone grim "Raditz is stronger now sure but even with his newfound power it's still not enough, I hate to say it Gine but if things continue like this then he's done for." this was met with a mute nod from Bardock as well.

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Completely blind to the peril that had been bringing upon himself, Raditz continued with his relentless assault against Frieza "You realize that this is a losing strategy Frieza, you and I both know damn well that you won't be able to keep dodging my attacks forever!" he prepared a smash attack, only for Frieza to suddenly disappear before the attack connected "What the hell he was right there, I had him dammit! But I'm supposed to be a Super Saiyan, my battle instincts should be beyond anything they've ever been before so how the hell could I lose sight of him as easily as that?"

A loud laugh caught Raditz's attention, revealing that Frieza was just nonchalantly standing around on a nearby island "Well well it would seem that someone is starting to lose his nerve now."

"What the- How the hell did he-?"

"Oh come on now Raditz, I make one little move at full speed and then suddenly your head is left spinning. Saiyan or not perhaps you're not so super after all."

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Gine was left looking mortified "I don't believe it, Raditz's power is beyond anything I've ever seen before but Frieza is still just toying with him!"

"I was afraid of this." Bardock muttered "Raditz doesn't stance a chance against that bastard now, the only hope he has is that Kakarot gets there in time to make sure that he doesn't get killed."

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Frieza let out a condescending chuckle "Oh my dear Raditz, not to put a damper on that new confidence of yours but if those are the limits of your new abilities then I'm afraid that you don't have a chance of defeating me. It's such a shame really and after all of that boasts about becoming the legendary Super Saiyan as well, of course if you really are what you say that you are then it would seem that all this time I've been worrying over nothing. I almost find such a thing humorous, the grand tales of the mighty Super Saiyan, the most fearsome warrior the universe has ever seen, being nothing more than silly legends after all."

Raditz was left almost petrified ' _What the hell is going on, is this really supposed to be the best that I can do? But I'm supposed to be the Super Saiyan, I have to be the Super Saiyan, I just have to be! There's no way that Frieza can be this powerful, there has to be some sort of way for me to beat him!_ No there's no way I can accept this! The legends of the Super Saiyan are true, I know they are! I will not be defeated! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED!" Raditz powered up further in his rage and unleashed a Saturday Crash blast.

' _He really is such a miserable fool, just like his father.'_ Frieza dodged the blast with ease, leaving the island to be obliterated by the blast.

"YOU'LL NEVER GET AWAY FROM ME FRIEZA, YOU'RE ALL MINE NOW!" having spotted Frieza from within the cloud of smoke, Raditz started firing a random desperate barrage of Ki blasts that lit up the skies of Planet Namek.

Frieza continued dodging every Ki blast being thrown at him, scaring the ever loving shit out of the likes of Piccolo and the others just for fun in the process, and then he suddenly blitzed in front of Raditz, causing him to instantly halt his barrage of attacks, with Frieza waving his tail in front of Raditz's face in sort of a mocking manner.

"DON'T YOU F*CKING DARE MOCK ME!" now pissed beyond belief, Raditz bolted into the skies of Planet Namek "I can't let this happen, I WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN! Are you listening to me Frieza?! I am… I AM A SUPER SAIYAN AND YOU CAN FEEL MY WRATCH AND BURN IN HELL!" and in a desperate attempt to prove his point he used as much Ki as he was able to to fire his Weekend blast, the two blasts combining into one that was much greater in terms of both size and power.

Frieza just crossed his arms and prepare to take the blast.

"DAMMIT RADITZ STOP IT OR YOU'RE GOING TO END UP DESTROYING THE ENTIRE PLANET!" Piccolo barked out all of a sudden.

' _Caution to the wind it is then I suppose.'_ so keeping that in mind, Frieza leapt up towards the Weekend blast and with a mighty roar he slammed his foot into the blast and deflected it back upwards (leaving his foot singed in the process), causing the blast to detonate in the upper atmosphere. With his horrifying display slowly sinking in, Frieza lowered himself back down to the ground and smirked "Yes I do believe that that is enough, the time has come for us to end this foolishness before it ceases to be amusing."

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Scarlet was left thoroughly stunned by the events "This is ridiculous, he just deflected a blast of that size like it was nothing! I call bullshit!"

"You and many others." Bardock told her dryly "Plus I know for a fact that there was no way in hell that Raditz was holding back with that one, not to mention the fact that Frieza being that strong to begin with is bullshit in itself."

"Or some kind of plot device." she received two odd looks "What? I'm a sucker for anime and manga, bite me."

"Okay." so Bardock bit down on her arm.

"What the hell?"

"What, you said bite me. You taste like cinnamon."

"...You are one messed up dude."

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King Kai observed the situation from his planet with great sympathy ' _Poor Raditz, at last he has come to truly understand of the monster that he's facing. After all of this time he has discovered what it means to be truly terrified, for the first time in so long he is genuinely trembling. To think of all of the fear and frustration that he must be feeling over this right now, I can't even begin to imagine it. His eyes cannot tell a lie, the tears that he's showing are real. He knows what it means to feel truly helpless right now, a feeling that he is all too familiar with. The battle is over, for Frieza has already won. He's stripped Raditz of his will to fight._

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Frieza lowered himself to the ground and entered a stance "Now I do believe the time has come for me to test just how well you can fend off one of my attacks. I hope you're ready, I'm about to come to you." he burst upwards into the air and dealt Raditz a devastating headbutt to the jaw, followed by smacking him across the face using his tail, sending Raditz crashing into the Namekian sea below.

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Piccolo quickly stopped Gohan and Kai from charging at Frieza to try and help Raditz "Don't bother, there's nothing that any of us can do for him now."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Yamcha began to slowly and subtly flare his aura around his body, his aura slowly beginning to turn crimson ' _I know that I don't stand a chance against him even at full power, but at the very least I can buy a little bit of time for Goku and Tien to finally get here. I just have to give it my all against this guy, whatever it takes to protect Kai and everyone else that I care about.'_

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Using his telekinetic powers, Frieza spread out the very ocean itself to reveal the soaked and barely concsiouc form of Raditz "Oh and what's this, it's no fun if I can't hear his screams of pain and agony." he lowered himself to the ground and grabbed Raditz by the hair and then just because he ate the crab on Raditz's shoulder "Oh come now Raditz, I can't have you giving up on such a glancing blow. No I'm afraid that your torment has barely even started, there are so many horrors that I have yet to show you." and then he started punching Raditz in the kidney, causing him to cry out in pain "Yes how does that feel, are you beginning to regret your foolish attempt to defy me or shall I continue to remind you of your place being the worthless Saiyan ape that you are. I thought you and the likes of Vegeta and Nappa were different, that you might actually prove to be of use to me. I took you and the others under my wing, I gave you special treatment by not killing you along with the rest of your pathetic race and this is the thanks that I get for that? Now let me remind you of the pecking order!" he punched Raditz in the kidney again "It goes you!" another kidney punch "The dirt!" another kidney punch "The worms inside of the dirt!" another kidney punch "My stool!" another kidney punch "My father!" another kidney punch "And then ME!" he kicked Raditz into the air and elbowed him repeatedly before smacking him to the ground with his tail in front of Gohan and the others, leaving Raditz in a bloody heap.

Raditz couldn't do much more than cough up blood ' _Dammit…'_

Frieza blitzed back onto the scene, grabbed Raditz by the neck using his tail, and then started punching him in the kidney again, causing him to cough up blood and cry out in massive amounts of pain and agony, and then he glanced back at the others "Feel free to jump in and try to save them at any time, I have no intention of stopping you." he glanced over to see something closing in on the planet "Well what do we have here, a new challenger perhaps? Looks like it's about to land."

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Bardock let out a sigh "From the look of things it seems that Kakarot's son and the others are so petrified with fear that they can't even lift a finger no matter how much they must want to, not that I can blame them for it. Frieza's power has left them rendered completely helpless."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Scarlet jerked a thumb downwards "I think Yamcha is finally about to make his move, plus in case you weren't aware your son just touched down onto Planet Namek."

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" _ **Landing sequence is now complete, welcome to Planet Namek. You are now free to disembark the vessel, opening outer hatch."**_

The door to the ship slowly opened, and Goku stepped out of the ship first, with Tien a few feet behind him "We don't have a lot of time to waste here, our first order of business is to hurry and find the others."

Tien nodded "Yeah and for all we know the battle with Frieza might have already started so we can't waste any time with it."

"Right." the two of them took the chance to sense out the Ki signatures of Gohan, Kai and the others "I can already feel that insanely powerful Ki signature from here."

"It feels very similar to what Cooler's felt like but not quite as powerful, what do you think the odds are that that's Frieza?"

"My guess is that's exactly who it is."

"And the others with him have to be Gohan, Kai, Piccolo and Yamcha. But I don't recognize the last one, it feels similar to yours but different at the same time."

"...I think I know who it is, that's probably Raditz."

"You mean that Saiyan who claimed to me your older brother and helped you and the others kill that other Saiyan a year ago?"

"That's the one, from the look of things he's gotten a lot stronger since the last time I saw him back then. But at the same time he's fading and fast, I guess that's just more proof of how insanely tough Frieza is." Goku tied the bag of Senzu Beans, 3 in comparison to the original 15 that they started out with, onto the belt of his gi "Come on Tien let's go, there's no time to waste now." he glanced up at the skies of Planet Namek ' _This place is so beautiful, I just wish we had some time to stop and enjoy the scenery but we don't. Gohan, Kai, Yamcha, Bulma, I'm sorry that me and Tien took as long as we did but we're coming now so please just hang on a little bit longer!'_

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Gohan and the others continued to watch as Frieza tortured Raditz "I can't just stand here and watch this, I've gotta help him!" he prepared to charge into the fray.

Piccolo put a hand on his shoulder and grimly shook his head "Don't, no matter how much you may want to you can't save him now."

"Well we can't just leave him there or sit around and do nothing!"

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Goku and Tien took the chance to sense out the situation "Okay from the feel of things they're a fair distance away but I think we can make it."  
Tien nodded "Yeah I think so too but we still can't waste any time, I think we should try and use the Kaioken to boost our speed."

"Good idea. We're on our way you guys, try to hang on for just a little bit longer. Okay Tien let's get going. **Kaioken!"** both of them burst into the first level of their Kaioken and bolted off across the skies of Planet Namek, leaving crimson streaks in their wake, towards the fight of their lives.

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Having gotten bored with torturing Raditz, Frieza promptly flung him into the side of a nearby mountain, leaving him in a bloody heap "And once again you disappoint me with the lack of blood curdling screaming." he grabbed onto a nearby rock with his foot and began grinding it on top of one of Raditz's wounds, causing him to scream in pain "You know this really is quite the shame, it would seem that all of the fight really has gone out of you. It's a bit sooner than I would've liked but I think the time has come for me to finish you off." he grabbed Raditz by the suit of armor that he was wearing and then prepared to finish him off with a Death Beam through the chest, only to freeze when he noticed a crimson blur appear in front of him "And what's this now?"

Yeah as it turns out, Yamcha had been able to push his Kaioken to the absolute max, though it wasn't very stable and the aura was flickering "For the sake of my friends, for the sake of my nephew Kai, for the woman I love Bulma, for honoring my sister Scarlet, for everyone on Earth and the future of Planet Namek! It doesn't matter how powerful he is, if I can push my Kaioken to the max then I at least have to have some kind of chance! I just have to give it everything that I've got and show this guy what happens when people mess with me and my friends!" his crimson aura suddenly stabilized " **Kaioken… times… TWENTY!"** he suddenly burst forward and slugged Frieza straight across the face " **Ka…"** he followed up with another fist directly to the face " **Me…"** a kick to the jaw " **Ha…"** a fist to the gut " **Me…"** another fist to the gut that sent Frieza flying away " **HAAAAAAAA!"** using all of the Ki that he was able to muster, he fired off a Kaioken enhanced Super Kamehameha wave at full power, engulfing Frieza in a massive explosion that nearly blew everyone else away. When the blast subsided, Yamcha fell to his knees in exhaustion, practically gasping for air ' _I know that wasn't anywhere near enough to take him down or deal him any sort of permanent damage, but at the very least that must've bought a little bit of time. I could sense Goku and Tien making a beeline here so I figured what the hell and I just went for it, with any luck he'll be occupied long enough with me for them to get here._

When the smoke cleared, it revealed that Frieza had nearly been blasted into the ocean, but he had been able to block the attack and only ended up getting a few burn marks "I must say that was rather impressive, but in the end it means about as much as the rest of you do in the grand scheme of things." he blitzed forward and dealt Yamcha a kick to the jaw, sending him tumbling backwards and crashing into another nearby mountain in a bloody and broken heap "Now with that little interruption out of the way where was I? Oh yes right, sending Raditz crying home to his dear old mommy."

"My… My mother is dead…" Raditz spat out some more blood.

"I know." he prepared to deal Raditz the finishing blow, only to feel a shockwave along with everyone else and he glanced over "And what's this now?"

As it turns out, that was the well timed arrival of Goku and Tien, their Kaioken auras fading out of existence as they slowly made their way towards the group "You know I kind of had a hunch about this but I wasn't really sure, though now I guess we were worried over nothing. That huge only somewhat familiar power level that I was sensing with the rest of them, it really was you wasn't it Piccolo?"

"Goku." Piccolo gave him a simple nod.

"Since you're here with the others instead of being with King Kai I'm guessing that means that they brought you back with the Dragon Balls on this planet."

Gohan lit up as he glanced over to Goku and Tien "Dad you made it, you're finally here for real!"

"Yep that's right son, and just in time by the looks of it. Hang on a second though, we've only got one Senzu Bean left after all of our training and from the look of things I think Yamcha needs it the most right now." the two of them started walking over towards Yamcha "From the looks of things it seems like you've had it pretty rough haven't you?"

"Yeah there were a few times when I didn't think we were gonna make it. The battles up until this point weren't really that bad, at least not until we started fighting Frieza. At first we were just backup for Raditz in the fight, but then Frieza transformed and it took me and Kai double teaming him, but then he transformed again and almost killed both of us. Then Piccolo showed up and bought me time to get Kai and Yamcha healed, but then Frieza transformed again and then killed both Nail and Dende, two of the Namekians that have been helping us since we got here."

"Oh. Well we can bring them back with the Dragon Balls once all of this is over so we don't have to worry about that right now, let's just focus in the task at hand."

Yamcha lifted his head up to meet Goku's eyes and he let out a chuckle "Hey Goku, I was wondering when you guys were gonna decide to show."

"Yeah good to see you too Yamcha, sorry it took us so long to get here. We kind of got caught in an asteroid field and it sort of spiralled from there. Anyway here, we've got a Senzu Bean for you."

"Thanks for the offer but I'm not sure it's gonna do any kind of good now." and yet he swallowed the Senzu Bean regardless and got back to his feet "Listen Goku I know you can already sense it yourself, how strong Frieza really is now. His power is on a whole nother level unlike anything any of us have ever seen before. I mean you see what Raditz looks like right now."

"Yeah that's what I don't get, didn't Raditz use to work with them? Why was he fighting them to begin with?"

"Well… it's kind of complicated and it'll take a lot of time to explain all of it."

"You don't need to explain it to me Yamcha, I can just feel it out." so Goku proceeded to do just that (much to the confusion of everyone else present), and got a grip on what had been happening on Planet Namek, such as with Frieza, Raditz helping them, meeting the Grand Elder and getting their potential unlocked, the Ginyu Force, summoning Porunga to wish Piccolo back to life, and the battle with Frieza up until his and Tien's arrival "Oh so that's the deal with what's been going on, I actually saw the entire story. I saw the Grand Elder and how he gave you and the others that big boost in power so now you're even stronger than Tien is right now after I spent all that time training with him, and I saw that Bulma is still safe so that's good, and the part about Frieza and the Dragon Balls and wishing Piccolo back to life, I got all of that. Plus I saw that Raditz has actually been."

"...I'm not even gonna ask how the hell you can read minds or mention how much you're freaking me out here. Are you really sure that you've got what it takes to deal with him even as strong as you are now?"

"Well I guess we'll find out soon enough." he ruffled Gohan's hair with one hand "I'm proud of all of you for fighting as hard as you did but just leave the rest to me now, I can take care of it on my own."

"Wait hold on a second!" Piccolo finally spoke you "Goku you can't be serious, you have no idea what he's capable of and you seriously want us to let you fight that bastard all on your own?"

"Yeah I do Piccolo, and for the record while we were out in space Tien and I happened to meet someone just as strong as Frieza so I know exactly what it is that I'm up against." a blue aura began flickering around his body as he made his way forward.

"Okay so trying to be realistic about this whole thing, who the hell are you and what the f*ck have you done with Goku? And more importantly, how exactly did you and the Triclops power up to such a bullshit extent?"

"Goku wait a second!" Piccolo was promptly ignored ' _Dammit Kai is right, he's become so much more powerful than he was back on Earth that it's almost hard to believe that he's the same person as before.'_

Goku slowly made his way forward towards Frieza and let his aura subsided "So I'm guessing that you must be Frieza. It's kind of funny, Cooler never mentioned that you would turn out to be so short."

Frieza shot him a smirk "It would seem that this planet is positively crawling with scum, and from the domain of my brother no less. Why am I not surprised?"

"Okay before you start trashing your brother I'm gonna have to ask you to back the HFIL away from mine."

"Is that so? _I can sware I've seen his face somewhere before.'_ Frieza studied Goku intently for a moment.

Radits slowly opened his eyes and locked onto Goku in front of him "I was wondering… when you would… finally show up… Kakarot…"

"Kakarot you say? Correct me if I'm wrong but is that not a Saiyan name?" Frieza quickly snapped his head towards Goku and saw an image of a very familiar face, this one being of none other than Bardock ' _It's him! Yes it's him, it has to be. He's the spitting image of that impertinent Saiyan who rebelled against me in the final moments before I destroyed Planet Vegeta. Which means that he must be the son of that wretch Bardock, which makes him Raditz's long lost younger brother._ I suppose it's only fair to make this absolutely clear to you that I have no intention of allowing even a single Saiyan to live. There's no point in resisting, I'm sure you could save yourself the trouble and kneel before me now."

"I'm sure I could, doesn't mean that I will." Goku's tone was flat and blunt, something that really got on Frieza's nerves.

"You've got a mouth on you you know that."

Raditz's eyes settled on Goku once again ' _Kakarot isn't the same person that he was before, he's been able to completely shatter his original limitations as a Saiyan. But wait… does that mean what I think it means?'_

"So tell me Saiyan are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Goku suddenly dodged a swipe of Frieza's tail, in which he suddenly blitzed behind him, whipped out his Golden Power Pole and smacked Frieza across the face with it, sending him flying away.

Frieza quickly rebounded and landed on the ground opposite of Goku, clutching the visible bruise on his cheek.

Gohan shared a look with Kai "Okay so do you have any idea what just happened because I barely saw my dad move!"

"Nope, not a damn clue." was Kai's blunt response "I doubt even Piccolo was able to see that attack clearly, looks like the big guy is moving even faster than Frieza is."

Goku dropped back into his combat stance with his Golden Power Pole in hand "It's your move now."

"So it is then." Frieza promptly pointed one finger forward, which prompted Yamcha and the others to get out of the way as he fired a single Death Beam.

Goku promptly deflected the Death Beam using his Golden Power Pole, causing it to blow up a nearby mountain.

Quickly losing his temper, Frieza fired a rapid barrage of Death Beams at Goku, engulfing him in a cloud of smoke due to the resulting explosions, only to be taken aback by what he was seeing as a result.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed that Goku hadn't even taken so much as a scratch, having deflected every Death Beam hurled at him "Well now it's more like it _was_ your move, and then you pretty much blew it."

"That's not possible, even if he did have some sort of strange weapon there's no way he could've deflected them all!"

Raditz let out a weak hacking cough and a cocky smirk "Hey… just a little bit of advice… you aren't gonna want to hold anything back Frieza… not against the likes of him… I got too overconfident… this is the end result of that… but he's the real deal… the thing that you fear more than anything else in the universe… Now you're dealing with the real deal… a real Super Saiyan…" this left Frieza looking stunned "Yeah that's right… you heard me… he's the legendary warrior… even mightier than the likes of you… he's standing before you now… to finish what our father started… all those years ago… Just wait Frieza… you're finally about to get a taste of true fear… one that you've had coming for years…" he just kept on laughing until he was suddenly silenced by a pissed off Frieza with a Death Beam through his chest, causing him to fall back and cough up a massive amount of blood, much to the horror of everyone else present.

"Oh my dear Raditz you continuously forget quite the important fact, I don't enjoy jokes much and you've never actually been as funny as you allow yourself to believe that you are."

"Why you… That was dirty!" Goku let out an outright snarl "Raditz could barely even move let alone defend himself, what you just did was nothing short of cold blooded murder!"

"Well it serves him right for prattling on about hat ridiculous legend as much as he did, Super Saiyan indeed. Such foolish talk is not something that I abide."

"You…"

"No…" Raditz coughed up some more blood and slowly gripped one of his fists.

"Raditz!"

"Don't tell me… you're still preaching… about mercy… not with someone like him… That means that… you're still holding back… There's only one way… for you to win… You have to harden your heart… put aside your mercy… fight like a true Saiyan warrior… and then you might… actually have a chance… you could truly become a Super Saiyan…"

"I don't care what you say, I could never act as cold blooded as the likes of Vegeta or Freiza even if I did think it would make me even stronger. I don't know what this Super Saiyan thing is that you're talking about but I think I'll get by in this fight just fine as I am right now."

"No, you're wrong… a Super Saiyan is what…" he coughed up more blood.

"Just stop talking and save your energy, you running your mouth like Kai or Vegeta is just gonna make things worse!"

"No… please Kakarot… I need you to listen… if there is ever a time… for you to listen to me… then let it be now…"

Frieza just rolled his eyes "Is there no way to silence this blitering buffoon? Honestly it would seem that he's intent on talking me to death."

"I need you to know… what happened… to Planet Vegeta… where both of us were born… It's gone… destroyed… that much is true, but not… not because it was struck… by a gigantic meteor of some kind…" Raditz gripped his fist again as tears began streaming down his face, his tears mixing with his spilt blood "It was Frieza… Frieza did it… after we of the Saiyan race served him faithfully… and blindly followed his evere last order without question… he went and betrayed us… he disposed of our race and our home like common trash… and he wiped us from existence… so that now… you and I are all that remain… our people… our home… our legacy… they're all gone… our father… our mother… all of them… we Saiyans were growing in strength and numbers and Frieza feared that soon a Super Saiyan would be born among us… and such a thought shook him to the core… and so he wiped it all out… all of us… Because he thought… that he would be ridding the universe… of it's only hope… of defeating him…"

Goku was left taken aback by this, with the others the same to a lesser extent "Raditz, I… I had no idea…"

Raditz continued letting his tears flow as he reached out with the last of his strength and grabbed onto Goku by one of his boots "I'm begging you Kakarot… please… defeat him… for me… for the pride of our race… for the pride of our family… you must defeat him… he must die by a Saiyan's hand… by your hand… Kakarot… brother…" and with that, Raditz took his final breath and his body at last fell back against the soil. Raditz was dead.

"Raditz…" Goku gripped his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palms.

Frieza simply rolled his eyes "So he's finally finished is he? Well excellent, now that he's done shall we resume this horror show?"

"For you to actually cry… for you to beg me for my help… I can't even begin to imagine how hard that must have been for you to do."

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King Kai lowered his head as a sign of respect "And thus ends quite a tragic tale."

"Wait did something happen on Planet Namek?" asked Krillin.

"Well the thing is that… Raditz is dead."

"Wait what there's no way! But if Raditz is dead then that must mean that…"

"Yes I'm afraid so, Frieza had defeated him and easily too. After years of service and after devoting his entire life to Frieza's cause, Raditz was betrayed and killed in cold blood my his former master. It's a shame is what it is, and quite the blow to his Saiyan pride too."

"I didn't think that there was anyone who could actually defeat someone like Raditz easily, so what now?"

"Well I'm afraid that Goku and the others have stirred the anger of a monster whose fury knows no bounds."

"So what does that mean then, are you saying that it's hopeless like there's no way that they can ever win? So then what about Goku?"

"He's preparing to fight Frieza as we speak, he's determined to see this through no matter what the cost may be."

"But… But that's insane!"

"Yes I know!" King Kai let out a sigh ' _Goku, I sure hope that you know what you're doing right now.'_

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' _Raditz… brother…'_ after having taken several minutes to process the revelation of the destruction of his home planet and birth parents, Goku unleashed a quick Invisible Eye Blast to create a makeshift grave, and then he slowly picked up Raditz's body "I think I'm starting to understand now. It was more than just losing our race and losing our family that made you so angry. You hated the fact that he forced you to do all of those horrible things that you did like some kind of puppet, and you lost your pride as a result." he slowly knelt down and placed the body of Raditz in the grave, and then he proceeded to bury him "You and I may have gotten off on a horrible foot about a year ago with Beets trying to kidnap my son, but you tried to help me and the others save my son even though you knew that none of us trusted you, and you've saved my son and my friends time and time again on this planet so I have to thank you for that. And besides, aside from all of that I always respected your pride. And now I have to ask you to share some of that pride with me, pride in myself and what I believe in. I am Son Goku, the grandson of Son Gohan, the student of Master Roshi of the Turtle School, student of King Kai, and a Saiyan that was raised on Planet Earth!" and then he rounded on Frieza "And in the name of every single Saiyan that has suffered by your hand, and for the people of Planet Namek, and all of the countless, helpless innocent people that you've murdered in cold blood… I will defeat you!"

"And I would absolutely love to see you try." Frieza took on a stance, the two of them ready to begin the battle of the century at long last.

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 **Having witnessed the death of his brother Raditz before his very eyes and learned the truth behind the destruction of his home planet, Goku has found a spark of Saiyan pride flaring inside of him, the spark slowly but surely turning into a roaring fire within his soul. Could this newfound determination give him the edge that he needs in order to overcome whata appears to be a seemingly unstoppable foe? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And here comes the next part of the battle with Frieza, as well as a shocking set of changes to come with it. I made it so Piccolo is able to do damage to Frieza's third form instead of just his second due to fusing with King Piccolo because the two of them are, I guess you could say that they're related. I don't really know that much about Namekian Fusion to begin with so I just decided "F*ck it" and said that he's stronger for plot convenience, as I'm sure the great MasakoX would describe it. I did want to extend that fight more but I wanted to get to the real meat of the chapter, which would only happen once Frieza took on his final form.**

 **It occurred to me as I was writing out the Raditz vs Frieza fight and the power level list for this chapter that Yamcha's power level, combined with his Kaioken pushed to the absolute limit, would actually be greater than Goku's base power during the fight with Frieza (minus Goku's use of the Kaioken), so I figured why not give him a little bit more spot light in this fight, at least to buy some time for Goku and Tien to arrive on the scene, and make his final contribution to the fight (at least the last one that would actually mean something in the grand scheme of things).**

 **For those who may or may not recognize the dialogue from the Piccolo vs Frieza fight, I pretty much based it on the TFS version of the Piccolo vs 17 fight from DBZ Abridged. I was having a hard time writing out that fight so I just decided to go with that so that I could get straight to Frieza's final form.**

 **I killed off Nail along with Dende because, at this point I feel like I might have included too many characters in the battle with Frieza so I'm trying to dile back the numbers a little bit, even if it means upping the number of casualties.**

 **Also, I mentioned last chapter that I was thinking about retconning Goku's use of the Spirit Bomb against Frieza, but in the end I decided that I wasn't going to go through with that decision. Looking back I realized that, while Goku becoming Super Saiyan instead of Kaioken 20x would be an interesting twist, it would end up shoving the other side characters in this situation (Gohan, Kai, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha), and that's just not fair to them, especially after the likes of Piccolo, Tien and Yamcha got shafted in Dragon Ball Super. So yes, Goku will be using the Spirt Bomb against Frieza with the side characters trying to buy time for him, but when the time comes for the Super Saiyan transformation I have a major plot twist in mind, one that I've seen faked in another fanfiction (this character once faked his death so that Goku could transform), but I've never seen it done legitimately, so I'm going to try something new for this one.**

 **Also, I updated the first two chapters of this story with a few changes here and there, gramatical or otherwise, which includes a description of Kai's physical appearance. So to Ssj lil tye, who reviewed asking what Kai looked like, just go back and check out chapter 1 again and you should find it near the beginning of the chapter.**

 **Oh and by the way, this is kind of random but if there's anyone else super PISSED OFF over what they saw during the Super Bowl halftime show, or rather what they DIDN'T see during it? I'm referring to how they screwed over every Spongebob fan in existence when they teased us over them playing Sweet Victory during the show, and then they just f*cked us over!**

 **Power levels:**

Raditz: 450,000

Raditz (Zenkai): 2.5 million

Goku: 3 million

Piccolo (Weighted): 1.7 million

Piccolo (Unweighted): 2.21 million

Gohan: 1.25 million

Gohan (Enraged): 2.5 million

Nail: 800,000

Kai: 250,000

Tien: 220,000

Yamcha: 240,000

Yamcha (Kaioken 20x): 4.8 milliom

Yamcha (Kaioken 20x Kamehameha): 5 million

Frieza (third form): 1.6 million

Frieza (third form, full power): 2 million

Frieza (final form): 2.9 million


	13. Ultimate Showdown, Awakened Legend

' _Raditz… brother…'_ after having taken several minutes to process the revelation of the destruction of his home planet and birth parents, Goku unleashed a quick Invisible Eye Blast to create a makeshift grave, and then he slowly picked up Raditz's body "I think I'm starting to understand now. It was more than just losing our race and losing our family that made you so angry. You hated the fact that he forced you to do all of those horrible things that you did like some kind of puppet, and you lost your pride as a result." he slowly knelt down and placed the body of Raditz in the grave, and then he proceeded to bury him "You and I may have gotten off on a horrible foot about a year ago with Beets trying to kidnap my son, but you tried to help me and the others save my son even though you knew that none of us trusted you, and you've saved my son and my friends time and time again on this planet so I have to thank you for that. And besides, aside from all of that I always respected your pride. And now I have to ask you to share some of that pride with me, pride in myself and what I believe in. I am Son Goku, the grandson of Son Gohan, the student of Master Roshi of the Turtle School, student of King Kai, and a Saiyan that was raised on Planet Earth!" and then he rounded on Frieza "And in the name of every single Saiyan that has suffered by your hand, and for the people of Planet Namek, and all of the countless, helpless innocent people that you've murdered in cold blood… I will defeat you!"

"And I would absolutely love to see you try." Frieza took on a stance, the two of them ready to begin the battle of the century at long last.

"And you will."

Piccolo found himself sweating immensely from the pressure "It's almost unbelievable how much stronger he's become, how could he have become so much more powerful in such a short amount of time?"

"We've all been through a lot." Tien told him "Not to mention that we had some help along the way."

"What do you mean?" both of them noticed Goku cast them a subtle sideways glance with a message hidden behind it.

"I'll tell you later, for now we have to get out of here and quickly. That goes for the rest of you too, we have to get to somewhere safe on the sidelines!" and so Tien and Piccolo both blasted off, with Yamcha doing the same and dragging Kai with him.

Gohan on the other hand stay behind for a moment "Dad… Go ahead and get him and make him pay for what he did! Let that monster get what's coming to him! Beat him within an inch of his life and hang him up by his entrails!" and then he blasted off after the others.

Frieza took the chance to boost his ego a little bit more "I see, so you sent your friends off so that you could fight me all on your own. How gutless can you get."

"What are you talking about?" asked Goku "How could that possibly be considered gutless?"

"It's quite simple, you see suicide is the coward's way out."

"Oh. Well we'll see about that." and with that, Goku charged forward, signalling for the battle of the century to begin.

Frieza blocked the punch with his elbow, releasing a shockwave, and then the two began clashing throughout the skies of Planet Namek, taking out several mountains in the process as their blows connected.

Goku broke away from the clash in order to dodge a number of tail strikes from Frieza, and then landed on a nearby island.

Frieza promptly fired a Death Cannon in order to obliterate the island.

Thinking quickly, Goku fired a Reverse Kamehameha in order to propel himself off of the island before it exploded, and then he took the chance to hide himself among the massive cloud of smoke that formed as a result.

Due to being unable to detect Ki signatures, Frieza began wildly firing a barrage of Eye Beams into the smoke, none of them even cutting close to hitting Goku as a result, something that didn't go unnoticed.

' _Wait a second, yeah I think I get it now! Frieza doesn't know how to detect Ki signatures without one of those Scouter things! Maybe I can use that to my advantage.'_

Frieza suddenly blitzed above the cloud of smoke and began attacking Goku once again using his Eye Beams.

Goku was now forced on the evasive, dodging Eye Beams left and right, resulting in blinding explosions that formed an even greater column of smoke as the two of them once again began trading even blows.

Frieza ended the brief clash when he knocked Goku away and blasted him with his Death Cannon, engulfing him in an explosion as he landed on a surface in the middle of all of the dust and smoke.

Goku suddenly blitzed behind him, leaving the two of them back to back glaring at each other as the smoke cleared, revealing the two of them standing on the edge of a large and clearly unstable plateau, which promptly buckled under the pressure, and Goku attempted to take the chance to strike Frieza from behind.

However, Frieza suddenly disappeared, leaving Goku alone.

Goku landed back on the ground and slowly glanced around for any sign of Frieza, refusing to let his guard down even for a second, waiting for Frieza to make his next move.

Frieza suddenly burst up from within the Namekian ocean and attacked Goku by firing a Death Cannon.

Thinking quickly, Goku whipped out his Golden Power Pole and rammed straight into the Death Cannon, being pushed back into the cliffside in the process, but eventually he managed to push the blast into the upper atmosphere, though the end of his staff was scorched as a result, but he gave it a small smile ' _Thank you for looking out for me grandpa._ Alright Frieza, where were we?"

Frieza dropped back into a combat stance ' _Well what do you know, he's actually not that bad after all.'_

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Bardock and Gine both looked on in awe "Hot damn now that's what I'm talking about, our own boy Kakarot is giving Frieza a run for his money!"

"I don't know if I would go that far." Scarlet told him "But it's like I thought, Goku really is putting up a good fight. I'm not sure if this is true for all Saiyans or if Goku is unique but I'd bet good money on it being the latter of the two but there's no limit to how strong he can get, it's almost unbelievable how strong he and the others have grown since the battle with Vegeta back on Earth. And they're gonna get even stronger, I just know it."

"You still think your son can surpass Kakarot?"

"Oh there's no doubt in my mind, but he's got a long way to go before he does."

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Goku quickly dropped into a stance as he brandished his Golden Power Pole "So are you up for round two?"

"I do believe so, and I will make you pay for your insolence!" Frieza burst into the air and fired a set of Eye Beams.

Goku leapt back to dodge them, causing them to burrow their way into the ground, only to notice the ground shaking "What the heck is this?" he was forced to take to the top of that mountain in order to avoid the spew of lava that followed "Woah man that's hot!"

Frieza burst towards Goku from within the smoke and began firing a barrage of Death Beams and Eye Beams in an attempt to force Goku back towards the lava, before just firing a Death Cannon at the lava, causing it to completely erupt out of control.

Thinking quick, Goku fired a quick Kamehameha down into the lava, forcing the lava back down, much to his relief "Man that was a close on, I almost jumped out of the frying pan and into the lava."

"Nice try." Frieza suddenly blitzed behind Goku and lunged at him.

Goku dodged the lunge and retreated a fair distance away "You know someone needs to teach you not to mess with other peoples planets, and I would be glad to volunteer!" he glanced over to see Kai holding up a sign with a gigantic 6 on it "Oh come on that line was awesome and you know it!"

"It was adequate at best." Frieza levitated into the air in front of Goku "I must admit that you're far more powerful than I had anticipated, I'm actually quite surprised. I never thought I would meet anyone with power surpassing Captain Ginyu, it's actually almost a pity that I have to kill you."

"Is that right? Well we'll see about that."

"That we most certainly will." and cue the explosion.

"Right back at ya!" Goku suddenly blitzed above Frieza and sent him hurtling down towards the Namekian sea with a quick shockwave.

Frieza stopped himself before he hit the ocean, the shockwave causing an eruption within the water.

' _What the hell, he shouldn't have been able to get out of that!'_

Frieza suddenly blitzed in front of Goku and kicked him in the jaw, sending him hurtling downwards into the Namekian sea below, resulting in a brief calm for a moment. That is to say, before Frieza grew impatient.

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' _Hot damn that's one hell of a right hook… or foot in this case.'_ Goku pulled himself out of his underwater crater with blood on his lip, only for it to evaporate as he began brainstorming on his next move.

"You have to come back up sometime!" Frieza called out to him from above "Surely you're not dead already, our little game has only just begun!"

' _That bastard sure is fast I'll give him that, but that does raise the question. What am I going to do about it? If it's true that he can't find his opponents by sensing out their Ki signatures like I can then that means that he has to rely on his eyes in order to track me down. Which means that I could… Yeah I think that could work. You know it's been awhile since I've done this in an actual fight, I wonder how Master Roshi is doing right about now. No come on Goku, stay focused on the task at hand._ _ **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!'**_ he created two Kamehameha-based Ki blasts in order to form his Twin Dragon Shot as he began backing away ' _This is the best idea that I've had since I decided to create the double-baconwich, a sandwich that uses bacon instead of bread. Totally worth the chest pains too.'_ he prepared to launch his Twin Dragon Shot.

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Frieza on the other hand was growing impatient "Come on now I've waited long enough for you, I know that it's something new to you monkey but it's called a bath! Besides I've got a little present that I'm just dying to give you- Wait what the?!" he was forced to dodge the first Ki blast from the Twin Dragon Shot "That's just distracting!" he dodged the second one "And that's just annoyingly distracting!"

"GERONIMO!" that was when Goku dropped down on Frieza from above and slammed his Golden Power Poll directly down onto Frieza's skull, sending him hurtling downwards and crashing into a plateau on a nearby island. And right through it. And crashing into another island behind the first one "It's about time someone kicked you to the curb! Nice work brain, thanks for that one."

" _You're welcome."_

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"Dammit, he does have a brain!" Kai handed Gohan some money "Note to self, no more bets about Goku's lack of intelligence of attention span of a squirrel."

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A massive pink light covered the battlefield as Frieza emerged from the rubble, coughing a bit as he did so "Note to self, no more eating any random crabs from Space Jamaica."

Goku blinked "Well that could've gone better, I figured that was gonna at least hurt you a little bit."

"I must admit I didn't expect you to be this good, I haven't had to dust myself off after a fight since my previous spat with Cooler. I don't believe I've ever felt this way before, I can hardly contain my excitement. Of course that does rase a certain question, how am I going to deal with you?"

"Hey don't ask me, I'm just the guy who thought he was gonna beat the crap out of you until about a minute ago."

"And I thought that I would make even quicker work of you than I did with Raditz, and yet here we are. You know what, I think I'll toy with you for awhile." and so Frieza then unleashed his Psycho Blast, in which he proceeded to attempt to pelt Goku with a volley of small rocks using his telekinesis.

Goku dodged and weaved his way around as many rocks as he could, and the rest he just smashed to bits using his Golden Power Pole "Is that all you've got?"

"Well you do seem to have quite a bit of nerve. Very well then, I suppose I will have to elevate things to the next level." and so with lots of grunting from the strain, he used his telekinesis to lift a massive chunk of rock out of the ground.

' _Oh you've gotta be kidding me! That thing looks like a floating island, he ripped it right out of the ground!'_

"It's time you were put out of your misery, and my good friend General Mountain will be the one to do it!" and so Frieza hurled General Mountain forward.

Deciding on the "f*ck it" option, Goku dug his boots into the dirt and caught General Mountain, being pushed back until he was caught between a rock and… well another rock. So with only one option other than suffocating to death, he cut himself free with a single Ki Blast and took to the air.

Unfortunately, Frieza was waiting for him "You fell for it!" and he trapped Goku in his Imprisonment Ball.

"Oh crap! _This is bad, I can't even move inside this thing!'_

"You've been asking for this ever since this battle started. Now let's play a game then shall we, I like to call this Telekinetic Pinball. See the rules are actually quite simple, we'll play until I miss and you end up in orbit. It'll be fun!" Frieza kicked Goku and began a cycle of blitzing around the skies of Planet Namek and repeatedly kicking Goku over and over again, complete with pinball sound effects.

' _Ow- I've- ow- gotta- ow- think of- ow- a way- ow- out of this- Ow right in the tailbone that time!'_

Eventually Frieza stopped hitting Goku and just caught his Imprisonment Ball "You know I realize that this was my idea but I'm actually starting to grow bored with this little game of ours."

"Wait what?"

"What do you say we skip to the Sudden Death Round." and so he hit the Imprisonment Ball with a simple Ki blast, sending Goku hurtling down towards the ground below and engulfing the entire battlefield in a blinding explosion.

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Gohan was the first one to pull himself out of the desert that used to be the battlefield, and he stared in a mix of concern and horror at the vast wasteland before him ' _Dad… please be okay, you just have to be okay…'_

"And that was just round one of the clash between the bullshit levels of powerful." Kai yanked himself out from beneath a rock "In case our epic fail earlier didn't make it painfully clear already Frieza hasn't even begun to fight."

"What?"

"He could send all of us and this entire planet to the Shadow Realm with one attack if he wanted to, he's got the power and the immunity to Shadow Realm based jokes which combined with the fact that we're all still standing means only one thing."

"You're saying that he's just having fun with us, toying with us and making us squirm for his own sick twisted amusement."

"Pretty much yeah." Kai pulled out a notepad out of nowhere "So the Ass-like purple and white space lizard has new high score for Telekinetic Pinball. Dammit I was gunning for that since I was born!"

"But what does that mean, is my dad gonna be okay?"

"I don't know, I've only seen the guy fight three times so it's too soon to tell."

"Well I wouldn't worry about that." Tien pulled himself out of the rubble and dusted himself off, with Piccolo and Yamcha soon following his lead "I've seen the extent of Goku's new power first hand and I can both tell you for a fact that Frieza isn't the only one holding back at the moment. Go ahead and see for yourself." he pointed to where Goku was emerging from the rubble with only a few cuts, scrapes and bruises here and there "See what I mean?"

"Well I'll be damned, even at that speed he was able to free himself from Frieza's control right before the explosion. I mean I could've done that but still not bad."

"And that just proves my point." Piccolo muttered "They're both complete and utter freaks of nature, it makes me sick just thinking about it."

"Get used to it Big Green, life is a bitch and we're its bitches."

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Goku pulled himself back into the air "Well that was a little bit too close for my liking, if I plan on beating Frieza then I'm gonna have to be a lot more careful than that." he quickly blitzed across the wasteland and appeared in front of Frieza "It's like I was saying before, you need to learn not to mess with other people's planets and I would be glad to volunteer."

"Is that a fact?" Frieza let out a chuckle "You certainly are much more resilient than the others and you're also dangerously close to making me angry."

"That makes two of us then."

"Well it would appear that we finally found something that we can agree on, but it's only fair to warn you that the gloves are coming off this round."

"That's fine by me."

"Then tell me, would you prefer the ground or the sky? Feel free to choose, the ball is in your court."

"My court huh? Well then I'm gonna have to pick ground."

"I see, well I believe that an island over there will be suitable for our next round so if you would be so kind as to follow me."

"After you." they retreated towards another island on the ground a fair distance away "I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you didn't let me choose out of the kindness of your own heart, is this your idea of being nice or are you just that cocky?" Goku removed his shirt and began stretching for the second round.

"Well when the mood strikes me I happen to have it in myself to be quite charitable, in fact I feel so generous right now that I'm prepared to offer another concession."

"And what would that be?"

"I won't use my hands for the duration, how does that sound?"

"You've gotta be kidding me, that does sound pretty generous for a psychopath. So how about this, mind if I make the first move?"

"Oh by all means, go ahead and try to surprise me."

"Don't mind if I do." and so Goku charged forward.

Frieza leapt over his attack and began launching a flurry of kicks.

Goku dodged the onslaught through use of a number of backflips.

"I must admit that you caught me off guard, I didn't expect your attack to be so brief!"

"Then how about this!" Goku leapt over a kick and began launching a barrage of kicks of his own.

Frieza began dodging every kick with ease "What's the matter Saiyan, having trouble keeping up are we?" he smacked Goku across the face using his tail "The next one will be from the left." he smacked Goku again "And now the right." the process repeated itself "Left, right, left, right, left, right, and now for the finisher." he kicked Goku across the face, sending him hurtling towards a rock plateau.

Goku rebounded before he made contact and returned to the ground "Okay so he's more than just all talk, he's got the walk to back it up. Facing an opponent as strong as this you would think I would be nervous, but truth be told I'm actually eager to see what else he's got." he just received a an overconfident smirk "If you're just gonna stare then I'd be happy to move closer!" and so he charged in again, resulting in the two of them blitzing across the island faster than the eye was able to see.

Frieza dodged every attack Goku threw at him with ease, then he caught Goku by the ankle using his tail and threw him towards the ground.

Goku caught himself and attempted to use the chance to swing Frieza around instead, swinging him around over and over before flinging him towards a nearby plateau.

Frieza rebounded and charged at Goku again, launching a quick kick as he did so.

Goku dodged the kick and began launching a flurry of punches and kicks.

Frieza dodged every one with ease and kicked Goku in the jaw before catching him in a chokehold with his tail, his sadistic grin growing ever wider.

' _Crap I can't get loose, so much for keeping on guard for all of my vital areas! Now he's gonna choke me to death, quick Goku you have to think! What's gotten you out of tight spots with insanely powerful enemies before? Wait I know, do what I did against King Piccolo! Use my instincts!'_ and so he did what his instincts told him to do: he bit down on Frieza's tail as hard as he could, and then once Frieza was distracted by the pain he dealt Frieza a devastating barrage of punches and kicks.

Now beginning to run out of composure, Frieza slugged Goku straight across the face, knocking him off his feet and sending him tumbling across the island.

Goku pulled himself back to his feet with a cocky smirk "Hey what's the matter Frieza, I thought you said that you weren't gonna use your hands."

"Well I've decided that I'm no longer in the mood to play nice."

"Well I've got a generous streak in me too and that's why I'm warning you."

"Warning me, about what pray tell?"

"That confidence of yours, it's a good thing to have but there is such a thing as too much. You can't risk getting cocky or you'll start making mistakes."

"How right you are. I must admit that you are quite strong, one might say exceptional."

"I do a lot of push ups and situps, and I drink plenty of juice."

"However I grow weary of our little standoff, I believe that the time has come for the two of us to end it. Before we do though permit me to ask of you, what would you say to becoming, well in a word, my underling? I would really hate to make waste of a combatant with as much talent as you possess, not to mention that I'm in need of a suitable replacement for the likes of the Ginyu Force."

"Are you seriously offering me a job? Not gonna lie, it really says a lot about you that you actually think that I would go for something like that."

"Your response is truly predictable, the Saiyans are such a prideful race, which is to say that they were incredibly foolish. Sadly your refusal means that only one outcome remains for you I'm afraid, your inevitable death."

"Oh yeah, well why don't we just say that I disagree." this earned a chuckle from Frieza.

"What was that you are saying before about confidence? Don't think I'm not wise to you and your little tricks, you'd like me to believe that you're lashing out at full steam but you and I both know very well that we haven't seen the limits of your strength just yet. Of course bearing that fact in mind I still have quite a bit of leeway, yes my friend quite a bit indeed. 50% of my power but a paltry half, a mere half should suffice to grind you into space dust."

"Just half of your power? Yeah right, it sounds like a bluff to me." the sweat dripping down the side of his face said otherwise.

"Well I must admit this has been fun, you've given me quite the bracing workout to the point where part of me might even shed a tear." Frieza dropped into a stance, but he did nothing else for the moment.

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Bardock was quick to grow impatient "What the hell is Kakarot doing, why is he just standing there staring at Frieza like that?"

"Stop ripping apart couch cushions dramatically and take a good look for a second." Scarlet told him flatly "Goku and Frieza are both waiting for the right moment for them to make their next move, I hate to admit it but even from here I can tell that they're both way beyond me right now."

"But what does that mean?" asked Gine "I mean Kakarot can still beat Frieza can't he?"

"It's still too soon to tell, the only thing that I can say for certain is that right now they're fighting at a level we can't even comprehend, and they know that just as well as we do."

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Goku dropped into a combat stance, the nervous sweat continuing to drip down his face but he tried to remain stoic ' _Only about 50% of his power huh? Well I guess we'll see how I stack up to that soon enough.'_

And at that moment Frieza was suddenly struck by a bolt of lightning from the Namekian skies above as his power level soared to new heights "My my it really is such a shame, a tragedy when you think about it. After all if you had been my underling then you would've been able to see so many amazing things." he charged a simple ball of Ki in his hand, but he dissipated it just as quickly "Vegeta and his father the King, Raditz and that decidedly low class Saiyan warrior who called himself Bardock, all of them were headstrong and and all of them were deaf to reason, and all of them dead by my hand." he suddenly blitzed forward faster than Goku was able to react and elbowed him in the jaw, sending him stumbling back a few feet and drawing blood from his nose.

' _That speed was insane, he moved so fast I couldn't even see it.'_

Frieza blitzed behind Goku and kicked his feet out from under him, then caught him in a chokehold using his tail before following up with a fierce elbow to the ribs.

Now reeling from the pain, Goku was unable to even remain standing and promptly fell to his knees ' _I couldn't see any hint of movement then either, is there really that big of a gap between his strength and mine?'_

"I did warn you in advance and that was only at half, though now I'm starting to question if I should even have bothered with as much as that. It truly is anticlimactic." he dodged a sudden desperate kick by Goku as well as dodging every single attack being thrown at him afterwards without a care in the world "Oh come on now you're just embarrassing yourself. Very well then, you asked for it!" he proceeded to deal Goku a devastating combo, dealing him a barrage of punches and kicks as well as smashing him into the ground and backhanding him repeatedly using his tail "Oh dear me I stand corrected, nevermind using half of my full power. Whether you believe it or not, I'm only using about ⅓ of it at the moment." and then he slammed Goku into the ground before continuing his torturous assault and ending it by sending him falling into the Namekian sea.

Goku eventually pulled himself out of the water gasping for air, wounded but still not deterred from the fight.

"Feeling a bit winded by chance? I must say that it's rather a miracle that you're actually still alive."

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Bardock slammed his fist into a wall in frustration "Dammit this is going nowhere, Kakarot is just getting the ever loving shit beaten out of him like some kind of punching bag!"

"Bardock take it easy, Kakarot isn't out of this just yet." Gine told him "Keep in mind that he's wearing weighted training clothes."

Scarlet cringed "Yeah, about that… he and Yamcha kind of dropped that when they finished training with King Kai. The outfit that he's wearing right now isn't really heavy, it's just well made of a strong fabric. And besides, even if it was weighted it wouldn't do much good against the likes of Frieza."

"Maybe not but Kakarot does have one other trump card." Bardock pointed out "He still has that technique the Kaioken up his sleeve, he should be able to use it up to times ten if what you told me is correct. Kakarot has a hell of a lot more fight left in him."

"Unfortunately no, that's not the case. I'd love for that to be true as much as the next guy but the fact is that Goku's already been using the Kaioken 10x."

"...You just love to kill the mood now don't you?"

"It's been my job ever since I started living with King Kai and his sense of humor. But this is bad though, the gap between their strength keeps getting wider."

"And now you're stating the obvious."

"It's what I do." Scarlet glanded back and gave a smirk "And I was wondering when you were gonna join us… Raditz."

Sure enough, at that moment Raditz entered the room and laid eyes on the three of them, and he tried to maintain his composure "Father… Mother… and mother of the little psychopath in the red outfit." and then he got glomped by Gine in a comical fashion "So what's going on down in the fight?"

"Well Goku was holding his own for awhile but now Frieza decided to get serious and he's beating the ever loving crap out of him."

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True to what Scarlet said, Frieza continued his relentless torturous assault against Goku and even knocked the Kaioken 10x out of him, the force nearly blowing away everyone on the sidelines as a result "So much for claiming that you would defeat me, at least Raditz was able to at least try to back up his claim. I suppose all of that bravado was quite a substantial bluff after all."

"We'll see about that!" Goku finally rebounded and attempted to retreat and gain some distance for himself.

Frieza blitzed in front of Goku and promptly continued beating him around through the air "Oh do come on now, feel free to make this a little bit more entertaining for me if you like." he ended his assault when he struck Goku in the spine with his tail and kneed him brutally right in the chest.

Goku retreated to the ground a fair distance away, panting heavily from exhaustion.

Frieza on the other hand just held up two fingers and then proceeded to attack Goku with his Death Wave.

Goku braced himself for the impact but it never came, and so he opened his eyes and found to his horror that the technique had carved a trench through the surface of the planet "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, that's one hell of a technique."

"Not to be a bore but if I were to so choose then I could orchestrate the destruction of this planet within a matter of mere seconds, though it is quite fitting that it should share such a fate with that of Planet Vegeta don't you agree?"

' _Dammit he's got me in a pinch, I hate to say it but the way things are going right now I can't beat him.'_

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Gohan looked mortified by what he was seeing "There's no way I'm seeing this, there's just no way this is happening! He just carved a trench through Namek!"

"And Goku is just surviving by the skin of his ass." Kai finished dryly "Add that to the list of reasons why we're f*cked."

"This fight suddenly seems so one sided." Piccolo noted "Frieza is way stronger than any of us could've prepared for. I hate to admit it but there's nothing we can to help Goku at this point, he's just too powerful for any of us."

"No shit Big Green."

"This is really bad." Tien muttered "I mean Goku is giving it everything he's got out there right now and Frieza is wiping the floor with him with only about half of his power?"

"Weren't you listening Triclops? Frieza is only using about ⅓ of his power right now, I'd hate to say it but I think we're officially f*cked."

"I don't know about that just yet." Yamcha muttered "I'm pretty sure that he has at least one trump card up his sleeve left but the question is, will his body be able to hold out long enough for him to use it effectively?"

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Frieza lowered himself to the ground in front of Goku "Now then I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that I intend to see to it that you get to live for at least a little bit longer. However, the bad news is that I also intend to see to it that you spend what little time you have left in this place of existence in excruciating pain." and cue the menacing glint in his eyes for extra effect.

Goku gritted his teeth in frustration ' _I have to try to raise my Kaioken to times 20 somehow like the way that Yamcha did, it's the only chance that I've got left. I don't have any clue about how my body is going to be able to handle it though. He says that he's at less than half of his full power, but whether that's actually true or not I can't even dream of underestimating whatever he has left up his sleeve. I less next to no options left anyway.'_

"This is no time for you to be bemoaning your fate, after all you cannot blame fate for these circumstances. That honor goes to your stubborn sense of self worth." Frieze blitzed forward and began a new assault on Goku, dealing him a light-fast barrage of blows that blew him right off of his feet "Oh now there's no need for you to be such a bore, at least try to defend yourself. After all that is the whole point here." he kicked Goku high into the air, grabbed him with his tail and threw him down towards the ground, and then kneed him in the gut for good measure, sending him crashing to the ground in a crater, and as soon as Goku attempted to get back onto his feet again Frieza rammed him head first, sending him tumbling backwards in a heap before he finally skidded to a stop.

Goku pulled himself back to his feet just in time to receive a chop to the back of the head, sending him crashing to the ground once again. Eventually he managed to get back onto his feet once again, but just as quickly all of his strength left him and he collapsed onto Frieza's shoulder from pure exhaustion.

"Oh don't tucker out yet, we're just getting started. And now he's drooling on me." he quickly caught Goku in a chokehold with his tail "I'm afraid it isn't time for you to take a dirt nap just yet my boy, no the horror show is just getting started." he hurled Goku high into the air and let him fall into the Namekian sea with a mighty splash.

Goku forced himself to keep as much air in as he could as he struggled to make his way back up to the surface, only to be forced back down by a sudden Death Beam, this process repeating itself several times over ' _Crap… lungs are filling with water… feel like they're about to burst… and muscles are burning…'_ he desperately tried to find a safe place to rise up for air.

That was when Frieza forced him back under by stomping down on his head with one foot in a sadistic fashion "Congratulations, for surviving for as long as you have you've won another bath! So tell me Saiyan, how is it adapting to life aquatic as it were?"

The only answer that Goku could give was finally giving up on his struggle as the darkness began to consume him.

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Goku suddenly found himself submerged in a sea of darkness ' _My lungs are burning… my muscles are burning… I can't move… I can't even speak… Is this it… for me? Am I… going to die?'_

"Are you giving up already? I know that's not the Goku that I raised for all those years."

Goku's eyes snapped open as the sea of darkness faded away to reveal a white void, and his eyes nearly brimmed with tears at who he saw in front of him "G-Grandpa?"

Sure enough, before him stood none other than Grandpa Gohan, albeit with a halo over his head, and he pulled Goku into a gentle yet tight hug "Yes Goku my boy, it's me. I can't tell you how much I've missed you. Seeing my son save the Earth time and time again, and now fighting to save the entire universe itself, nothing could make me more proud."

"Thank you Grandpa… and I just wanna say that I'm sorry for…" Goku's voice began to crack, recalling his discovery of how he had killed Grandpa Gohan when he was a kid, after he turned into a Great Ape.

"We cannot change the past Goku, everything happens for a reason. What that reason is I do not know, but what I do know is that the best years of my life were those that I spent with you, and I could not have asked for a better grandson."

"Thanks Grandpa, but I really don't deserve any of your praise right now. I don't think I can do this, Frieza is so much stronger than me that it's insane! I've giving it everything that I have against him and he's still just toying with me! First it was my cowardice, then my stupidity, and now it's my weakness! It's because I'm not strong enough that-" he was silenced by two firm hands on his shoulders.

"Goku, listen to me son. I want to tell you, no I need to tell you something very important right now. If you don't do this, then your son is going to die. Your wife is going to die. Everyone is going to die. But before all of that, if you don't do this then YOU are going to die. And you're better than that. You're better than him. You're better than me. I'm not even close to the strength, courage and purity of heart and spirit that you've demonstrated over the years. You are far more than just my grandson, you are Son Goku! I taught you what to do in times like this didn't I, or did you forget?"

Goku wiped away his tears "Yes… Yes you did… I remember all of it…"

"Then prove it… rise to the challenge… get back on your feet. Show me the fire that burns within your soul."

Goku slowly got back to his feet and stood tall and proud "I will… I will stand, I will fight… and I WILL defeat Frieza!"

"That's the spirit my boy, speak of the future. That is where the power of life truly lies, and never forget that. Know that no matter what path you may take, I will always be there for you. I have faith in you Goku, now go and show him whatfore. I know you can, and I know you will." and with that, Grandpa Gohan disappeared, as did everything around him, and before Goku knew it his eyes had snapped open.

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Frieza continued to force pressure down on Goku's head with a sadistic grin "So do you have any last words monkey? You know, besides "gurgle gurgle"?" he was answered by a massive white light shining over the battlefield that also caused the water beneath him to erupt.

When everything settle, Goku was floating in front of him in his combat stance, holding his Golden Power Pole with renewed fighting spirit "For Gohan, for Chichi, for everyone on Earth and for the future of Planet Namek and for the entire universe, there's no way in hell I'm about to give up now!" his crimson Kaioken aura began to slowly flare around his body "It doesn't matter if he is using less than half of his full power or not, if I pull off a Kaioken 20x then I at least stand a chance! All I can do for now, all I have to do is give it my all and show this guy why you DON'T mess with me and my friends! **KaioKen… times… TWENTY!"** with a furious roar he activated his Kaioken and pushed it to the absolute limit.

"Kaio-what-" Frieza was promptly cut off by a fist to the face, as well as a quick kick to the abdomen that sent him flying across the battlefield.

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"** mustering every last ounce of Ki that he was able to, Goku fired off a full power Kaioken enhanced Kamehameha, the beam beginning to glow gold along with his Golden Power Pole ' _Thank you for that extra boost in power Grandpa!'_

Now growing frustrated, Frieza raised one hand in an attempt to block it but found that he was still getting pushed back, so with a scream he raised both hands and fired a Death Cannon directly into the blast, resulting in an explosion that lit up the entire sky.

When the smoke cleared, Goku's Kaioken 20x aura had subsided, and he was left panting heavily and staring in disbelief as Frieza looked mostly unharmed, albeit both of his arms had been singed considerably "That… That's impossible… You've gotta be kidding me, all of that and it looks like I didn't even hit him at all… So then I guess it's true, he hasn't just been bluffing about it… He really is only using about half of his maximum power…"

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"Well shit is once again hitting the fan." Kai noted dryly "He puts everything he's got into a blast like that but not even plot armor can change the fact that Frieza has a f*cking plot cannon that shits all over his plot armor."

"What exactly are you talking about?" asked Gohan.

"To put it bluntly, Frieza's barely got a scratch and Goku is pretty much f*cked."

"We can't just let my dad get killed, we have to do something!"

"Of course we do you idiot, which is exactly why it's time for you and me to get in there and wreck some shit."

"Wait really?"

"F*ck no, what do I look suicidal to you?"

"...You know you're not as funny as you think you are."

"Yeah I am."

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Goku was still left panting heavily and exhausted, his mind racing as he finally dropped back to the ground ' _Well this is just great, now what am I supposed to do?'_

Frieza on the other hand seemed to have different thoughts ' _That was far too close for my liking, how is it that a creature so low on the food chain has such unbelievable reserves of strength at his disposal? No one has ever been able to push my body to this extrevity before._ FILTHY SAIYAN!" now increasingly furious, Frieza bolted down to the ground "Impressive. I felt that attack. A LITTLE BIT TOO MUCH!" he dealt Goku a brutal headbutt, sending him tumbling backwards "You imbecile!" he dealt Goku a brutal kick to the face and spin kick right in the kidney, sending him crashing into a nearby boulder and causing him to cough up a large amount of blood, and then he shot Goku with a Death Beam and kicked him in the face, sending him head first into the sea.

Goku was soon pulled out of the water and started coughing up blood, some of which landed right on Frieza's face, enraging Frieza and earning Goku another whack in the face with his tail, sending him tumbling backwards.

"You pathetic insect, is that tiny reservoir of strength all dried up now? If the answer to that is yes then I really see no point in dragging this farce out any further that we already have."

Despite the thorough exhaustion, Goku managed to force himself back onto his feet, his mind racing to come with some kind of solution ' _Okay so maybe that wasn't such a great idea in the grand scheme of things, I really lost a lot more power than I had been counting on. As a matter of fact that Kaioken 20x left me seriously wiped out.'_

"What modest powers the Saiyan race does, or rather did, possess turned out to be utterly wasted on them. My wholesale slaughter of the lot of them was truly a mercy in the grand scheme of things, wouldn't you agree?"

' _I… I'm done for!'_

" _Kakarot you fool, you can't seriously be considering giving up!"_ a familiar voice rang through his head " _You're a warrior of the Saiyan race, take some pride in who you are!"_

"I… I'm not a Saiyan like you… or like the rest of them…"

" _Perhaps but still, you're a Saiyan unlike any other! You personify the potential that our people was never able to tap into!"_

"Just stop it already, none of that matters now! Even together we…" Goku trailed off, and paused when he noticed the figure in front of him "Raditz… brother…"

Sure enough, Raditz stood before him naked, symbolizing how his soul remained untouched, even in death " _The blood that courses through your veins, the perfect instinct for battle, the never ending desire to get stronger… There's no denying what you are. You need to reach down deep, feel the pain of those of us who fell to him. Our brethren were all decimated, our homeworld was lost. Does it not enrage you to stand before the man, the monster responsible for driving us to the brink of extinction? Our father, our mother, our home, everything about our people just gone in a matter of seconds…'_ the vision of Raditz was replaced by one of him as a child " _All of them wiped from this plain of existence, eradicated by Frieza himself. You are the last of our kind now Kakarot. Everything that we were, everything that we are, everything that we could be, all of it survives now only in you. And he won't rest until every single trace of that has vanished for one reason and one reason alone, because he is haunted…"_ the vision of the child Raditz was replaced by one of him as a Great Ape " _Haunted every single day and night by one single overriding fear, the fear that the legendary Super Saiyan will rise up from the ashes and obliterate him."_ the original vision of adult Raditz returned, this time being joined by visions of Bardock and Gine, as well as one of King Vegeta " _I dreamt, I yearned to be the one to avenge our people, and yet he battered and broke me just as he did the others. You cannot know the torment in which I died. Remember this if nothing else brother, unless you're the one to finish what we started, the legacy of our people, everything we were, everything we are and everything we could've been, it will be lost forever to the memory of time."_ and with that, Raditz and the other visions disappeared, bringing Goku back to reality.

' _I think I understand now, brother…'_

Frieza wasn't amused with the thoughtful look on Goku's face "Really, I simply cannot fathom what must be going on in that skull of yours, and that in itself makes me quite annoyed!" and to emphasis his annoyance he unleashed his Psychic Wave, blowing Goku back and creating a small but incredibly deep crater in the ground "Well that does it, there will be no more quiet exit for you. Oh no quite the contrary, it will be quite loud."

"Raditz… home to me has always meant Earth and we both pretty much agree that I don't fit the Saiyan mold, but that being said I do understand where you're coming from."

"Stop talking nonsense and at least try to make this fun for me."

"I have to win this fight, I owe it to too many people not to lose."

"STOP TOYING WITH ME!" Frieza charged at Goku in a rage, only to be quickly caught off guard by Goku suddenly dodging his strike ' _What the-?!'_

Goku suddenly managed to deal Frieza a quick kick to the face and then unleashed a rapid barrage of punches and kicks.

Quickly losing his temper, Frieza smashed Goku square on the skull, sending him crashing back to the ground "I must admit that rather caught me off guard, is it safe to say that someone has regained their fighting bravado?" he lowered himself back to the ground "It is rather unfortunate that you still have the whole Saiyan thing working against you. Lower life forms such as yourself can truly be so easy to anticipate, right down to their last desperate bid to live." he fired a Death Beam at Goku's shoulder, then at one of his knee caps, then the other kneecap, and then just rapid fire before finally blowing Goku right into the crater he created before with his Psychic Wave technique.

Goku barely managed to catch himself before he fell into the crater and pulled himself out on the other side.

"My my death would be such a welcome reprieve at this point now wouldn't it? That would actually be quite simple as well."

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Gohan was quick to lose his temper "I can't take this anymore, I've gotta go help him!" he prepared to charge into the fray.

"Back it up a second ponytail." Kai held him back.

"But if I don't do something then my dad will-"

"Use your head for a second, Goku's got that constipated thinking look on his face like he knows something that Frieza doesn't. He's got something up his sleeve but he's pretty much tapped out, so what's he gonna do?"

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Frieza blinked "Oh my, what pray tell are you up to now?"

As it turns out, Goku was raising both of his hands above his head ' _I've only got one option left now, I just hope that I can get this right.'_

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Yamcha was the only one present who actually realized what Goku was planning "I get it, he's gonna use the Spirit Bomb!"

"Sprit what now?" Tien shot him a look "What are you talking about?"

"The Spirit Bomb is a special last resort technique that Goku and I learned about during our training with King Kai. See the user has to gather all the energy from the living things around him like the grass, the trees, even us, everything down to the tiniest Namekian microbe, or basically anything around him with a life force. After he gathers all of that energy he condenses it into a giant ball of energy and then you've got yourself a Frieza killing Spirit Bomb just ripe for blowing up right in his face!"

"Well lucky him." Piccolo muttered "That fat blue imp never taught us anything along those lines."

"Yeah well he thinks he's funny."

"He's not."

"Exactly."

"But how is he gonna do it?" asked Gohan "I mean with a place like this it doesn't have all that much life right, so where is he gonna get that energy from?"

"I don't know but either way he doesn't really have any other options right now, the Spirit Bomb is the best and only choice that he actually has."

"But can he really make it work?"

"He has to."

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Goku did seem to have some reluctance about using the Spirit Bomb ' _I can't believe I really have to do this, the Spirit Bomb is the last thing that I wanted to use. If I end up messing this up then there's no guarantee it won't split Planet Namek right down the middle. But that being said, if I don't hit Frieza with everything I've got then it's only gonna be a matter of time before he has the entire universe in a chokehold. Probably by his tail too. Anyway it doesn't matter if it is insanely drastic, I have to try something, whether it works out exactly how I needed to or not.'_ he started gathering energy, which also prompted geysers of water to erupt from within the crater in front of him.

Frieza just rolled his eyes "Oh come on now what is this supposed to be, some desperate yet brave attempt to druge up some more nonsense? What could you conceivably have left in you in your weakened state? Well whatever it is it won't be enough. _I just don't get it, what could he possibly be up to now? Why would he stand there essentially motionless and leave himself wide open like that?'_

Goku just gritted his teeth ' _I call upon the grasses… I call upon the trees… I call upon the mountains… I call upon the seas… I call upon every single living thing that either crawls, slinks, slithers or swims on this planet on this planet… on this planet, and on the surrounding planets too!'_ he started drawing energy from Planet Namek as well as from a few of the surrounding planets ' _That's it guys, just a tiny bit of energy from each of you is all I need. Any other neighboring worlds out there that don't want to see Frieza win this fight, please give me your strength and help me to defeat him! Help me create a Spirit Bomb!'_

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Piccolo almost did a double take when he felt the power approaching Planet Namek "What is that, what am I sensing?"

"I mentioned before that the power of the Spirit Bomb is massive." Yamcha pointed out.

"Yeah but did you mention that it's the size of a f*cking moon?" Kai pointed to where the Spirit Bomb was forming up in the sky, causing everyone to nearly lose their shit.

"HOLY SHIT! How the hell did Goku make that thing so huge?"

"Is this one different then?" asked Tien.

"When I saw it during training was only about the size of a soccer ball, the diameter of that one has to be at least a full 50 yards!"

"But if he was just gathering life energy from this planet then it shouldn't be possible for him to make one as big as that." Gohan pointed out "That must mean that dad is trying to gather energy from some of the surrounding planets."

"Well either way from the looks of things Frieza hasn't caught on yet." Piccolo noted "So then why doesn't Goku just throw the thing now while he has a good shot?"

"Maybe he knows that he has to make it even bigger than that in order to finish off Frieza once and for all."

"Well he's running on borrowed time." Kai pointed out "He hasn't got much longer before Frieza starts throwing a hissy fit."

"Come on dad, you can do this!"

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Scarlet let out a sigh "Looks like he's really resorting to the Spirit Bomb, it was only a matter of time."

"I don't get it, why doesn't he just throw it already?" asked Bardock.

"Because Frieza is the definition of a powerhouse, Goku will have to give it as much power as possible in order to have a chance of taking Frieza down.

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Goku continued gathering energy ' _Yeah that's it, keep it coming. Just a little bit more and we'll be good.'_

"Such an amateur." Frieza let out a scoff "You're obviously just stalling, now make a move before I lose my temper, or is this ridiculous pose intended to signify your unconditional surrender?"

' _This is bad, the time it's taking for me to gather all of the energy that I need is leaving me wide open. Please don't let him figure that out.'_

"No seriously, how long do you intend to just stand there?"

"You know, that's actually a very good question. I have no idea."

"...That's stupid! You're stupid! Stop being stupid!"

"Or here's a thought, maybe I'm just being rhetorical."

"NO! No you're not! Honestly it's like you're just using words you hear randomly to try and sound smarter!"

"Well now you're just acting transcendent."

"THAT'S IT!" a thoroughly enraged Frieza promptly kneed Goku in the face, blowing him clean off of his feet.

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"Dammit!" Bardock swore "He caught on."

"No that's not it Father, not yet." Raditz told him "Frieza's just losing his temper and throwing a tantrum.

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Frieza gave Goku a sadistic grin "Oh I'm so very sorry about that, I must have interrupted your concentration."

"You know it's a funny thing about that." Goku got back to his feet and let out a knowing chuckle "My wife Chichi says that a lot about me when she's using that thing she keeps in her drawer." he put his hands back up.

"Is this some kind of game to you?" again losing his temper, Frieza continued his relentless assault against Goku with a furious barrage of attacks that once again ended up blowing him off of his feet.

' _Okay that really hurt, like a lot, but at least I'm almost there.'_

"I'm not going to ask you again."

Goku just let out a knowing chuckle, got back to his feet, and then continued charging the Spirit Bomb.

With the veins in his forehead now throbbing from pure rage, Frieza once again started beating the ever loving crap out of Goku.

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"This is bad." Gohan muttered "I don't know how much of that Dad will be able to take, and if he can't focus on charging the Spirit Bomb then he doesn't stand a chance!"

"I'm pretty sure that the issue right now is less about him focusing and more about staying alive long enough to worry about him focusing." Kai pointed out dryly.

"Which is why Yamcha and I are going out there." Tien promptly began powering up his Kaioken to the max, with Yamcha doing the same "The two of you aren't strong enough to do what has to be done and Piccolo is the key to the Dragon Balls, we're the only ones who have a chance of doing this."

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Goku was blown back by Frieza's assault, but this time he managed to stay on his feet "Hey what's the big rush Frieza? You really need to learn to be more patient."

"You really think it's a good idea for you to mock me right now ape?" and then Frieza proceeded to blast Goku using his Death Cannon, sending him crashing into the Namekian sea.

Goku eventually managed to pull himself out of the water, or at least his head above water ' _You know on second thought this probably wasn't the best idea.'_

Frieza looked down at him with disdain "I've never fully understood the thought process of the Saiyan race and I likely never will, such a species truly is unpleasant. This pathetic excuse for a battle has carried on quite long enough I believe, the time has come for me to deal with you and this planet in one fell swoop. Alas this include your little monkey child as well, with you and him wiped from this plain of existence the scourge of the Saiyan race will be wiped from this universe entirely, thus proving that the fabled Super Saiyan was just that: a fable." he prepared to fire a Death Beam at Goku, only to stop when he noticed a glare reflecting in the water "That's no sun, what the-" he glanced up and realized that it was coming from the Spirit Bomb.

"No dammit, not yet!"

"Is- Is that what I think it is? I've never seen a mass of energy that size!" and then the realization hit him ' _That's what he was doing!'_

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Yamcha and Tien both finished powering up their Kaioken auras "This is bad, Frieza's caught onto what Goku's planning! Listen up guys, no matter what happens stay the hell out of this fight and don't interfere in anyway!"

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Frieza gawked at the Spirit Bomb "He's been forging that right over my head this entire time and I never had any idea, how was he able to dredge up that much power?"

"Dammit!" Goku slammed his fist into the ground in frustration ' _This is bad, now it's all pretty much over! Even if the Spirit Bomb was strong enough to take Frieza down now that he's seen it I've lost the element of surprise!'_

"You were actually going to blindside me with something like that? How unfortunate for you then, I don't know where you got that much power from but it really doesn't matter anymore now does it?"

"We'll see about that!" Goku burst out of the water and let a fist fly… only for it to be caught in a matter of seconds "F*CK!"

"Nice try, looks like that whole Super Saiyan thing just isn't going to pan out." Frieza aimed a Death Beam at Goku's face "When you see Raditz give him a message for me, tell him that I said: Like a bitch."

' _Crap!'_ Goku shut his eyes and waited for the inevitable, when…

" **BOOT TO THE HEAD!"** that was when Yamcha and Tien burst onto the scene and quickly dealt Frieza a two man Boot to the Head kick (Look up the skit on YouTube if you don't understand the reference), sending him crashing into the Namekian sea miles away.

"Yamcha? Tien? What the heck are you-"

"No time for any of that, just hurry up and finish the Spirit Bomb before he rises up like we've disturbed his 1,000 year dormancy!"

"Oh man I owe you guys big time." Goku got back to his feet and once again began charging the Spirit Bomb.

"And frankly you'd better make it fast." Tien told him "We've both got the Kaioken pushed to the absolute limit but I doubt that's gonna do any real good."

"Yeah I know, just hold him off for a little bit."

"We can try."

That was when Frieza burst out of the water "And with these two I keep getting reminded of my failures, I thought that all of those pests had been taken care of!"

"And seriously Goku, you might wanna hurry it the hell up." Yamcha pointed out "As much as I hate to rush you it looks to pretty much anyone with eyes like Frieza is about to lose whatever patience he has left."

"I'm sorry you guys, I just need a little bit more time." Goku told him "It's not done yet, if I throw it at Frieza now then it won't do any good."

"Then I guess we only have one option." Yamcha and Tien rose into the air to meet Frieza face to face.

"Well well, look who decided to be heroes." Frieza let out a chuckle "Both of you too pesky to live and yet to stubborn to die."

"I think we'll see about that soon enough!" and so Yamcha and Tien charged into the fray at full speed, both of their Kaioken auras flaring like never before as they launched a two man barrage of punches and kicks.

Frieza promptly blocked their strikes as he got pushed back a few feet, but he didn't really take any damage "It would seem that your attacks have both been sharpened considerably, not bad for scum."

Yamcha and Tien charged in and continued their assault.

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Gohan seemed concerned by what was happening "I don't get it, what are the two of them doing out there?"

"There's really only one thing they can do." Kai pointed out "I'm pretty sure they're gonna try and sacrifice themselves to buy Goku time."

"What?!"

"Think about it, even with the Kaioken pushed to the absolute max there's no way they'll last very long against someone as OP as Frieza."

"Well I'm not gonna just sit around and let that happen!" Gohan prepared to charge, only to be grabbed by the foot by Kai "Let go-"

"No, you know as well as I do that we'd only be dead weight out there. Besides, I'm pretty sure he'll have that covered." Kai gestured to where Piccolo was charging a Special Beam Cannon a few feet away.

' _Dad, please hurry…'_

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" **Kamehameha/ Tri-Beam!"** realizing the wasted effort of a physical assault, now using all of the power at once, Yamcha and Tien poured all of the power that they could into a combined Ki blast consisting of a Kamehameha and a Tri-Beam.

Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared it turned out that Frieza wasn't damaged by the attacks in the slightest "I see, so now you've shown me the limits of your power. Now let me see if I can find your glubocks." he blitzed behind them and grabbed both of them by the shoulders, causing them to cry out in pain "How is it that creatures so resilient be so foolish?!" he elbowed Tien in the gut and Yamcha in the spine "Unless they have a death wish!"

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Goku was beginning to grow aggravated with the current situation ' _This is bad, Yamcha and Tien are both at the end of their rope but I can't throw the Spirit Bomb yet!'_

Less than a minute later, Yamcha was sent crashing to the ground next to him with a loud thud, with Tien being hurled straight into the sea "Yeah okay Goku that's officially all that we've got in us, please for the love of Piccolo's other half tell me you're done with the damn Spirit Bomb already!"

"I'm trying but it's not finished yet, if I throw it at Frieza now then it won't do any good against him!"

"F*CK!"

That was when Frieza landed on the ground and shot Yamcha a menacing smirk "Try as I might I can't think of a good reason as to why I should spare you, so I won't." he prepared to fire a Death Beam clear through Yamcha's skull, until…

" **SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"** a full power Special Beam Cannon, courtesy of Piccolo, shot clear across the battlefield and slammed into Frieza full force, followed by two smaller Kamehameha blasts, engulfing Frieza in an explosion.

Yamcha glanced over to see Piccolo, Gohan and Kai all fresh from firing their attacks, and he gave a strained smile "Right on you guys, you managed to scrape together whatever power you had left and managed to pull my ass out of the fire."

Frieza on the other hand was pretty much unharmed, and his overwhelming rage was about to soar to new heights "So the little pests chose to intervene from the sidelines, they just won't rest until I've been pushed to the very limits of my patience will they?" he let out a chuckle as the veins in his head began throbbing from pure rage, and then he finally exploded "YOU MEDDLING BRATS! I HOPE THE LOT OF YOU ALL ENJOY SUFFERING THE SAME FATE AS THIS PLANET!" and he charged a Death Ball and rose up into the air in order to blow Planet Namek and everyone on it straight to Hell.

"Okay seriously Goku, if there was ever a time to throw the damn thing then NOW WOULD BE THAT TIME!"

Goku finally finished charging the Spirit Bomb "Okay I think it's ready, or at least as ready as it can be before we all get fried. This is it, it's now or never!" and so with a roar, he finally unleashed the Spirit Bomb.

Frieza was about to fire the Spirit Bomb, when he glanced back and finally noticed the Spirit Bomb hurtling towards him "Oh, you know somehow I completely forgot about that."

"GET DOWN!" Goku pulled Yamcha down to the ground, with everyone else being sure to take cover as well.

"I WON'T ALLOW MYSELF TO BE SUBDUED BY SOMETHING LIKE THIS! SUCH A THING IS MERE CHILD'S PLAY!" in a rage of denial, Frieza attempted to catch the Spirit Bomb and send it back "YOUR MEASELY WORTHLESS TRICKS, THEY ARE FUTILE! THEY DON'T FRIGHTEN ME!" he kept getting pushed downwards, closer and closer to the surface of Planet Namek ' _If I had any single regret for the countless horrific events that have transpired in my wake… it's that I'm dying.'_ and with that, he was engulfed by the Spirit Bomb completely as it finally reached the surface of Planet Namek, resulting in a blinding white hot explosion that covered the entire planet and blew everyone away.

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King Kai looked on in awe as he witnessed the events of the battle "I don't believe it, it's incredible! He did it, he really did it! Goku has actually won the battle, Frieza has at last been overpowered! Good has triumphed over evil, the bane of the universe has at long last been bested!"

"Goku won, he really won!" Krillin caught Chiaotzu in a high five "But come on now, was there ever really any doubt? Goku always manages to pull the win out from somewhere, why should this be any different?"

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"YES! KAKAROT WON!" Gine pulled Bardock into a bone crushing hug "OUR BABY BOY REALLY WON!"

Raditz dodged Gine's death grip and gave a simple smirk of approval "Oh come on now, did any of us really ever doubt he would pull through?"

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The landscale of Planet Namek had been decimated by the blast, not to mention it left a massive round crater in the surface.

Kai pulled himself onto a nearby rock with Goku's Golden Power Pole in hand "Okay the space lizard is one thing, why the hell did we get blown away too?"

"Hey Kai there you are!" Gohan pulled him out of the water, with Piccolo not far behind "Are you okay?"

"You tell me, I think I swallowed a f*cking trout. They actually taste better raw."

"Gross."

"Not as much as black licoriche, I mean ugh. Speaking of which, talk about a crap load of drastic landscaping."

"Speaking of crappy jokes." Piccolo muttered.

"So you think he's dead?"

"Frankly Kai right now I'm more worried about my dad and Yamcha." Gohan told him.

"Who did you think I was talking about?"

"I don't like this. That Spirit Bomb was huge, what if the two of them got swept away in all of the chaos?"

"Not a chance." Piccolo let out a snort "There's no way either of them would let something as pathetic as that happen to them."

"I know but, I can't feel their Ki signatures."

"You actually think you have enough energy left to concentrate? Besides you have eyes, try and use them." Piccolo gestured over to a nearby island.

"Wait what?" Gohan glanced over.

Yeah as it turns out, Yamcha and Tien had managed to pull themselves onto a nearby island pulling something along with them "Alright come on you heavy bastard! No no one actually help us, that would be a little bit too much." they kept yanking it to reveal that it was Goku, totally exhausted but alive and well.

"Alright it's my dad and Tien and Yamcha, they're all alive!" Gohan pulled Kai into a sudden bear hug "See didn't I tell you guys not to worry!" he attempted to fly over but found it very difficult, with Kai and Piccolo following not far behind "Hey dad! Tien! Yamcha! Guys we're over here!"

"Oh come on grandpa…" Goku spat out some water "I don't want any more baths today, I'm clean now…"

"DAD!" Gohan landed and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Gohan…"

"Way to wreck some shit big guy." Kai gave him a thumbs up, then pulled Yamcha into an awkward hug "So yeah, I'm glad you're okay."

"You too little buddy." Yamcha ruffled his hair "I know that your mom would be really proud of how well you handled yourself today."

"I wanna think so too."

"You guys must've been worried sick about us."

"Well anyway that Spirit Bomb was f*cking insane, and that's coming from me."

"Yeah it better have been." Goku let out a weak chuckle "The hopes of about 99% of the known universe were packed into that thing."

"Maybe but still…" Gohan muttered "I was pretty scared that you guys had gotten caught in that thing."

"Hey come on Gohan, give the three of us some credit. After all we're the ones who managed to defeat Vegeta, the only thing you would have to worry about is what you would tell your mom about not doing your homework."

"Well that settles it then." Yamcha let out a sigh "Time for the triumphant heroes to return home with our heads held high, maybe now I might actually have a chance to live the dream for myself too." he received a few odd looks "You guys are seriously gonna make me spell out what's at the top of my victory list aren't you?"

"Spill those guts pretty boy." Kai told him flatly.

"Alright alright, when we get back to Earth I'm thinking I'm gonna pop the question to Bulma, you know ask her to marry me." he started blushing.

"...Lame!" Kai's toke was actually joking for once, and he started laughing, with Gohan soon joining in.

"So are you guys ready to get going?" asked Goku "Lucky for us the ship that Tien and I used to get here should be able to get us back to Earth in just under 6 days."

"So basically 6 days until you and the Harpy-" Kai was smacked on the back of the head "Fine, until you and Chichi get some private time?" this earned a few chuckles, until Yamcha suddenly let out a blood curdling scream that killed the mood "Hey Yamcha, need I remind you that killing the mood is my thing?"

"I know but…" Yamcha's tone was one of pure and unholy terror "Bulma is out there somewhere, I totally forgot about her."

"Hey even I know that when the fate of the universe is on the line getting laid is not at the top of a man's list of priorities. Besides don't freak us the f*ck out like that, from the way you were screaming a guy would figure that either Frieza had popped back up or you had knocked a girl up."

"...Ignoring that, Frieza doesn't have anything on Bulma when she's in a bad mood."

"Oh believe me I know." this promptled everyone else to start laughing.

Gohan shared a glance with Kai and looked out over the horizon of Planet Namek "How much strif one planet can endure is hard to believe."

"Yeah I know, but at least now the Grand Elder and everyone else on this planet can at last rest in peace. At least until we can bring them back with the Dragon Balls back on Earth."

"Yeah that's true-" Gohan looked up and his expression turned to one of mute horror.

"Hey Gohan what's the matter son?" asked Goku "Are you okay?" he followed Gohan's gaze, with everyone else doing the same.

"It… It can't be… It just can't be… It's Frieza…"

Sure enough, Frieza stood on a rock above them alive, albeit heavily injured and with part of his tail missing "Yeah by the way not dead, kthx die." and he fired a Death Beam in Goku's direction.

"Goku get out of the way!" Piccolo shoved Goku out of the way and ended up taking the Death Beam himself straight through the chest, sending him crashing to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"F*cking hypocrite." Kai muttered "And after all of the time he spent trying to teach us to dodge you'd think he'd know how to do it himself."

Gohan could only look on in horror "Piccolo… no…"

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Gine could only look on in horror "This… This can't be happening…"

"Hey Gine the Check In Station cafe only had two kinds of hot wings-" Bardock made his way in with Raditz and Scarlet and placed a bucket of wings down in front of her "Hey why do you look like Tora walked in on you in the shower again?"

"The green one… Piccolo I think his name was… he's been brought down…" this left the three of them looking horrified.

Raditz was the first one to find his voice "But Frieza was brought down by Kakarot, we all saw it happen!"

"We were wrong Raditz, we were all so horribly wrong! Maybe… maybe all of our hopes have been in vain…"

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Devastated beyond words, Gohan could only kneel next to Piccolo's unconscious form "You have to get up… please Piccolo… get up…"

In his rage, Goku pulled himself back to his feet, his voice a low snarl "Frieza…"

"Bravo my friend!" Frieza let out a malicious cackle "You very nearly brought the might Frieza down, I must admit that I never had a call quite so close as that one! Now then, shall we begin the grand finale of our extended horror show?"

"...Run. All four of you. Right now." Goku glanced towards Tien and the others "Tien our ship isn't very far from here, I want you to take Piccolo with you and the others, find Bulma and set a course for Earth. I won't be joining you, so don't get any ideas about waiting." he received no reply and quickly lost his patience "SNAP THE HELL OUT OF IT!"

Gohan was the first one to regain his resolve "Forget it, there's no way I'm leaving you! I owe it to Piccolo to stay here and fight!"

"With what?! None of you have enough strength left, you'll only get in the way!"

"And you do?! You can barely stand! I don't care what you say Dad, I'm not gonna let you throw yourself away like a piece of trash to him!"

"I advise against placing too much stock in your escape, though if you like I am willing to bring you closer to home!" Frieza blew a hole clean through Goku's shoulder, as well as Tien's out of pure spite, then prepared to fire another blast at Kai.

Realizing that the end could be near, Gohan glanced over at Kai "Hey Kai, since it doesn't look like we're gonna be able to make it out of this one there's something that I should say…"

"If you're about to say I love you then I swear to Piccolo's other half…" Kai muttered, only to be taken aback by what Gohan said next.

"Actually I was going to say that you're the most mentally and emotionally disturbed son of a bitch I've ever met."

"Oh. Okay then."

"But you're also my best friend."

"...So are you Gohan, so are you."

"And I'm hoping you'll understand why I have to do this." Gohan shoved Kai into the water and allowed himself to be hit by the invisible Ki blast of Frieza's Death Psycho Bomb, pulling him off of his feet.

"What the hell are you doing you idiot?!"

"I couldn't let my best friend sacrifice himself against someone like Frieza, and I couldn't let any of the others get killed by him either. Dad and Yamcha have already been brought back by the Earth's Dragon Balls before, Piccolo can't die or else Kami would die too, and Tien is stronger than me now so he'd be way more helpful against the likes of Frieza than me." Gohan found himself being launched into the air but he didn't try to struggle as he looked down at the others with a sad yet content smile on his face.

"Gohan!" Goku rounded on Frieza in a rage "Don't do it Frieza, don't you dare do it!" he was ignored as Frieza clenched his fist.

"You can beat him dad, I know you can!" and with that, Gohan perished in the fiery internal explosion that followed.

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King Kai looked on in horror "No…"

"Who was it this time?" asked Krillin "Which one of them did Frieza kill?"

"It… It was Gohan…"

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"GOHAN!" Goku let out a blood curdling scream over seeing the death of his son, with Kai, as well as Tien and Yamcha, being frozen in terror.

Frieza on the other hand let out a sadistic chuckle "I think the other brat with the big mouth should die next."

Goku however looked like a rage filled wreck, his fists clenched so tightly they had started bleeding with tears streaming down his face endlessly "You… You ruthless… heartless… mother f*cker!" lightning began to flash throughout the sky, the sea began to crash violently and rubble began to rise into the air as Goku's hair began flickerting from gold to black and back to gold, his voice a grief and rage filled snarl "I will… make you… SUFFER!" and with one final furious roar he completely transformed, his eyes turning green and his hair standing up and turning a shade of gold, overall looking incredibly menacing.

"What the-?!"

Despite the transformation, Goku still remained self aware and he quickly levelled his fury filled gazed on Kai, Tien and Yamcha "All of you go, take Piccolo with you and get the hell off of this planet right now! Find Bulma, find the spaceship and go!" he received no replies and quickly lost his temper "DO AS I TELL YOU RIGHT NOW BEFORE I LOSE WHAT LITTLE SENSE OF REASON I HAVE LEFT!" that got them moving, and Goku levelled his furious gaze on his main target: Frieza.

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 **The fires of Goku's temper have flared and the rage inside of his souls burns with the heat of a mighty inferno. Will Goku's sudden and unsettling transformation into this golden warrior prove to be Frieza's worst nightmare come to life? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And here comes the next part of the battle with Frieza, as well as a shocking set of changes to come with it. Before I go any further, let me just apologize for taking as long as I did to get this chapter out. I was taking the time to work on some other stories, mainly An Underdog's Destiny from my Total Drama Underdog series, but since I've hit some serious writers block on that story and my drive for this one has since returned, combined with the fact that I'm now on Spring Break from my first year of college, I decided to get this story up and running again.**

 **I was honestly struggling with who to have Frieza kill in order to trigger Goku's Super Saiyan transformation. Piccolo was an obvious no (Dragon Balls), the same with Tien (he could be wished back), and Kai (could be wished back) and I did think about doing Yamcha since he couldn't be wished back a second time by the Earth's Dragon Balls, but then I realized that I would just be reversing the roles of Krillin and Yamcha in this scenario, so I decided to do something different: have Frieza blow Gohan to bits instead. Sure he could easily be wished back by the Dragon Balls but I think that Goku would still be enraged to the point where he would become a Super Saiyan. Besides, I have a certain plot device in mind for Gohan next chapter that will have an impact on his character arc and his friendship with Kai.**

 **Having Tien and Yamcha double team Frieza using Kaioken (another divergence compared to Piccolo going up against Frieza) in order to stall for time is a sort of callback to when they did it against Vegeta, which was actually a callback to Goku and Frieza double teaming Jiren. The only difference is that this time it's also a callback to Goku and Vegeta double teaming Jiren in the anime.**

 **I know that a lot of people wanted Goku and Grandpa Gohan to meet each other again at some point, so I decided to have them meet in Goku's subconscious instead of having visions of everyone he loves getting slaughtered by Frieza, their meeting being complete with dialogue from DBZ Abridged episode 60 part 3.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 3 million

Goku (Kaioken 10x): 30 million

Goku (Kaioken 20x): 60 million

Goku (Kaioken 20x, boost from Golden Power Poll): 66 million

Goku (Large Spirit Bomb): 100 million

Piccolo: 2.21 million

Gohan: 2 million

Kai: 250,000

Kai (Nail Gun): 2.5 million

Tien (Kaioken 10x): 2.2 million

Yamcha (Kaioken 10x): 2.4 million

Frieza (suppressed against Goku): 2.9 million

Frieza (⅓ power): 40 million

Frieza (50% power): 60 million


	14. Countdown to Destruction, Gohan's Gamble

Scarlet was taken aback by what she saw "Okay what the actual f*ck am I looking at right now exactly?"

"YEAH!" Bardock and Raditz both let out simultaneous comedic triumphant roars at the top of their lungs "It's about f*cking time! Kakarot's finally done it, he's become what the Saiyan race has been waiting for for a f*cking millennium! He's the legendary Super Saiyan!"

"...Huh. Good to know. Well if you'll excuse me I've got something else I want to deal with in a second, let me know if Frieza gets broken like a Kit Kat bar." and so she walked out of the room, leaving only Raditz and his parents to watch the battle.

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Frieza was left taken aback by Goku's newfound transformation "What in the name of the cosmos is this, what has this Saiyan become? I was led to believe that his kind could only transform into Great Apes, but this is no Great Ape! What is it with your hair, what is it with your eyes? ANSWER ME!"

"Don't move an inch, I'll deal with you in a minute." Goku shot Frieza a terrifying glare, then he glanced back at Kai, Tien and Yamcha "I want the three of you to move as fast as you possibly can, if Piccolo dies then Kami dies too and I don't think I need to remind you of what would happen in that case. Take him and find Bulma, take our ship and get back to Earth."

"What the hell are you trying to say Goku?" asked Yamcha.

"I'm saying get off of this planet without me, get back to Earth and I'll join you there as soon as I can."

"Okay I'm just gonna throw this out there." Kai spoke up "We're not telling your wife about what happened to Gohan, that one is all on you man."

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, now I just need you to do what I say just do what I say and GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" and then he tossed gestured to his Golden Power Pole that Kai was carrying "And keep that safe for me until I get back."

"...Don't come back to Earth without wrecking his shit and breaking that bastard like a goddamn Kit Kat bar." Kai quickly bolted off into the skies of Planet Namek, with Tien and Yamcha both following right behind him while carrying Piccolo between their shoulders ' _I know I act like a real jackass but the truth is that Gohan is the best friend I've ever had, and I know for a fact that once we wish him back he'll be waiting to see you when you get back to Earth.'_

Frieza watched them retreat with sadistic glee "As if I'm letting those three fools get away that easily, but at the very least I do love a moving target." he prepared to blast Kai with a Death Beam.

That was when Goku suddenly blitzed in front of him and grabbed him by the hand "You're the scum of the universe, and it's officially gotten on my last nerve, and coming from me that's saying something." he crushed Frieza's hand in pure rage, causing him to cry out in pain "How many innocent people, how many of the people that I care about have to die before you're finally satisfied?" he crushed Frieza's hand harder, forcing him to one knee "First you slaughter billions of innocent people, then you kill my brother, and now you've killed my son!"

In his desperation, Frieza summoned a pink dome made of Ki before he finally managed to free himself, nursing his wounded hand "How in the universe could you have possibly attained so much power in such a short amount of time?" and then the realization hit him, as well as a metric f*ckton of fear along with it.

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As they made their way back to the ship, Kai glanced back at the others "You know I think I finally get it."

"What do you mean?" asked Tien.

"I didn't understand what the hell he was going on about at first but now I think that Raditz was really onto something. And judging by the insane power spike the truth is that…"

"That Goku is a Super Saiyan." Yamcha finished for him.

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Goku dropped into a combat stance, trying not to snarl in his rage "This is it, there will be no more." in his rage his new golden aura flared "LET'S END THIS THING RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!" he burst forward and slammed his fist straight across Frieza's face, and then he kneed him brutally in the spine before smashing him to the ground.

Frieza burst up from the ground in a massive flashy display, but he quickly regained his overconfident smirk "You do realize how hypocritical this is, your outrage over the loss of an innocent life or two. The Saiyan race isn't exactly known for its mercy, compare to those apes I happen to be a saint."

"Compared to anything you're a devil, and frankly the Saiyans paid for their crimes a long time ago by being added to the long list of your victims."

"Oh I made certain of that, you little monkeys always got on my nerves."

"And now you're about to follow in their footsteps. It's your turn Frieza, you knew this day would come."

"You honestly think you're a match for me? I could kill you with both hands tied behind my back, who knows I might even try it. It makes no difference if you are a Super Saiyan, no one battles Lord Frieza and walks away!" he blitzed away.

Goku followed him effortlessly with a confident smirk plastered across his face.

Now thoroughly enraged, Frieza attacked Goku by firing a frantic and rapid barrage of Death Beams.

The smoke cleared to reveal Goku not even scratched.

Frieza followed up with a furious shrieking roar and a rapid barrage of charged Ki blasts, engulfing Goku in a massive explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Goku still wasn't scratched, only now he was pissed "Don't bother apologizing because I'm never going to forgive you for what you did." so he held out his hand an sent out a shockwave, sending Frieza tumbling through the air.

Frieza stopped himself in mid air, panting heavily.

Goku burst forward and headbutted Frieza in the spine.

Now losing any ounce of cool he had left, Frieza attacked Goku with a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Thanks to the increase in power that came with his new transformation, Goku dodged and blocked every single attack being thrown at him with ease before the two of them lowered themselves to the ground on top of opposite plateaus.

Snarling like an angry animal, Frieza fired a quick Death Beam, only to be left completely dumbstruck when Goku dodged it with ease "You- You dodged it? But no one should be able to move that fast!" so he fired a rapid barrage of Death Beams.

Goku dodged every single blast with ease, resulting in the destruction of a large number of nearby islands and plateaus, as well as an eruption of lava, something that left Frieza even more freaked out.

"What the- How did you- Why don't you just stand still and perish?!"

"I've got a better idea." Goku shot him a cocky smirk "Why don't you go ahead and show me what you've got."

"Why you arrogant little ape! You dare to mock me!" Frieza fired yet another Death Beam, this one hitting Goku square in the jaw.

Goku however wasn't hurt in the slightest, which left Frieza squealing in pure fear "What's the matter Frieza, I can't be harder to destroy than a planet right?"

"You… You… What the hell are you?!"

"You mean you still haven't figured it out yet? I thought it would be obvious, after all it's just like Raditz said." Goku lost his smirk "I'm a Saiyan who was raised on Earth and came all the way to Planet Namek for one reason: to defeat you. I am the warrior you've heard of in legends, pure of heart and awakened by a burning fury. _That_ is what I am." a lava geyser erupted from behind him and he flared his golden aura "I am the Super Saiyan, SON GOKU!" the lava eruption subsided.

Frieza was quick to regain his composure "Well what do you know, I never actually anticipated that there might be truth behind those ridiculous old stories, and who would've guessed that all this time it would've taken someone so disgustingly pure of heart to unlock that Super Saiyan power. But then again it does make sense, at least it would explain why the likes of Vegeta or even Raditz was never able to become one."

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Kai placed Piccolo on the ground within Goku and Tien's spaceship ' _Gohan, Dende, Big Green, you guys don't have to worry. You didn't get killed by Frieza for nothing, Goku will make sure of that. Everyone that got slaughtered by Frieza is gonna be avenged, that much I can guarantee all of you._ Well guys it looks to like like we're halfway home."

"Looks like it." Yamcha noted "Kai you stay here with Tien and Piccolo, I'm gonna head out and find Bulma and I'll be back as soon as I can." and he blasted off into the skies of Planet Namek, and out of sight.

"Well I guess all we can do now is masturbate down in the living quarters." Kai received a disturbed look from Tien "What you knew I was f*cked up to begin with." he glanced up and noticed a screen popping down "Oh boy."

"I didn't know it could do that."

"You spent a week in this thing with Goku and you don't know how it works?"

"Shut up."

"Fair enough."

And then Upa popped up on the screen " _Kai, Tien, is that you?"_

"Yeah and you're the one that gave Krillin a boner when they first met because he thought you were a chick."

" _...I thought we agreed not to discuss that."_

"I made no such promise."

" _Moving on from that, how is everyone over there?"_

"Well Yamcha's off to get laid, Piccolo's got a hole in his chest and he and Kami are the only two Namekians still alive in this universe, Goku went blond and he's fighting for his life against an evil space lizard, and Gohan is kind of, well, dead."

" _Wait what? What happened, what's going on over there? Is the fight over?"_

"No not yet, Goku told us to take off while he goes apeshit on Frieza on his own. Also where's the Harpy that somehow managed to tie down Goku?"

" _She well… she said the wrong thing to blonde Launch and-"_

"Say no more, I gotcha. Anyway sit down somewhere, this is gonna take awhile."

" _Well it's either this or listen to blond Launch tear into Chichi so please for the love of Korin, make it as long as you can."_

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Frieza was still thoroughly enraged was he flashbacked to how he was almost killed by the Spirit Bomb, and how Goku had been pummeling him earlier ' _How humiliating, to think that I could be outmatched by a filthy half evolved Saiyan? I am the mighty Lord Frieza, the most powerful being in the entire universe, this is an absolute nightmare! Yes that is the only explanation, why else would this be happening?'_

Goku's rage filled gaze was left with an eerie calm "This is the end, it's over." he flared his golden aura and got into a stance for a Kamehameha.

"You insolent little- Have you forgotten who you're up against? You will rue the day that you crossed me!" his crimson black aura flared into a massive sphere of energy, clashing against that of Goku, creating chaos all across Planet Namek, before the sphere disappeared "Someone of my levels of strength could never fall to the likes of you, I'll die by my own hands before I allow such a thing to happen!"

"Then what are you waiting for, you'd be making my job a lot easier."

Frieza's aura disappeared as she condensed it into his Destroy the Planet blast "Well I have to admit that this is new monkey, this is definitely new. But a monkey is still a monkey and I've killed pretty much all of them in my day, and now that you're this so called Super Saiyan you think you're better than the almighty Lord Frieza. Well you're not, you're not now and you never will be! How long can Saiyans survive in the cold vacuum of outer space I wonder, I doubt that you'll find it anywhere near as effortless as I do."

' _...Maybe I shouldn't be running my mouth so much against a sore loser, Kai does more than enough of that for the both of us.'_

"You and this pathetic planet can perish together, NOW DIE!" and Frieza hurled his blast downwards.

' _God dammit!'_

"Burn in hell Saiyan!" Frieza let out a maniacal cackle as the blast crashed into the Namekian sea below and continued downwards until it hit the core, engulfing the entire planet in a blinding light.

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Bulma was still going through hell on Namek "Oh what the hell now?! WHY DOES THIS PLACE HATE ME?!" and then she was engulfed in the light as well as the ground began to give out from under her.

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Yamcha was flying across the skies of Planet Namek when the noticed the explosion in the distance "Oh crap this is bad! GOKU!" and then he was engulfed as well.

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Gohan opened his eyes and found himself in a large building surrounded by golden colored clouds, and he looked up to find himself with a halo over his head "Oh yeah that's right, I tried to push Kai out of the way and then I got blown up by Frieza… So I guess that means I'm dead then?"

"I'm afraid so."

Gohan glanced back to see Scarlet standing before him "Wait a second… red gi, brown hair in a ponytail, are you…?"

"The name is Scarlet, and first I want to thank you for looking out for my son and making sure he hasn't gotten himself killed by this point."

"So you are Kai's mom after all."

"Yep, and in the meantime while your father is fighting to save the universe I want to have a word with you." she beckoned him with a finger and led him to a nearby bench where she sat him down "And for the record at least this way you get to keep your clothes."

"So… your son and I saved the world a few times, travelled to another planet and fought an army of aliens."

"Well he's done weirder stuff than that before, and having him get raised by my brother and the likes of Piccolo isn't going to help that. But in the meantime I brought you up here to discuss a serious issue."

"Which is what exactly?"

"My son. Look Alex has always been a good kid but he's come off to everyone as, in a few simple words, a freak in every sense of the word. He's never really been one for making friends but he gets along with people pretty easily, though he does tend to get a little bit full of himself and he does like to mess with people, but he's the kind of young man who would go to the ends of the universe for the people that he cares about. He does have one weakness though."

"And what's that?"

"He's not very big on showing emotions, it's never been very much of an issue but ever since I got sick and passed away from this new virus not long before this whole thing started it really shook him up. I mean before Yamcha took him to Kame House that day he was almost killing himself with training. He was barely eating, he wasn't sleeping, that day was the first time he'd been out to see anyone since he moved in with Yamcha."

"Wow… I thought he was mentally scarred by watching the Walking Dead."

"Oh he was, I tore into Yamcha for that. But that was only part of it, he's mainly acting like a little jackass because it's his way of masking his emotions so that he doesn't get hurt again like that. I told Yamcha about this a long time ago so he could emotionally ready himself for when the day finally came."

Gohan said nothing, he just silently took in every word he was being told.

"I wanted them to be strong but the problem is that Kai has been far too strong for it to be healthy, and he's as stubborn as I am so he won't even talk to Yamcha about it."

"Yamcha seemed like he was having a hard time coming to terms with it himself."

"I know, I did all that I could but that's not the point. Kai is to stubborn to ask anyone for help and now he's trying to drown himself in training. Trying to surpass me is one thing but he's going to end up killing himself at some point, and I can't stand the thought something of that happening. What he needs right now is someone he's willing to open up to. The point I'm trying to make here is that right now what he needs is a friend to help him through this." she quickly grabbed Gohan by the shoulders "So I'm asking you: Please, be that friend for him and do what I couldn't."

Gohan gently removed her hands from his shoulders "There's no need for you to beg, I was going to do that anyway. But if it helps then I give you my word, I'll help him in any way I can and who knows? Maybe we'll get stronger together along the way."

"Thank you. So in the meantime I got into contact with Kami back on Earth a few minutes ago and he sent Mr Popo to collect the Dragon Balls back on Earth to revive everyone the Saiyans killed on Earth."

"But that wouldn't include Krillin and Chiaotzu, they've already been brought back by the Dragon Balls once before."

"I know, it's unfortunate but it can't be helped. Plus the fact that Kami is still alive means that Planet Namek hasn't been destroyed by Frieza yet."

"Wait what?"

"Good thing you're still sitting down, this is gonna take awhile."

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(Meanwhile, back on Planet Namek…)

Despite hanging onto the edge of a cliff for dear life, Bulma was refusing to give up without a fight "There is no way in hell I'm giving this planet the pleasure of snuffing me out!"

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Yamcha continued bolting across the skies of Planet Namek ' _Goku come on, if anyone can take down Frieza then it has to be you!'_

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Goku glanced down at the crater left by Frieza's blast "Well Master Roshi did always say never to perform under stress, but looking back I'm not too sure that he was actually talking about martial arts."

Frieza looked down and let out a grunt "It would seem that I pulled the rings a bit too tight on that one."

"Because like a coward you were too worried about getting caught in the wake of your own explosion, and because of that you've failed once again, and in case you haven't noticed I'm still alive."

"Is that so? Well I believe that you should cling to that attitude while you're still able to, I take it that you have no clue as to what's happening right now."

"Enlighten me."

"The planet may not have exploded instantaneously but its precious core has been utterly decimated as a result, need I give you a lesson in geology?"

"Go ahead."

"Five minutes, perhaps even less, but within the next five short minutes this detestable sphere will crumble and burst into nothing more than galactic rubble."

"Five minutes huh? Well that's gonna be more than enough time, as a matter of fact I can take you down and get my friends out of here in far less."

"Only one of us is going to leave this place and I'm afraid that privilege will not be going to you my friend, for all of your heroics the odds are stacked against you. But as a little fare thee well gift, you at the very least will have the privilege of witnessing me at the absolute peak of my veritably immeasurable power!"

"Why bother to wait so long to show it to me Frieza? You're not fooling anyone, especially not me. The second you reach your full power, any ability you have to control it flies right out the window." he flared his golden aura "You're not stalling for anymore time, we're settling this and we're settling it now!" and so he charged at Frieza in a rage, resulting in the two of them clashing throughout the skies of Planet Namek, before he landed a solid fist to Frieza's face and a knee to his gut, causing Frieza to cough up blood, and then he smashed Frieza right in the spine, sending him crashing down into the crater.

Frieza recovered just in time to avoid a kick to the head and retreated across the skies, with Goku in hot pursuit.

"Hey what's the matter Frieza, are you afraid that you're gonna end up wearing yourself out too quickly once you get to maximum power?!" Goku blitzed in front of Frieza and double kicked him square in the jaw and then kicked him in the spine, sending him hurtling into the upper atmosphere, and then he charged in for another attack.

Frieza quickly stopped himself in his rage "Don't… get… so… COCKY!" and then he suddenly struck Goku a quick yet powerful shockwave, sending Goku flying towards the ground and slamming through the surface of Planet Namek.

Goku burst back upwards in a golden light, now with his shirt partially torn, and he spat out some blood "Is that all you've got?"

"It's quite exasperating to find that you've underestimated your opponent is it not, and that little display just so happens to be yours truly at 70%. Oh but fear not my friend, the grand unveiling is about to be underway. _I can end this farce in under sixty seconds. No, in under thirty seconds actually.'_ his aura began flaring.

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Bulma was still fighting just to stay alive on Planet Namek "Go right ahead Namek and throw whatever you've got at me, I am SO through taking your crap with a smile on my face!" and then she found herself hanging on for dear life for like the umpteenth time that day "For the love of all things good and sacred will somebody just swoop in and SAVE ME ALREADY?!"

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Meanwhile, about a mile away…

Yamcha was still searching for Bulma across the now chaotic skies of Planet Namek "Come on help me out a little bit Bulma, where the hell are you? I should at least be picking up your Ki signature, from the looks of things we don't have that much longer before this entire planet completely gives out on itself and all of us! And on top of that Frieza's Ki signature is spiking like crazy, whatever that means it can't be good for us! Dammit Bulma I need you to do something to help me track you down!" he was answered by Bulma snarling like an angry beast in the distance "Okay that works." so he swooped in and pulled her into his arms bridal style before she got crushed by rocks.

Needless to say though, she still wasn't happy "Where the hell do you people get off leaving a delicate young flower like myself in the middle of a barren piece of intergalactic rubble that happens to be imploding! How nice of you to finally come and get me by the way, only thing is that you left me stranded all on my own to fend for myself! The planet is going to hell, I've almost died like 7 times today, and I'm FREAKING THE F*CK OUT!"

"Look I get that you're upset but I don't have any time to sit you down and explain everything right now, we've gotta keep moving if we want to survive long enough to get there so just hold on tight for now!"

"Wait a second, are you taking me where I think you're taking me?"

"Yep, we're going to Goku and Tien's spacepod-"

"Like the resourceful and savvy starhoppers that we are!"

"Yeah babe, you guessed it."

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The battle of the century was about to continue.

Goku charged towards Frieza and prepared to finish the long awaited showdown, only to stop when he noticed Frieza bulking himself up in a painful looking fashion ' _Wow it looks like all of that power is doing a real number on his body, so then I guess this is it. I'm finally going to see what Frieza is like when he's at his absolute maximum power.'_ he started flaring his own golden aura in preparation for the inevitable.

" _Come in Goku, can you hear me? This is King Kai, are you there? Listen to me Goku, don't waste even another moment my boy. This is the window of opportunity you've been waiting for to take the chance to strike! You can take the chance to hit Frieza with everything you've got while he's busy pumping himself up to maximum power, you can't afford to miss this chance! Believe me when I tell you that you won't get another one! I'm not kidding Goku, are you listening to me?!"_

"I hear you King Kai, I'm reading you loud and clear. I know all to well that this may very well be my one and only chance to take Frieza down once and for all, but at the same time it's also the one and only chance I'll ever have to see what he's capable of at his absolute peak."

" _You- You want to see it?! Are you out of your gourd?! No forget that Goku, you're not thinking like yourself! This time you're talking madness!"_

"78… 79… 80!" Frieza continued powering up, his muscle mass increasing the closer he drew to his absolute maximum.

" _Hey Goku snap out of it for crying out loud."_

"I know, but…" Goku clenched his fists and gritted his teeth "But I have to do this, I have to FIGHT!" and he flared his golden aura.

" _Please just think about what you're doing, this isn't a contest! Goku for once in your life, LISTEN TO ME!"_

"YOU DON'T GET IT!" Goku's aura flared in response to his rage "I SAW MY OWN BROTHER AND SON GET MURDERED IN FRONT OF MY OWN EYES, THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'M GOING TO TAKE THOSE THINGS SITTING DOWN! I never even got to know Raditz but I know enough to know that he's got one of the most righteous hearts I've ever seen, and as for Gohan… Gohan was a good kid, one of the bravest people that I've ever known, and the fate that this bastard dealt him was the last thing that he deserved! Before I'm done I'm going to bathe the cosmos in his blood!"

" _Goku… Yes I understand, but there still no sense in waiting for him to reach full power before you do it! Think of the others, think of what will happen to them!"_

"They'll be okay, I wouldn't be so sure of this if I didn't have faith in them. This conversation is over." and so Goku cut the link between him and King Kai.

Frieza continued powering up to his max, his muscles bulging to an insane extent "98… percent… almost… at maximum… power…"

"Yeah that's right Frieza, you go right on up to your peek. There's only one reason I'm being so patient waiting for your grand unveiling like this is so that I can have the honor of taking you down at your best because there's one thing that I won't be fighting and that is regret. Just take a look at yourself, you're itching to lash out at me at full steam otherwise you'd just try to hit the planet with another blast just to be done with it.

Frieza just let out a sinister sounding chuckle, followed by a furious shriek as a white light engulfed the entire battlefield.

' _This is it, the grand unveiling…'_

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(Meanwhile, on King Kai's planet…)

Krillin and Chiaotzu were growing restless "Come on King Kai don't keep us in the dark here, what's going on down there?"

King Kai simply shook his head, his tone grim "I've tried all that I can but the fact is that every last vestage of Goku's reasoning has given way to the unparalleled rage of the Super Saiyan form, there's nothing else I can do. What happenes next is up to him and him alone."

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Gine was growing concerned "I don't understand, why would Kakarot allow Frieza to transform like that? It's just not like him."

"It's because of the Super Saiyan transformation." Raditz told her grimly "Kakarot's rage and anger over his son getting killed by Frieza in front of him has caused it to cloud his already rather shaky judgement. The only question is, can he overcome that and still take Frieza down despite fighting him when he's at full power? Well he has to."

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Goku braced himself as the blinding white light subsided, as did the shockwaves, and he lowered his guard for a brief moment ' _So this is it then, I can already feel the power. It's unlike anything I've ever felt before.'_ he dropped into a combat stance.

The smoke cleared to reveal Frieza at his full power, now bulked up beyond anything he had ever displayed before "There we are now, you said wanted to see me at my absolute strongest and so here it is now."

"I've got a better question for you, do you want to finish this or are you just going to keep on talking?"

"Well if you insist." Frieza blitzed forward and slugged Goku straight in the gut, then kneed him straight in the skull and followed up with an elbow in the same spot, before following up with a brutal onslaught of punches and kicks fasther than Goku was able to follow, which he followed by grabbing Goku and hurling him down into the crater where the core of the planet once resided.

Goku rebounded and landed on the side of the crater, only to be smashed inwards by Frieza as soon as he was able to react.

Frieza pounced on Goku the very second he was able to recover and began his brutal onslaught anew.

Goku quickly recovered from the onslaught and attempted to escape and recover a bit of his stamina.

"Too slow monkey!" Frieza quickly found him and slammed his fist across Goku's face as hard as he could.

Goku attempted to counter the attack, only to end up hitting Frieza's afterimage, forcing him to put up his guard.

"Missed me!" Frieza slammed his foot into Goku's spine and continued with a relentless barrage of punches and kicks.

Goku finally managed to catch both of Frieza's arms by the wrist as the smoke cleared to reveal both of them to be hovering above the core crater as it will now be referred to, caught in a deadlock power struggle "Just go ahead and give it up Frieza!" the two of them began flaring their auras, which mixed into one pinkish orange color.

Frieza soon broke off from the power struggle and kneed Goku in the gut as hard as he was able to before he broke away, panting heavily "Honestly I just love how easy it is to get away with this shit with you people! I want to transform and you just sit there and let me, I want to blow the planet up and you just sit there and let me, I want to reach my full power so I can crush you like a bug and you just sit right there and let me! Anyway I understand if you're impressed but I have a confession to make, that was merely a warmup!"

"...Well that's a relief." Goku just spat out some blood and shot Frieza a cocky smirk "I was actually beginning to worry that was as strong as you could get."

"Is that a fact? Well here's a fact, I'm through fooling around. Your time is up, as fun as this has been but you're officially finished." this was followed by a geyser of lava erupting from the core crater, resulting in the two of them blitzing around in a brief game of cat and mouse "You know before I wipe you from this plain of existence there's something I believe it's only common courtesy to tell you."

"Which is?"

"You have proven yourself to be quite capable, as a matter of fact I even dare to say that you could easily be the strongest warrior in the universe. That is to say, if it weren't for me."

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Gohan watched with concern alongside Raditz and the others in the Check In Station "Why did dad have to wait for him to get to full power? If it wasn't for that then this wouldn't have become an issue."

"It is an unfortunate turn of events, but that is in Goku's character."

Gohan glanced back and noticed Kami appear before him "You look just like some of those elderly Namekians that Kai and I saw earlier, you must be Kami!"

"Indeed Gohan, I am Kami, Guardian of the planrt Earth, but you may know me as Piccolo's other half. I actually came to put in a good word for you with King Yemma so that you could journey to see King Kai so you could observe the fight from there. Also I actually was about to contact King Kai and inform him that Mr Popo has at last discovered the location of the seventh Dragon Ball on Earth, and it shouldn't be very long before the Dragon Balls have all been assembled and we shall be rescuing those who fell to Vegeta and Nappa's rampage back on Earth before very long."

"But that means that Krillin and Chiaotzu can't be brought back since they were already brought back once before, back when my dad and the others faced King Piccolo-" Gohan paused, then frowned in thought for a moment, before an idea struck him like lightning "Wait hold on just a second."

"Is something the matter?"

"Kami are you sure it's possible for the Dragon Balls on Earth to bring back multiple people with one wish?"

"Well yes if they share common circumstances, for example I intended to ask the Eternal Dragon to resurrect everyone on Earth killed by Vegeta and Nappa, which should actually revive a large number of people."

"Well in that aspect it actually makes them somewhat superior to the geniune Namekian Dragon Balls, but that does raise a few questions. For example what if the people we wanted to bring back weren't on Earth, what if they were on a faraway planet? Would that wish still work in those circumstances?"

Kami frowned in thought "Well perhaps but why would you ask such a thing, are you now hoping to resurrect everyone in the entire universe who has been killed by the Saiyans? I suppose that such a possibility does exist, however there still are limits. For example this meant that the wish would only affect those who died by the Saiyans hand this year, anyone who perished prior to that would be lost forever I'm afraid."

"But one more question, let's say we wanted to bring back someone who died of old age. Would that work for it as well?"

"Well no, unfortuantely a death by natural causes cannot be reversed."

"Yeah I know, otherwise you could've revived Kai's mom with the Dragon Balls a long time ago and he wouldn't be an emotional trainwreck. No offense Ms Scarlet." he received a shrug "I understand that much, but what if this someone in question didn't die as a direct result of the actions of the Saiyans but instead the life of this person had been shortened slightly as an indirect result."

"Quite an interesting thought."

"Exactly, so could it work and could the person be brought back then?"

"That is actually a good question, those circumstances have never actually arisen. It stands to reason that the person in question would be allowed to return for the amount of time by which their life had been shortened but I cannot guarantee such a thing."

"Existing possibility but nothing guaranteed, well it's better than nothing. Kami I need you to change the wish for me."

"What do you-"

"Instead of everyone killed by the Saiyans, I need you to ask the Eternal Dragon to bring back everyone on Planet Namek who was killed by Frieza and his henchmen."

"Everyone on Planet Namek who was killed by Frieza and his henchmen? I don't believe I understand Gohan, what exactly is your intention with this wish?"

"From what I can tell about what's going on on Planet Namek we don't have a lot of time so I'll try to keep it short and simple, this plan has two steps. First of all we use the Dragon Balls on Earth to bring back everyone on Planet Namek who was killed by Frieza and his henchmen, if there's truly no limit to the number of people we can bring back with a single wish then we'll be able to save the entire Namekian race, and from what it sounds like we might even be able to save the Grand Elder too, at least for a short time. If I remember correctly the Dragon Balls on Planet Namek were only used for two of the three wishes that they could be used for and they stopped working when the Grand Elder died, but if we can bring him back even if the odds of that are slim then that should be able to reactivate the Dragon Balls over there which should allow us to get the third wish."

"And what do we do then?"

"Then we use that last wish to transport everyone, from dad and Kai to all of the resurrected Namekians, everyone with the obvious exception of Frieza, all the way back to Earth and out of the way of Planet Namek exploding!"

"I see. I understand where you're coming from Gohan, but to risk so much on so much of a gamble…"

"I don't think we have any other choice, if we want as many people as possible to get out of this alive then this is a risk that we have to take. Besides with the Namekian Dragon Balls restored then that means that we can use them to bring back Krillin and Chiaotzu next year."

"...Very well Gohan, I understand and I'm sure that the others will as well. I will notify Mr Popo and King Kai of your plan." Kami gave him a small smile "Quite intelligent and mature for your age, this is something that I'm sure that Goku will be proud to hear about." and then he disappeared via Instantaneous Movement.

"I can only hope so, and pray to the highest Kai or deity up there that this actually works."

(Meanwhile unknown to anyone, Beerus sneezed about 32 Whis-miles away)

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Bulma was growing impatient as she was flown by Yamcha back towards the ship "How long does it take to find one measely pod, come on we don't have much time left until the planet explodes! If we're still here then I don't think we're gonna make it!"

"Don't say that Bulma, of course we will." Yamcha assured her "For now I just need you to take a few deep breaths and calm down-"

"Do not patronize me while I'm being hysterical! You have no idea what I've been going through lately Yamcha, it's just been horrible!"

"It hasn't been a picnic for any of us Bulma."

"Yeah I understand that but it's been worse for me! I've been chased by dinosaurs, nearly killed by the effects of you guys blowing shit up, and if that's not enough I was almost crushed by gigantic rocks! And on top of that, you have to keep in mind that I CAN'T FLY OR BLOW SHIT UP!"

"Yeah well it's times like this you should be glad that you don't- Hey look there's the ship, this conversation is over and thank god for that." Yamcha looked down at Goku and Tien's ship, only to see that the ground was beginning to give out from under it.

"Wait a second the ship can't leave yet, I'm not even on board!"

"What about me?"

"What about you, just fly us on board already!"

"I know I know!" Yamcha set her down in the doorway and made his own way inside, only to notice that the lights were off and Tien was meditating in the corner of the room "Hey what's the matter Bulma, aren't you gonna come inside?"

"Yeah but it's so dark, I wonder if there's been some kind of malfunction in the ship's electrical system-" she nearly tripped on something.

"Okay that's not right, the lights were definitely on when I was here earlier and that was just a few minutes ago-"

"LOOK OUT!" Bulma slid across the floor until she reached the console in the middle of the room "Okay so the floor is a little bit slanted, and I'm not very familiar with a ship of this module but I'll give it a try." she pressed a button and the lights came back on, but then she screamed in comical terror when she noticed Piccolo lying unconscious on the floor and then glomped onto Yamcha "Oh my god is that Piccolo or am I losing what little sanity I actually have left?"

"I'm guessing both." that was when Kai climbed up the ladder from the lower level with his hair wet and a tower around his shoulders, and holding a slize of pizza "It's about time you guys got back, I've had enough time to take a full shower and microwave a gigantic pizza that Goku and the Triclops left in the freezer."

"I've only been gone for about 2 minutes." Yamcha pointed out.

"No way it's only been two minutes, feels to me like it's been at least 45 minutes. Time in anime is bullshit."

"What?"

"Huh? Anyway yeah that's Piccolo, what's the big deal."

"What's the big deal?" Bulma let out a scoff "What the hell is he doing here anyway? I mean look at him, he's a complete and total mess! Does he really have to come with us?"

"That depends, do you have to act like a self righteous (massive censored) about 90% of the time?" he received a dirty look "Yeah that's what I thought, besides bringing Piccolo back is pretty much the main reason we came here in the first place. After all if anything happens to him then Kami goes with him, and the Dragon Balls go with Kami, and then we'd be right back at square one. Also, nobody here really gives a f*ck what you think."

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Frieza shot Goku an arrogant smirk "This planet isn't going to last for much longer, by my estimation you only have two or so minutes, three at the most."

"That would be about my guess." Goku glanced around at the planet collapsing in on itself around him.

"Tell me Super Saiyan, are you nervous yet?"

"What should I have to be nervous about?"

"...Oh I see, you're simply attempting to buy time, enough for that brad with the loud mouth and your other companions to get off this planet. I'll let them go for now but it's only fair for you to know that even if they do manage to escape I _will_ track them down and finish what I've started with them."

"There's no need for me to buy time, not anymore at least. You're finished, after everything you've done you no longer have the right to live, and I'm going to make sure that you get exactly what you deserve." the lightning flashed behind him in a very ominous way as he dropped into a combat stance.

Frieza let out an irritated chuckle, before he pretty much exploded "NO ONE SPEAKS TO THE MIGHTY LORD FRIEZA LIKE THAT AND LIVES TO TELL THE TALE, YOU'VE GOT A BIG MOUTH AND THE TIME HAS COME FOR ME TO SHUT IT FOR YOU!"

"You can try." but secretly Goku was growing impatient ' _What's taking Yamcha and the others so long to get off the planet? Come on guys hurry up, I can only keep him stalled for so long and I can't fight all out without risking putting all of you in danger!'_

Frieza let out a mighty shriek of rage as he bliztes towards Goku and fired another punch, this one being enhanced with Ki.

Goku caught him by the arm and took the chance to spin Frieza around and fling him down into the core crater.

Frieza quickly used a Ki blast to stop himself, only to lose sight of Goku when his vision was obstructed by a geyser of lava erupting between them, though he quickly found Goku and fired a Death Ball at him.

Goku powered through it and hit Frieza square in the face with a single Dragon Shot (a single version of the Twin Dragon Shot), sending him crashing into the side of the core crater with a mighty crash. With a few seconds of calm now upon him, Goku took the chance to drop into the stance for a Kamehameha, slowly but surely building the Ki in between his palms.

Frieza blitzed back into the air high above Goku, now seething with so much rage that he was nearly beyond words.

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The ground beneath the ship continued to give way.

The same could be said for Bulma's patience and sanity "This place is falling apart, we have to take off now! If we don't then we're never gonna make it! That's it, I'm initiating the launch sequence-"

"No." Yamcha grabbed her hand "We can't go yet Bulma, we have to wait for Goku."

"Goku will be fine and we both know it, if anyone can find their way off this rock then it would be him."

"Bulma we still have time, after everything that Goku has done for us there's no way that I'm just leaving him behind."

"...You're right, we'll give him one more minute but that's it."

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(Meanwhile, on Earth)

"Kami, Kami can you hear me?" Mr Popo was quick to contact Kami through their shared telepathy "We have them Kami, all seven of the Dragon Balls are here now and we can make the wish at any time."

" _Excellent, please do so at once Mr Popo."_

"Understood. Eternal Dragon Shenron, please arise and grant my wish."

Sure enough, the Dragon Balls began glowing, the skies turned pitched black, and then the Eternal Dragon Shenron appeared in all of his magnificent glory " **Yee who has gathered the seven Dragon Balls and summoned me forth, speak your wish and it shall be granted so long as it is within my power."**

"Oh great Shenron, so many innocent people have been harmed by the actions of Frieza and his evil minions. Can they be returned to us if they are on a faraway planet?"

" **I know not, but I shall try."**

"I was hoping for a definite yes but we shall take what we can get, please Shenron do the best that you can."

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Frieza let out an enraged shriek over the thought of the events that had taken place "I… I WILL NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO BE BESTED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!" and so he charged towards Goku at full speed in a rage with his Nova Strike.

"SEE YOU IN HELL FRIEZA!" in response to this, Goku quickly unleashed a full power Super Kamehameha, which rammed into Frieza's Nova Strike head on and resulted in an epic power struggle.

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Bardock ended up growing particularly pissed when he saw the TV in the Check In Station go to static "Okay what the f*ck?!"

"I was afraid of this." Scarlet noted "King Yemma told me that too much energy would result in the TV crashing from the feedback."

"So what now we just sit on our asses and do nothing?"

"I never said that." she held up a book "I also asked him for the instruction's manual, just give me a few minutes." and so she got to work.

Gohan was growing restless ' _Come on Shenron time is running out, we all need you to revive everyone whose lives were cut short by Frieza and his men and with any luck the Grand Elder will be brought back too, and once that happens Porunga should reappear too and allow us to get that last wish. It's the only chance we have of saving Dad, Kai and everyone else before Planet Namek is destroyed.'_ and then he noticed that his body was glowing, and he looked over to see the same with Raditz "What the-"

"It's your wish." Scarlet turned to face him "You're both being brought back to life now thanks to the wish that was made on Shenron, which means that you're both gonna be heading back to Planet Namek."

"Oh. I see. But don't worry Ms Scarlet, I won't forget what you said." he received a thumbs up and gave him a small smile "And um… I'll tell Kai and Yamcha that you said hi." and then he disappeared in a white light.

Raditz stayed a moment longer and glanced over at Gine and Bardock "Mother, Father… I know it's a little bit late to say this, but… I'm sorry."

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" Bardock let out a loud snort "I would've done the same stuff 1,000 times over because I get off on that stuff, but you're better than that. Don't be me, just be what you wanna be, whether it be with Kakarot or otherwise."

"I understand Father, and I will."

Gine stepped up and pulled him into a tight hug "It's not your time yet Raditz, not yet. You have a lot more life to live before the next time that I see you, so be sure that you do." she gave him a small smile "And tell Kakarot that we said hi."

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"FULL… POWER!" with a mighty roar, Goku poured as much power as he could into his Super Kamehameha, pushing Frieza back into the upper atmosphere.

"Don't think… this is enough… TO DEFEAT ME!" with a malicious smirk, Frieza flew away from the path of the Kamehameha and rammed straight into Goku while he was distracted, and rammed him hundreds of feet underground before retreating himself, leaving Goku stuck in what would become a lave geyser almost immediately after "Now you're Super Saiyan soup, high in vitamin dumbass! Did you think you could actually win? You, defeat me?!" and he let out a triumphant laugh.

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Tien's eyes snapped open from his meditation and he glanced over at Kai and Yamcha "Did you guys feel that?" he received two simultaneous quiet nods "Goku's Ki signature has completely disappeared, it's just… gone."

"But that doesn't mean that he's… you know…" Bulma trailed off, the grim thought not needing to be finished "I mean he has to be okay right?"

"...I'm sorry about this you guys." Tien blitzed in front of Kai and Yamcha and elbowed both of them in the sides while their guards were down, knocking them out cold, and then he threw a glance over his shoulder at Bulma "You have to get going, take these three and go back to Earth without me. I'm staying here." he pressed the button to open up the hatch.

"Wait what? Tien don't do this!"

"I have to and you know it. Goku fought Frieza because he had to, because it was either him that would die or us that would die. These three are too valuable to sacrifice themselves but the fact is that I'm not, so I'm the only one who can finish what he started."

"But Tien if you go then you'll get killed!"

"I can try, I'm sure they'll understand. All I have to do is buy enough time for you guys to get off the planet safely, and if I die… well then at least I'll see Chiaotzu on the other side. As for you, well I want all of you to live fulfilling lives. Bye Bulma, take care of yourself and of these three." and with that, Tien blasted off into the chaotic sky of Planet Namek, his Kaioken aura flaring and boosting his speed ' _There's only one thing I can do, I just hope that my plan actually works.'_

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Gohan's eyes snapped open as he pulled himself out of the chaotic Namekian sea, and he looked around at the collapsing planet "Looks like it's worse than I thought, let's just hope that my plan actually worked."

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Dende's eyes snapped open and he looked around "Where in the world am I, and how did I end up here?"

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Nail's eyes snapped open and he pulled himself out of the water "When there's no more room in Hell, Nail the strongest of the Namekians shall walk the- Other hell, what the hell? Well I have my clothes back so at least that's a start. But just to be safe… kidney punch!" he punched himseld in the kidney, which for them is located in the shin, and he promptly fell to the ground and coughed up blood "Yes I'm actually alive, but why is the planet experiencing global warming?"

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Raditz pulled himself out of his grave "Okay I have my clothes back so that's a good sign, only the world is ending around me. Okay good I'm alive again."

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King Kai lit up at what he was seeing "Yes alright he did it, Shenron has brought everyone on Planet Namek back to life!"

"Are you sure that it's everyone?" asked Krillin "They brought back the Grand Elder too right, and the Namekian Eternal Dragon?"

"Of course, at least I think so. Anyway if the others are alive then the Grand Elder should be too, and if the Grand Elder is back then… Yes the sky on Planet Namek has gone completely dark, which must mean… Hold on a second, let me check."

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The Grand Elder's eyes snapped open for a brief second and he looked around "What has happened to me? What is this, why have I been returned to this world?" and his resurrection also restored the Namekian Dragon Balls, and Porunga by extension.

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King Kai once again lit up at what he was seeing "Yes this is wonderful, everything went exactly as Gohan had planned."

"Which means that there's still time but not much." Krillin noted "You need to hurry up and tell them what to wish for, we have to act now while the Grand Elder is still alive!"

"What do you take me for, of course I know that!" so King Kai quickly got to work on the next step of Gohan's plan: contacting the Grand Elder with his telepathy " _Grand Elder of the Planet Namek, this is King Kai of the northern galaxy speaking."_

" _I hear you King Kai, please go on."_

" _I need you to listen very closely to what I have to say, it's very important."_

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Frieza glanced up and noticed that the sky had turned completely black "What is this, what has happened to the sky? This must be a sign that the planet is weakening, I have to get off of this miserable rock while I still have time. I've already sustained a considerable amount of damage from this battle, I cannot afford to get caught in an explosion of that magnitude." he prepared to take off into the atmosphere of the planet, only to stop when he noticed a crimson light hurtling towards him "Oh come on what now?"

The crimson light burst towards him, only to reveal itself as Tien, having discarded his shirt as he dropped into a combat stance "Remember me, the one who came to Planet Namek with the Saiyan that you just killed?"

Frieza just let out a condescending chuckle and powererd down his bulkage "It seems that foolishness must be a virtue on Earth. Face the facts Triclops, you don't have a ghost of a chance against me. It's sad really but you can't help it, even when you're outmatched it seems that you've picked up the Saiyan trait of not knowing when to give up."

"I just don't like to give up, there is a difference."

"So there is. Very well then last of the Earthlings with enough courage to face me, you have one chance!"

"Fine by me! **Kaioken 10x!"** Tien powered up his Kaioken 10x aura and shot towards Frieza, then suddenly bolted upwards and away from him.

Frieza suddenly blizted in front of Tien "And what pray tell do you intend to do now?" before he could get an answer he slammed his fist into Tien's gut and smashed him square on the skull, sending him crashing to the ground "Okay that's much better, now would you like to die quickly or slowly? I'm personally find either way."

Tien spat out some blood and climbed his way back to his feet ' _Okay that one hurt but I have to stay focused, I have to keep him distracted for a few more minutes. With Goku gone the only way to beat him is to make sure that he's still on the planet when it explodes.'_

"You know what hold on for just a moment, I just had an excellent idea. Because I'm as generous as I am, I'll bury you with that Saiyan friend of yours. You may feel free to thank me whenever you wish, I've been more than merciful so it's only polite."

Tien just gritted his teeth as he let out a roar and powered up his Kaioken 10x aura, his muscles bulging from the strain.

"Excellent, you still have a considerable amount of fight left in you."

Tien then bolted away from Frieza and across the Namekian skies as fast as he could ' _Just a little bit longer.'_

"Not so fast." Frieza blitzed in front of him "Just what exactly do you think that you're trying to pull with me?" then he felt the realization hit him, and he let out a chuckle "Oh now I understand all too well, I've finally figured out your little scheme. You've been stalling for time. I see that I'm right, you want to let an exploding planet do your dirty work don't you? You should be ashamed of yourself."

"You… You're the one who killed Goku…" Tien gritted his teeth "And your men was the one who killed Chiaotzu… and now you're going to pay! **Kaioken… times TWENTY!"** with a mighty roar he pushed his Kaioken as high as he possibly could "I'm not going to let you get away with this!" he burst forward and dealt Frieza a solid fist to the face, followed by dealing him a vicious Volleyball Fist, ending with Tien brutally smashing Frieza straight down into the ground " **TRI-BEAM!"** and then he followed up with a full power Tri-Beam, absolutely devastating the island and nearly causing Tien to drop to the ground from pure exhaustion as a result.

When the smoke finally cleared, Frieza rose back up into the air with only a few light burns across his body "About time someone from your species showed some backbone, rather impressive for a maggot I have to say. But I've had more than enough fun and games, I believe the time has come for me to let you in on a little secret. I'm not fighting you at full power right now at least not yet, not like I was with the so called Super Saiyan." he quickly bulked up to his maximum power "And now this farce of a battle is over." and then he glanced down to see a golden light shining from beneath the waves "What?!"

Sure enough, from beneath the waves emerged none other than Goku, still in his Super Saiyan form with his shirt torn and looking slightly more wounded than he previously did, but he was still alive and kicking "You miss me?"

"I personally did." Tien powered down his Kaioken and let out a sigh "I'm just that you managed to survive after all. I don't suppose you want any help in this fight?"

"The only way that you can help is by getting out of here like I told you before, take the others back to the ship and just get back to Earth. And take care of things on Earth until I get back there."

"...I understand. And Goku? Good luck." and with that, Tien blasted off into the skies and departed from the battlefield.

"And now it's just back to you and me."

Frieza nearly let out an outright snarl "You really are a pesky one aren't you? You could've stayed out of sight and accepted your fate like a deck hand going down with the ship, but clearly I was right to believe that foolishness is a virtue on Earth. You all seem to value it so highly, it's almost unbelievable that you would choose to face someone who wields the power that I possess."

"There's only one thing that I see as unbelievable and that's how you can still be so arrogant right now."

"Is that right? Well fine you can have it your way, I'll just have to blast you into oblivion just like I did that other Saiyan brat from before."

"And what other Saiyan brat are you talking about? You mean Gohan don't you?" Goku's mind instantly flashed back to Gohan's death from before, and his golden aura flared in response to his rage "YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!" he charged towards Frieza at full speed, and the battle began anew.

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King Kai continued his conversation with the Grand Elder "As you can tell Grand Elder, the Planet Namek could explode at any moment, which would take everyone on the planet with it as a result. But we still have a chance, there should still be one wish left on the Namekian Dragon Balls if I'm not mistaken."

" _Yes King Kai, I do believe that you're correct."_

"Then we'll have to move quickly, you won't have a second chance to do this. You have to tell your dragon to transport everyone except for Frieza to planet Earth."

" _I understand the urgency and I do realize that time is of the essence King Kai, but unfortunately one must convey their wish directly for it to take effect. However, I might be able to contact someone close by and ask them to make the wish on your behalf."_

"Perfect, if you could do that-"

" _ **NO DON'T DO IT!"**_

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" _No don't do it!"_ as it turns out Goku had somehow been able to hijack their private telepathic conversation " _I need you guys to change the wish!"_ he kept Frieza at bay for a moment with a quick Ki blast.

" _What the- Goku have you been listening in?"_

" _Yeah and it's a good thing I was, I need you to change the wish!"_ Goku quickly deflected a volley of Ki blasts from Frieza " _You can't make the last wish everyone on Planet Namek except for Frieza, make it everyone on Planet Namek except for Frieza and me!"_

" _What?! Look Goku I understand how you feel, but you have to leave Planet Namek and get back home as soon as you can!"_

" _Let me make something clear to you!"_ Goku fended off a volley of attacks from Frieza and kneed him square in the face " _If you even think about taking me out of this battle then I swear I will_ _ **never**_ _forgive you!"_

" _But Goku…"_

" _Please King Kai, just do this for me!"_

" _I, I'm not sure about this Goku…"_

" _Just do it and fast, this entire planet is gonna blow any second!"_

" _...Alright you know what Goku, fine. I can see that your mind is made up. If you want it that badly then I won't stop you."_

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Dende looked over to see Porunga appearing before him in the distance "I don't understand how this is possible, I remember Frieza killing me but that's it."

" _Dende is the closest, Dende can you hear me? This is the Grand Elder."_

"But then you're alive? But how, and what's going on?"

" _There is no time for questions, I need you to do something very important. Porunga should be somewhere close to waiting for the third wish, can you see him?"_

"Yes sir I see him, he's right in front of me. There must be one wish left to make, what is it you wish me to say?"

" _You must go to him at once, it's up to you to make the third and final wish!"_

"Yes sir of course, now what is the wish?" Dende quickly took to the skies and raced off towards where Porunga was located.

" _Tell him that you wish for everyone on Planet Namek to be relocated to Planet Earth except for the beings known as Goku and Frieza. Now hurry Dende, time is short."_

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Gohan took a moment to get a grip of himself "So I guess this is what it feels like to be brought back to life. Frankly the after life part wasn't actually that bad, but the whole dying part in itself though, it's kind of… well haunting… Everything just kind of slows down and you feel yourself slip the mortal coil… And frankly right now, I'm wondering if I've been brought back or if I'm still in the process of dying. I wonder if this is how everyone else felt when they died before or if I'm the odd one out."

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Goku returned to the ground, staring down Frieza and receiving a mutual glare in return, and he dropped into a combat stance ' _So this is it then, no turning back.'_

" _This is what you wanted, just be sure that you make it back to Earth safely Goku."_

" _You've got your own worlds to take care of King Kai, so just let me take care of this one for you."_ Goku glanced over and noticed Porunga in the distance and his smirk widened ' _So that's the Eternal Dragon for Planet Namek._ Alright you overgrown that thing that Chichi keeps in her drawer, now I can fight you without having to worry about holding back."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Frieza glanced over and his jaw nearly dropped when he laid eyes on Porunga ' _The dragon, it's returned somehow! Does this mean that the Dragon Balls weren't turned to stone after all?_ Well I'll be damned, this is finally my chance! At last I will acquire my entitled immortality!" and he bolted off towards Porunga.

"This might have been a mistake." Goku quickly bolted off after Frieza and cut off his path, resulting in the two of them clashing and trading even blows.

"Will you just piss off already!"

"I don't have to use the bathroom but I'll make sure that you piss red!"

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" _It's up to you now Dende, please get there as fast as you can!"_

"I understand!" Dende dropped to the ground in front of Porunga in preparation to make the final wish "PORUNGA!"

" **I am here young one, have you a third and final wish to make?"**

"Yes, yes I have a third wish to make!"

" **Then speak your wish now."**

"Right, Porunga our third and final wish is-"

"GRANT IMMORTALITY TO THE MIGHTY FRIEZA!" that was when Frieza, fresh from kicking Goku in the crotch and stunning him for the moment, burst onto the scene.

"No it's Frieza!"

"I wish that I, the almighty Lord Frieza, be granted eternal life so that I may rid myself of these vile creatures and secure myself as ruler of all of creation-"

"NO!" that was when Nail burst onto the scene and drop kicked Frieza right in the face, sending him crashing into the sea "NOW IS YOUR CHANCE DENDE, MAKE THE WISH BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

"Right!" so Dende uttered the wish in the Namekian language.

" **I have heard your wish and I shall fulfill it gladly, all of the living beings on Planet Namek with the exception of the ones known as Goku and Frieza shall be transported to the planet Earth.**

"How dare you get in the way of my wish you little-" Frieza burst up and grabbed Nail by the neck, only for Nail to disappear in a white flash, along with Dende, before he was able to finish the job "What the-"

"Looks like it's game over." that was when Goku burst onto the scene.

"DAD WAIT UP!" that was when Gohan showed up, panting heavily.

"Gohan…" Goku powered down his golden aura momentarily and pulled Gohan into a tight yet gentle hug "Two things: First of all, never do anything like that again! Second of all, I heard about your plan from King Kai. Great job."

"Hey mom spent five years drilling me with knowledge, it's about time I used it for something in real life. Oh maybe I should use that argument for when I tell her that I want to keep training and studying both." Gohan released himself from Goku's hug "I've been watching you fight from Otherworld along with Uncle Raditz and Ms Scarlet, and I heard from King Kai about what you plan to do. Do what you have to do, but just be sure that you make it back to Earth safe and sound real soon."

"Got it, and you take care of things while I'm gone."

"Man to man promise, I like it." the two of them fist bumped, right before Gohan disappeared in a white flash, along with everyone else on the planet.

" **I shall take my leave, and I bid you farewell."** and with that, Porunga disappeared in a flash of light.

"WAIT NO NOT YET!" Frieza could only let out a scream of anguish over the sight of his goal slipping through his fingers.

Goku shot him a cocky smirk "Well sorry to disappoint you Frieza, actually I'm not sorry in the slightest, but I guess your luck has finally run out. It's a damn shame you don't know how to speak Namekian now isn't it?"

Frieza slowly rounded his enraged gaze on Goku "You…"

"I have to admit you had me a little bit worred for a minute there."

"Those two Namekians and that Saiyan brat, those three are the same ones that I killed earlier weren't they?"

"Yep you got that right, a few friends of mine used the Dragon Balls on Earth to bring back everyone that was killed by you and your men since you got to this planet, which includes the Grand Elder."

"What?!"

"Which means that with him back we could get our last wish on the Dragon Balls on this planet as a result."

"And the wish that the little Namekian runt just made, what was it?!"

"I thought that you would've figured it out by now, he used the last wish to have everyone on Planet Namek moved to Earth except for two people, you and me. And this entire plan was crafted by my son Gohan, the same son that you killed."

Frieza let out a shriek and a shockwave that devastated a few nearby mountains, just as the sky turned a deep shade of crimson "The planet is beginning to collapse, in only two minutes the Planet Namek will be nothing more than a cloud of dust and a memory. Only one question remains to be answered, will I be able to kill you in these next two minutes or will you survive long enough to bear witness to the great inevitable explosion and then suffocate in the void of space?"

"All I know right now is that this is a moment that I've been waiting for for a long time, and now we'll finally get to see which one of us is the greatest warrior in this entire universe."

"Is that so? Well I suppose that I should feel flattered, you've signed your own death warrant just to take one more beating from me."

"I guess now we just have to agree to disagree." Goku flared his golden aura and lowered himself back to the ground.

"Hand to hand combat it is then? So be it, my this really is important to you isn't it?" Frieza was quick to follow his lead.

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 **On a desolate and crumbling planet on the brink of destruction, the two most powerful warriors in the universe prepare to square off for the battle to end all battles. Will the winner at last be decided by the time Planet Namek's inevitable explosion is at last upon them? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, the war on Planet Namek draws ever closer to its explosive conclusion. I was going to wrap everything up in one chapter, but I decided to split it into two since I wanted to get this one out before my Spring Break was over, and since I'm already at over a 12K word count, I thought that was enough.**

 **I gave Goku a slightly larger power level because, well his son died, so the rage boost he got from that would slightly increase his power level, but not enough to make it a one sided slaughter fest.**

 **The scene between Gohan and Scarlet is something that I had planned to use awhile back for a Ninja Turtles fic that never really panned out, so I figured that I could use it as a way to develop Kai's character a little bit more.**

 **I made Gohan the one who comes up with the plan to bring everyone back and get them off Namek safely as a way of demonstrating his intelligence despite his age, and how he can use it in a real situation instead of his studying just being a way to make Chichi look like a total (massively censored).**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 3 million

Super Saiyan Goku: 165 million

Nail: 800,000

Tien: 220,000

Tien (Kaioken 10x): 2.2 million

Tien (Kaioken 20x): 4.4 million

Tien (Tri-Beam + Kaioken 20x): 50 million

Frieza (50% power): 60 million

Frieza (100% power): 120 million


	15. Final Showdown on a Vanishing Planet

As a result of the wish made to Porunga, everyone on Planet Namek was instantaneously moved to a quiet field on Planet Earth, calm as can be.

Yamcha and Bulma looked around "What happened, where do you think we are?"

"Well first of all I'm guessing this is payback on Frieza for breaking the sacred law of the universe." Kai commented "In other words, he f*cked with the White Mage. As for where we are, definitely not of Planet Namek anymore Toto. Speaking of which…" he fired a quick Nail Gun into one of the trees nearby, which caused Tien to fall out of the tree in question with a hole in his shoulder "F*cking with Yamcha is one thing, but you broke a much more sacred law than the one that Frieza did. You f*cked with the Red Mage, the Mage that makes the White Mage his prison bitch."

"I really hope you never change Kai." that was when Gohan dropped down in front of the group, only to be elbowed in the gut HARD, sending him crashing to his knees "Ow… okay I probably deserve that." he suddenly got pulled into a tight hug "And now this is happening."

"Just… Just don't die on me again okay? I don't wanna think about losing my best friend like that."

"Yeah… Yeah sorry, but in my defense you would've done the same thing."

"Either that or shoved the Triclops in the path of fire, to be fair he's still got a freebie on the Dragon Balls here."

Gohan just let out a chuckle "Yeah that's true."

A few feet away, Piccolo's eyes snapped open after he was healed by Dende "It's you again, so that means that you healed me like you did the others?" he received a nod "Okay then, so where are the others? Gohan! Kai!"

"Piccolo!" Gohan rushed over to him "So you're really alive, and Dende too! That means that my plan really worked!"

"Yeah about that, I could hear everything while I was unconscious. First of all, good job with all of that kid. Second of all, never do that again."

"No promises. But anyway everyone is back, even the Grand Elder is too." Gohan pointed a few feet away.

Sure enough, the Grand Elder sat a few feet away, surrounded by at least a dozen others among the Namekians that had been revived along with him "I understand that this may come as a bit of a shock, but the planet that we find ourselves on is planet Earth."

Gohan glanced back at the others and grinned "Yep that's right you guys, we're all back home now. It's kind of a long story though, so…"

"Please listen to me everyone, our time together is short. Before much more time passes I will once again be called away from all of you, but before I go it's important for all of you to know and understand just how it is that we all came to be here."

Raditz walked around a little bit and frowned "So that explains where we are, the kid's plan worked after all. But what about Kakarot and Frieza?"

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Scarlet plugged in the TV in the Check In Station "Okay fixed it, we should be good to watch the rest of the fight now."

"You've gotta give it to that squirt." Bardock commented "Coming up with a plan like that at his age, that's something that only yours truly could've come up with."

"Will you lay off that? We get it, you're a Saiyan scientist who invented the fake moon thing and tried to make it so it was made of cheese but it didn't take, shut up already."

"...Bite me."

"No."

"Well anyway at least they're all back on Earth safe and sound now." Gine commented.

"But the question still remains, how will Goku get back to Earth on his own? Beating Frieza isn't going to be a problem now, it's only a matter of time before the strain of his full power becomes too much for him."

"But can he win before Planet Namek is destroyed?"

"Well we're about to find out. But my personal vote is yes."

"I hope so Scarlet, I really hope so."

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Planet Namek was growing more and more unstable by the second, with less than two minutes until its inevitable destruction.

Frieza shot Goku an arrogant smirk "It doesn't matter what happens in the next few minutes you pathetic little fool, you're not going to live to see another dawn."

"Well I hate to tell you Frieza, actually no I don't, but you and I have different ideas as to what exactly is pathetic." Goku told him "Because if you ask me, the definition of pathetic would have to me a monster like you getting the ever loving crap beaten out of him by a Saiyan monkey like me."

"Is that so? Well as much as I appreciate your ability to continue to make jokes and threats even though we both know how empty they are, the fact of the matter is that it's starting to get FAR TOO OLD!" the two of them charged at each other, beginning the final battle as they clashed across Planet Namek, trading even blows with an entirely new level of ferocity.

Goku was instantly blown through several houses of a nearby Namekian village, but he managed to catch Frieza's fist, beginning their clash anew.

Frieza dealt Goku a brutal fist to the face, sending him crashing into the chaotic Namekian ocean, and then he attempted to annihilate Goku using his 100% Death Ball.

Goku managed to catch the 100% Death Ball, and with a mighty roar he managed to deflect it, sending it out of the planet's atmosphere and causing it to destroy a nearby planet by accident as a result "Nice try Frieza, but you won't be destroying anymore planets! Well except for, you know, that one… Oops." he quickly stopped Frieza from attacking him by blowing him away with a shockwave, resulting in the two of them once again clashing and trading even blows in a frenzy, bathing the entire planet in blue and white energy as a result."

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Raditz was less than thrilled by what he was hearing "So you mean to tell me that Kakarot is still on Namek with Frieza?"

"I'm afraid so my friend." the Grand Elder gave a simple nod.

"Did it explode yet? If it hasn't then there's still a chance that he's still alive right?"

"Unfortunately I can no longer sense what is happening on Planet Namek, the distance is far too great."

"Kakarot…" Raditz fired a Ki blast into the air out of frustration.

Piccolo just clenched his fist and gritted his teeth ' _You had the chance to escape from Frieza and join us back on Earth but you chose to sacrifice your way home and make sure that Frieza was defeated once and for all. You really are quite the character aren't you Goku? So much honor, it's just one part of you isn't it? Goku, our paths have crossed many times over the years. You were the main reason that I was even born, from the very beginning when I was nothing but an egg it was my very purpose to see you dead at my feet. I was born out of hatred for you. As a young fighter without a true purpose in the world to call my own, that one tournament against you was all that I had. I lived for the chance to see you dead in front of me. I will never forget out fight at the World Martial Arts Tournament all those years ago. With the ability that I learned that would allow me to increase my size to that of a skyscraper I knew that this would be the end, it would be my chance to finish you. But despite my power you found a way to defeat me, you showed skill and power unlike anything that I had ever seen before. From that day forward I knew that there was something special about you, something that made you different from everyone else on this world. And then Raditz and Beets showed up and we fought him and, I finally did it. After more than half a decade of waiting for my moment, I won the revenge that I so desperately wanted for my father and the Demon Clan. And yet I felt… nothing. No sense of victory or triumph, no personal satisfaction. It was cheap, sure it happened by Goku wanted it to. He went out the same way that everyone always saw him as, as a hero. Sure I wouldn't admit it to anyone back then, but truth be told I respected him even back then. What I wanted was to give Goku an honorable death by my hand, not an honorable self sacrifice. You didn't have to send me back to Earth with the rest of them Goku, I could've helped you. As frustrating as it is to admit it, your power is far beyond anything I could be capable of, the same with your character. You chose to defeat Frieza but at the cost of your own life. You've always been like that, and you always will be, now won't you Goku?'_

Bulma just glanced out into the distance, with Tien and Yamcha doing the same, only in different directions "Goku…"

"You don't have to worry you guys." Gohan got their attention "Dad will find a way to get back here safe and sound, I promise."

"I hope you're right about that Gohan, I really do."

' _Come on Dad, you'd better not die on us out there. I'm not breaking that news to mom. We're all gonna be waiting for you.'_

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The epic final battle between Goku and Frieza raged on.

Realizing that he was at a disadvantage in hand to hand combat directly at the moment, Frieza took a moment to retreat through the air "The mighty Lord Frieza will not succumb to a monkey, especially not a filthy Saiyan ape like you!" and he charged at Goku in a rage.

"We'll see about that!" Goku met the charge head on, beginning their clash anew throughout the collapsing planet.

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Scarlet gritted her teeth and slammed her fist into a wall "It's incredible, the two of them are so evenly matched. Now that he's a Super Saiyan Goku is able to keep up with Frieza blow for blow."

"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?" asked Bardock.

"Because it is a bad thing you dolt, they're running out of time. Planet Namek is about to explode any moment now, if they don't settle this fight and soon then Goku doesn't stand a chance."

"But you just said that he's doing fine against Frieza!"

"Of course he is but when the planet finally explodes then Goku will be killed, but Frieza can survive in space without oxygen!"

"Well there's gotta be something we can do to get him out of there!" Gine protested.

"I wish there was, I really do, but Goku chose this path and now he has only one choice, and that is to walk it alone."

"But it's not… it's just not fair…" Gine clenched her fists and looked away with tears streaming down her face "Kakarot…"

"Look Goku is anything but helpless, I'm sure he'll find a way."

"I hope so Scarlet, I really do."

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The battle raged on across the dying Planet Namek.

Frieza had taken control of their clash and was dealing Goku a fierce barrage of attacks "Well what do you have to say now Saiyan, are you having second thoughts about challenging a superior warrior to a battle to the death! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED, NOT BY YOU OR ANYONE ELSE!" he aimed a kick to finish it.

Goku caught Frieza by the leg and began crushing it, causing Frieza to cry out in pain "You were saying?"

Frieza dealt Goku a solid kick to the face, freeing his leg in the process, and then he proceeded to slam Goku down to the ground through a Namekian house.

Goku quicky rebounded and took control of the clash and sent Frieza crashing into another nearby house.

"YOU WRETCHED MONKEY!" Frieza charged at Goku in a rage.

Goku dodged the charge and dealt Frieza a chop to the neck.

Frieza rebounded and dealt Goku a fist to the gut and a foot to the spine, sending him crashing to the ground.

Goku quickly rebounded and they began their clash anew, before he dealt Frieza a few solid hits too fast to follow.

Frieza quickly rebounded and blitzed behind Goku and caught him in a bone crushing Bear Hug from behind.

Thinking quickly, Goku dealt Frieza a quick barrage of elbows straight to the kidney, breaking his hold and sending him crashing into a plateau behind him.

Now foaming at the mouth with rage, Frieza burst forward and dealt Goku his Death Break combination, sending Goku crashing to the ground with a triumphant laugh "Well now, are you satisfied yet Super Saiyan?"

"...Is that the best that you can do?" Goku pulled himself back to his feet.

"What was that?!"

"Did I stutter, I asked you if that was the best that you can do."

"WATCH YOUR TONGUE!" Frieza charged at Goku in a blind rage.

Goku powered through the charge and dealt Frieza a solid blow to the stomach so hard that it caused him to cough up a large amount of blood and forced him down onto one knee "Oh yeah you're totally gonna whiz red.

Frieza let out an outright snarl and charged at Goku in a rage.

Goku dodged the charge and kicked Frieza in the side of the head, sending him skidding along the ground, then blitzed behind Frieza before he could react and elbowed him in the head, and then followed up with a brutal kick to the jaw and a fist to the gut.

Frieza whipped around to fire a Ki blast at Goku, only to find that he had disappeared "Where the hell is that wretched little-" he whipped around again and found Goku's abs right in front of his face "Oh my god you could grind meat on those-" he let out a yelp and backed away in shock and attempted to retreat, only for Goku to catch up with him almost immediately, much to his unyielding rage, this process repeating itself, and the more it did the more psyched out Frieza got as a result, especially when he punched through a large boulder expecting to find Goku on the other side, only to find nothing "You dirty little simian bastard!"

"Up here!" Goku had leapt high into the air and began dodging every one of Frieza's rapid punches and kicks with ease.

"You dare to taunt the mighty Lord Frieza?!"

"I triple dog dare!" Goku slammed his fist straight into Frieza's gut and followed up with a brutal barrage of punches and kicks before smashing him square on the skull, sending him crashing through several nearby plateaus and crashing to the ground.

Frieza quickly rebounded and got back to his feet, panting heavily from strain and exhaustion and snarling like an enraged animal "Dammit… I swear I will repay every last blow you've dealt me 10 fold! No, make that 100 fold!"

Goku dropped into a combat stance and prepared to launch another attack, but then he suddenly stopped "It's done."

"What, what do you mean it's done?" he didn't receive a reply right away and he quickly lost his temper "Well don't just stand there you buffoon, answer me! Why the hell are you giving up all of a sudden?!"

"I don't think it's really that sudden. You've been coming at me with everything that you've got but it's finally catching up to you, it's too much strain on your body and because of that your power level is falling fast. The fact is that I don't see any point in fighting you anymore, your pride is already shattered beyond repair and in the end I don't really think either of us needed anything more than that. You were so sure of your own power and dominance that you never believed that anyone in the universe would be able to take you down, especially if that someone was a Saiyan. Now you know what failure feels like, and you see I don't need to keep fighting you because I've already won, continuing the battle beyond this point would just be a pointless beating. So go crawl off someplace and hide, I don't really care either way. Like I said it's done, and now I'm going back to Earth. If I leave now then I'll make it back right on time, and I know that all my friends and family will be waiting to chew me out if I'm late." he took a deep breath and relaxed himself, reverting back to his base form, and he turned his back to Frieza "Your days of terrorizing the universe are over. I don't ever want to see your face again." and with that, he blasted off into the chaotic skies of Planet Namek.

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"Are you f*cking kidding me!" Bardock pretty much exploded "Shoving his pride up his ass in a figurative sense isn't enough, you have to LITERALLY shove it up his ass! Beat him down into those pools of lava you idiot! DO IT!"

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Of course being the sadistic arrogant ego driven megalomaniac that he was, Frieza didn't take this well "Why you little… THAT is the last straw! You lie!" and in his blind rage he summoned his semi patented Death Saucer "I AM NOT BEATEN! NOT YET!" and he made his second to last mistake of firing the Death Saucer.

Goku noticed the attack just in the nick of time and was able to avoid it, albeit with a graze across his cheek, and he rounded his furious gaze on Frieza once more "I warned you, I warned you over and over again but you just wouldn't listen! I gave you one last chance to walk away from this! FRIEZA!" in his rage he powered back up to his Super Saiyan form, but he decided to focus for now on evading the Death Saucer.

"You're wasting your time Super Saiyan, that attack will slice through everything in its path and it will follow you everywhere you go!"

Goku continued attempting to dodge the Death Saucer for awhile until he finally ended up charging towards Frieza himself.

"Oh I see what your strategy is, you intend to swerve at the last second and try to send my own attack back after me! Do you honestly believe that I'm going to fall for a two bit attack such as that one?! Well why don't you try me!" and once Goku's so called plan was underway Frieza sent the Death Saucer up after him and sent it slicing right through him "Now that that one you little-" his celebration was cut short when Goku suddenly disappeared "What the-"

"Over here Frieza!" as it turns out, Goku had appeared a few feet away from him in an epic and badass pose "Don't worry about that, Krillin never hits anyone with it either and I'm pretty sure he never will."

"An Afterimage eh? Well done monkey, you're getting creative now aren't you?"

"Look I said it before and I'll say it again, there's just no point in fighting you anymore, at least not like this, especially now that you're resorting to amateur attacks like that one. If you really want to decide a winner that badly then fine, but first I say you need to build your power back up and learn a few new moves."

' _Amateur attacks? Learn a few new moves?!'_

' _This is bad, I'm running out of time. Planet Namek is getting that much closer to exploding by the second, if I'm gonna end this then I'll have to do it fast.'_

"So my technique is amateurish you say? Well then, if that's the case then what do you say we try two?!" he summoned a second Death Saucer and hurled both of them at Goku.

"Oh come on, is that really it?" Goku began anew his attempts to evade both Death Saucers, flying all across the battlefield but to no avail.

"You can run all you like Super Saiyan but it doesn't matter where you hide, they will find you wherever you go! It's simply impossible for you to escape, you'll soon end up slicing yourself to bits!"

"Knock it off, why the hell won't you just give up already!" Goku charged towards Frieza at full speed.

"This move again, seriously monkey? You're not as clever as I had initially believed!" he was answered by Goku using a Ki blast to cut off his vision, but he leapt upwards in time to avoid the Death Saucers "You can try it all you like but I will never fall for it, now come out and face me like a man!"

"If you insist!" Goku burst downwards from above and elbowed Frieza square on the skull, dodging a few desperate punches before kneeing him square in the gut "Just stop fighting and accept it Frieza, you've finally met your match!" he started slapping Frieza in a comical fashion and once again smashed him square on the skull before following up with a quick kick straight to the gut, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

Frieza managed to stop himself, but the force left him in a small but deep crater "The mighty Lord Frieza will not admit defeat to the likes of a filthy Saiyan, not now and not ever!" he leapt out of the crater to continue the battle, which was a fatal mistake…

"WATCH OUT FRIEZA, STAY DOWN!"

"Silence you little-" Frieza realize Goku's desperate warning too late, and before he knew what happened both of his legs and his left arm were sliced clean off by his own Death Saucer before it disappeared into the distance "Daddy I don't want to be on Namek anymore…" and his upper half fell to the ground with a loud thud.

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King Kai was taken aback by what he was seeing "Oh… my… god…"

"What is it, what's the matter?" asked Krillin "Is it Goku, what happened? Just come clean to us already, he lost didn't he?"

"No… that's not it…"

"Then what?"

"It's Frieza, he… he got cut in half from the waist down!"

"...Oh. Wow. Well hot damn, I didn't think Goku had it in him."

"He doesn't, Frieza did it to himself."

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"YES!" Bardock let out a roaring laugh at the top of his lungs "It took way longer than it should've but Kakarot finally did it, that magnificent son of a me finally avenged us!"

"Kind of hollow though isn't it?" Scarlet pointed out "I mean to have Frieza literally get ripped apart by his own attack."

"Don't care, I'll take what I can get."

"And that just about sums up your personality."

"But Kakarot did try to warn him." Gine pointed out.

"And that's what makes Frieza so pitiful, his ego led to his own downfall."

"And that's what makes this so awesome." Bardock's smug grin grew wider.

"And you wonder why you were sent to hell but Gine wasn't, seriously I'm actually thinking about ripping you in half only vertically."

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Lightning flashed throughout the skies and lava spewed throughout the seas as Planet Namek loomed ever closer to its inevitable destruction.

Goku lowered himself back to the ground and looked down at Frieza's barely alive form with a mix of contempt and pity "Well you might have had this coming, there's no question about that, but I have to say that I don't think I expected you to fall as hard as you did."

"No… No…" Frieza let out several weak hacking coughs, still alive more or less but clearly fading fast.

"Well one way or another I'll still be able to make my way back home to Earth, and in the meantime you can just lie there and thing about the things that you've done as you share the same fate as the planet you destroyed, until a weak and desperate voice suddenly called out to him.

"Please… help me… I beg of you…"

Goku stopped in his tracks.

"Don't leave me… to die… like this…"

Goku said nothing, he just gritted his teeth.

"Please… have mercy… on me…"

Goku's teeth grinded furiously.

"You can't… do this… You can't… do this…"

"Are you seriously begging for your life now?!" Goku's fury finally reached its limit and he rounded on Frieza in a rage "How many innocent people groveled at your feet and asked you for mercy and you killed them anyway for your own sadistic pleasure?! Hundreds, thousands, millions?! What the hell gives you the right to expect any, especially from me?!"

"Please… Please… I beg of you…"

' _...If I ever meet Grandpa in the afterlife then he and I seriously need to talk about the differences between moral code and good judgement.'_ so with that semi bitter thought still fresh in his mind, Goku transferred some of his own Ki to Frieza, at least allowing him to stop groaning in agony "There I gave you some of my energy, with any luck it should be just enough to get you off of this planet before it blows. But that's all you get, you're on your own from here." and with one last look of disdain towards Frieza, Goku once again started to make his way away from the battlefield.

Unfortunately Frieza once again stopped him, this time with a weak hacking bitter chuckle, this time as he pulled what was left of him into the air "Even in the throws of unfathomable rage you're a chump for a hard luck story, how truly admirable. Such a trait makes me want to vomit."

"You mentioned before that you would be able to survive in space without any need for oxygen right? If that's the case then I suggest you just cut your losses and get out of here now while you still can, maybe one day you'll come to realize just how precious life truly is." he was met with another bitter chuckle.

"And where I can't help but wonder will you be when the moment of truth is upon us? I do believe that the vacuum of space will hardly be kind to a creature such as yourself, would you not agree my friend?" he let out a full on mocking laugh "If only you had enough time to scurry back to your little ship before the grand finale, alas if your dear brother Raditz had not wrecked it then I would offer you mine. So near and yet so far at the same time. The curtain at last closes on the Saiyan scourge, it would seem that you my friend get to suffer the same fate as the planet that I've destroyed. Oh the irony, he triumphs and then loses everything whereas the vanquished is able to escape. I hate to gloat, actually no I don't, but there's a lesson here on the virtue that is mercy. The only value it holds is to your foe."

"...I think we'll have to agree to disagree." and so Goku finally blasted off into the skies of Planet Namek.

Frieza levelled his hatred filled gaze on Goku's retreating form and clenched his one remaining fist to the point where it bled "You arrogant simian bastard… I am the mighty Lord Frieza! No one surpasses me! No one even comes close! Etch this into your skull! I am the emperor of the universe! The likes of you are only fit to grovel at my feet! Or better still, the likes of you are only fit to die in disgrace… AT THE HANDS OF YOUR MASTER!" and as his blinding rage and pride consumed him, he fired at Goku from behind with his Last Emperor.

"YOU FOOL!" unfortunately for Frieza, while Goku was out of time and out of patience, he was still prepared and countered the Last Emperor with his Angry Kamehameha, tearing through the blast like it was nothing.

Frieza could only cry out in horror as he was engulfed by the blast and the mighty explosion that followed. When everything settle from the blast, a single round crater was left in the middle of the chaotic Namekian ocean, and Frieza was nowhere in sight.

Goku stared at the spot where Frieza once floated, his expression appearing to be a mix of contempt and pity ' _It's sad really, I didn't want to kill him but he left me no choice. I wasn't even in it to win it either, I was just trying to make sure that I could protect my friends and make sure that he couldn't hurt anyone else. I did what I had to do, Frieza wasn't a threat anymore. And now after meeting someone like him, I can't help but wonder. How is it that there's someone out there that could possibly be so despicable in every way imaginable? Maybe I need to take this as a sign, maybe there are some people out there that just have to die. No focus Goku, you've wasted enough time fighting him so you don't have time to internally monologue any further. You have to focus now on finding a way to get off this planet before it blows, so that you can get back to your friends and family.'_ and he blasted off into the skies of the dying Planet Namek to focus on his next goal: Getting the hell off of the planet before it blew.

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In contrast to the chaos on Planet Namek, everything back on Earth was very calm, serene and peaceful.

Nail was caring to the Grand Elder, doing things such as wiping some of the sweat from his forehead "There we are."

"Yes thank you my friend." the Grand Elder looked around and gave a small smile "Hear me my children, my part in the grand scheme of life has very nearly run its course." this got the attention of everyone present, with Piccolo just leaning against a tree in silence.

"I was expecting this."

"Yes, and I thank you for your service my friend. Come my children, draw in closer for our time is short."

"I just wish you didn't have to go so soon sir."

"I fear that it's no longer a question of whether or not I have to, but there is no need for you or the rest of my children to weep. My life has been rich beyond imagining." he glanced over to see the stone forms of the Namekian Dragon Balls fall to the ground with a loud thud "Oh good a promising sign, given the circumstances I had initially feared that I would have to leave you to your own devices. But fear not, for I wish you not to grieve over my passing. My path through the circle of life has at last come full circle. Moori, please step closed would you?"

"Yes of course sir." Moori stepped forward.

"Hold out your hand."

"Of course." Moori did so.

The Grand Elder gripped his hand and engulfed Moori in a white light "You from here on shall be the new Grand Elder of the Namekian race. But you need not lose heart, in time the Dragon Balls shall shine as lustrous as ever. I urge you to use them wisely."

"I leave it to you…" his body fell forward as he began to fade away.

"Through the tests of time… may our people endure…" and with that, the Grand Elder faded away, leaving the Namekians to grieve.

"Will our woes never cease?"

"Grand Elder…" Dende wiped away his tears.

Yamcha gritted his teeth and clenched his fist "To think that after everything we've been through and everything he's done for us…"

Raditz and Nail just looked on at the spot where the Grand Elder once sat while each one was musing and mourning on their own "Safe journey my friend, may the road that lies ahead rise to meet you…"

"Alright everyone, please listen to me." Moori got everyone's attention "In memory of those no longer with us, let he who has passed on act as our guide and let his words be the marrow of our bones." he was met with several voices of agreement.

"Oh man…" Bulma muttered "Talk about your tear jerkers, like it's not bad enough that we can't bring Krillin and Chiaotzu back."

Yamcha nodded grimly "Yeah I know what you mean, no one who's been brought back by the Dragon Balls once can be revived a second time."

"Wait what?" Dende glanced up at Yamcha "There's never been a limit set on the number of times a person can be brought back with the Dragon Balls made on Planet Namek."

"Wait seriously?" this even got Kai's attention.

"As long as they didn't die of natural causes of course."

"F*ck."

"What?"

"I mean great, that means that once the Dragon Balls have hit their year long reset button then we can bring back the short bald one and the Pokemon no matter how many times they died or how many sundaes they've earned. Oh joy."

"Don't be cynical Kai, this is the best news we've heard all day!" Gohan pumped a fist "And that means that soon we can bring all of them back. You'd better be here for that too when that day comes Dad, I know that Krillin wouldn't want it any other way, and neither would any of us for that matter."

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King Kai watched the scene on Planet Namek with concern ' _Goku, please just hurry.'_

"I can't take this anymore!" Krillin finally ran out of patience "What the heck is going on down there, did Goku take care of Frieza or not?!"

"...Well in case of Frieza, that tyrant is no more."

"Wait seriously?"

"Frieza did beg for mercy before everything had been all said and done and Goku didn't have the heart to ignore him, he actually gave Frieza some of his excess energy though he was pretty reluctant. Then again Frieza was never one to miss a cheap shot and turned on Goku at the last moment, and Goku had no choice but to defend himself.'

"Okay, and by defend himself you mean…"

"Not even the likes of Frieza was a match for Goku when he became a Super Saiyan, the universe is now free of his rule."

"YES!" Krillin caught Chiaotzu in a high five "Sounds to me like the whole Super Saiyan thing is some pretty serious business, not to mention that with Frieza out of the picture Goku is pretty much the greatest warrior in the universe. It's times like this I'm really glad that he's on our side."

"Don't celebrate just yet, I'm afraid there's more. Goku might be able to claim victory over the battle yes, but he's hardly out of the woods just yet."

"What do you mean, how do you figure?"

"Because in only a matter of mere moments Planet Namek will be reduced to nothing but space dust!"

"Wait what?!"

"Goku has no hope of making it back to the spacepod he and Tien travelled there in before the planet explodes! He's making a beeline from Frieza's spaceship which he actually does stand a good chance of reaching in time, although from the look of things it may be too damaged to fly him out of there."

"...Oh crap. But wait a second, it's not like we're talking about just anyone. Goku's pulled through worse scrapes than this."

"Really?"

"No but you understand where I'm coming from, the point is that if anyone can find a way off of an exploding planet with time to spare then it would have to be Goku!"

"I hope you're right Krillin, I really do. _Do whatever you have to do Goku, just be sure that you do it quickly!'_

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Planet Namek was growing more and more chaotic by the second.

Goku soared across the skies, his mind racing ' _Where am I, where's my ship? Everything looked the same before and now it all looks the same but on fire- Wait there it is!'_ he quickly touched down inside of Frieza's ship and took off running down the halls ' _Please for the love of Kami let there be enough time, where the hell is the control room?!'_ he blasted down one door after another until he found the control room, and once he was inside he started mashing random buttons "Okay the controls are configured a lot like the ones on my pod, which means that the start button should be… right there!" he pressed the start button, causing the engine to begin humming "Okay the loud humming is a good sign, just like Chichi did on that night we got married." but then the humming started to die down "No no no no no! Come on now don't let me down, you can do this! START THE HELL UP! Dammit Frieza was right, whatever Raditz did the thing is too damaged!" and then the cliffs that trapped the ship between them finally gave way, causing the ship to fall and forcing Goku to flee from the ship right before it fell to a fiery demise in the sea of lava below.

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King Kai could only look on in horror "No no no no no, that ship was the only hope that Goku had, now he'll never make it!"

"What do you mean?" asked Krillin "What just happened, what's going on?"

"It's bad, it's really really bad! Frieza's ship, the last chance that Goku had of getting of Planet Namek before it exploded, is now fathoms deep in molten lava!"

"Wait what?! So what the heck is Goku supposed to do now?!"

"Nothing I'm afraid, there's absolutely nothing that Goku can do now!"

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Scarlet and Bardock both looked away "I can't bear to watch this. I mean I can but I still don't want to…"

"Kakarot…" Gine had tears streaming down her face "Please Kakarot… You can't die, you just can't die!"

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True to King Kai's word, Goku found himself stranded on the dying Planet Namek with no means of escape ' _I can't believe this, this just can't be happening!_ IT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S JUST NOT FAIR! I gave up an easy chance to get home, I gave everything I had to defeat Frieza, and I've fought with every ounce of strength I had only to just hold on to my sanity and my sense of reason, and THIS IS HOW THE UNIVERSE DECIDES TO THANK ME?! BY LEAVING MY STRANDED ON A DYING PLANET?!"

"Quite the opposite actually." a second voice answered him "You've done the universe a great service and you should be honored to serve, but keep in mind that a wise man once said that no good deed goes unpunished. Which is why I'm here for you now."

Goku whipped around the confront the source of the second voice, but all that he saw was a flash of purple and orange before he blacked out.

And only a few seconds passed before Planet Namek finally met its fate in a blinding fiery explosion, reducing it to nothing but spacedust, and to those watching from afar, taking Goku with it.

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Scarlet gazed at the now deactivated television in the Check In Station "Looks like it's finally over then, Goku couldn't escape the explosion… Namek is gone, and so is he."

"Kakarot, no… no… NO!" Gine fell to her knees sobbing.

"...I suppose my business here is done." Scarlet got to her feet and spared a glance over in the direction of Bardock and Gine "I'll leave you two alone, in the meantime I'll be heading over to King Kai's planet so I can see what to do from there."

"So be it." Bardock muttered, looking away to hide his face.

Scarlet gave them a simple nod of acknowledgement and walked out of the room, and then she bolted towards Snake Way, and by extension, King Kai's planet.

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Krillin was the first one to get his voice back "What… What's going on? Please tell us there's still some kind of ray of hope."

King Kai slowly shook his head, his voice grim "I checked for any signs, but… Goku wasn't able to escape, and now he's met his end."

"Goku… no…" Krillin fell to his knees "It can't be true… It just can't be true…"

"I'm so sorry."

"We all are King Kai, we all are." that was when Scarlet showed up on the planet "So what do we do now?"

"There's nothing we can do now Scarlet, except inform his loved ones back on Earth that the best of us has fallen. His poor son…"

"If Gohan does have to hear it then it should come from Yamcha."

"That actually isn't a bad idea."

"And I think that I should be the one to break the news to him."

"Whatever you think is best. Just put your hand on my back."

"I know." Scarlet placed a hand on his back "Yamcha, hey Yamcha can you hear me?"

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" _Yamcha are you there?"_

Yamcha's head snapped up "What the-"

" _Seriously am I getting through? It's me, Scarlet."_

"What the… sis?"

" _Yeah it's me, sorry if this freaks you out but I'm using King Kai and his telepathy to speak to you from Otherworld."_

"Well at least I'm handling it better than Bulma did."

"I don't get it, who are you talking to?" asked Tien "Wait hold on just a second, are you talking to King Kai right now?"

"Actually to my sister Scarlet, she's using King Kai for his telepathy. So you did a little bit of hardcore training with Piccolo up there huh?"

" _Not the time for small talk baby brother, there's something that I have to tell you but it's not that good. It's about Goku. Well the good news is that Frieza is no longer an issue, Goku dealt him the final blow."_

"Hey you guys get ready to jump for joy, I just got the good word that Goku did it! He finally took Frieza down once and for all!"

"Really are you serious? Alright!" Gohan caught Kai in a quick high five "Now that's what happens when your dad is a superhero!"

"Which means that we've got that much further to go to surpass him." Kai pointed out.

"Yep!"

" _Please just shut everyone up and listen, I'm not finished yet. Once Frieza was finished, and it was in a spectacular fashion by the way, Goku tried to get away… but Planet Namek exploded before he was able to. He didn't make it out of there. He's gone."_

"...Oh. Huh, well that makes things into a mixed bag." Yamcha glanced over at the others "Hey you guys get a load of this, apparently Goku couldn't make his way off Namek before the Mini Bang went off."

" _Okay I feel like you and everyone else think something is funny and I don't really get it and that's totally not fair. Goku is dead, Gohan is fatherless and the Namekians are completely homeless."_

"Well lucky for us I just figured something out that I doubt you knew, see the Namekian Dragon Ball came back to Earth with us along with the entire Namekian race."

" _That Gohan saved with his plan, I know I was there when he talked to Kami about it. What's your point?"_

"My point is that the Namekian Dragon Balls can work their magic regardless of how many times a person has been wished back before! As long as they haven't died of natural causes like, well you know…"

" _Which means that both Krillin and Chiaotzu both get a first class ticket back to life that I was denied."_

"Yeah… Why do I feel like you know something I don't? Again?"

" _Because I do. Again. See you don't spend as much time as I do dead without bothering to learn a thing or two, some things are good and some things are bad, and right now you're not seeing the bigger picture. The Dragon Balls on Planet Namek can easily bring back the likes of Krillin and Chiaotzu without that much of a problem, but I'm afraid that Goku is a whole other story entirely."_

"Hey it made sense to me, I don't see what the problem is."

" _The problem as you so aptly put it is that when you resurrect someone with the Dragon Balls they're sent back to the exact point they were at when they died in the first place."_

"I don't like where this is going."

" _Nor should you. Goku would have to be brought back to Planet Namek, which thanks to one certain Frieza has been turned into a load of galactic rubble. Even if we do try to bring them back with the Dragon Balls they would just get devoured by the cold vacuum of space."_

"Well what about King Kai, he's a galactic god for crying out loud! There has to be something he can do to help!"

" _He would if he could, but he's only one of four and that region of the cosmos isn't in his jurisdiction."_

"...Yeah okay that's bad, change of plans you guys looks like I spoke too soon."

"What do you mean?" asked Gohan "I don't understand, why can't Dad be brought back with the Namekian Dragon Balls like you said?"

"Well if Kami restored someone's body like he did with Chiaotzu then that could be the exception, otherwise you would have to be brought back in the exact same location that you were in where you died, which in their case is nowhere at least in the present tense. And apparently it's not possible for King Kai to do anything about it because that area of outer space is out of his jurisdiction."

"Which sounds like complete and total bullshit." Kai got everyone's attention "Quit whining like you're on your periods and think for a second, just ask for Goku's soul to be brought from Namek to Earth and if that's how the Dragon Balls work then the rest should be simple at least in theory."

"Oh man that's awesome, why the hell did I not think of that before? Kai that's an amazing idea, you might be twisted as they come but you're a genius."

"You may bow before my awesomeness."

Gohan gave him a big smile "You really do care."

"When did I say that I didn't? Besides we both need Goku back, how else would we know that we've both surpassed him? We're beating the ever loving crap out of a Super Saiyan."

"...Yeah okay then."

"Pardon me my Earthling friends." that was when Moori stepped forward "As soon as the Dragon Balls have regained their luster my people and I intend to relocate to a new planet where our presence will be less obtrusive, but in the meantime however we were wondering if you happened to know of a place where we could be safely tucked away."

"Well let's see…" Bulma pondered for a moment, then grinned "Well I think the obvious choice would have to be my place."

"Oh but we couldn't possibly impose like that."

"Oh trust me there's more than enough room for everyone, and besides it's the least that we can do for you guys letting us use the Dragon Balls to bring our friends back later on. It's a really sweet deal, I mean you guys are right to want to keep a low profile, believe me when I tell you that some earthlings can be a little bit high strung."

"Exhibit A." Kai pointed at Bulma "But seriously though guys her dad is a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, and for the record while you're here you've gotta give ACDC a shot and it will blow you're f*cking minds."

Moori pondered this for a moment and turned to Bulma "Well if you are so insistent then we accept your offer."

Bulma glanced back at Raditz "You know you can come too, that is unless you've got cash for a motel. I'm an excellent cook."

"6/10." Kai dodged a smack aimed at the back of his head.

"ANYWAY, if your appetite is anything like Goku's then you're gonna need it. Just keep in mind that that doesn't give you a license to start getting flirty or anything irresistible as I might be, I do happen to be a taken woman. Alright now everybody sit tight, I'm gonna go find a phone somewhere and have my dad come and pick all of us up."

"Yeah you do that, I've got some other shit to do." Kai suddenly blasted off into the sky without so much as another word.

"Well that's one seriously f*cked up kid."

"I don't know about that." Gohan glanced up at Bulma "Hey Bulma if my mom comes around here while I'm gone could you tell her that I went after Kai?"

"You don't wanna stick around and see her?"

"Well two reasons: First of all I forgot to do my homework and you've seen what my mom is like when she's mad. Second of all, I made a promise Third of all, just tell her that a friend needs me." and he blasted off after Kai.

"Huh. I wonder what that's about." and then about three seconds later…

"WHERE THE HELL IS MY SON?!" Chichi suddenly dropped down onto the scene literally out of nowhere "START TALKING IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIVES OR I WILL SEND YOU TO THE SHADOW REALM!"

"...What?"

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The scene over the Diablo Desert was calm yet dreary, dry and kind of depressing, but overall it could've been a lot worse.

Kai knelt down and placed a bouquet of flowers down on a certain grave "Hey mom, it's been awhile hasn't it? Where to begin, well I should start with the main thing. I tangled with the most powerful being in the universe and came out of it alive, and now we've got a race of green slug men living on Earth with us, so… yeah now that's a thing." he let out a sigh "You've been missing a lot of great stuff mom."

Gohan touched down on the ground behind him "Kai you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I just wanna go train that's all, you wanna come?

"Kai do you wanna talk?"

"No why would I wanna talk? Your mom needs you, just go man."

"Kai it's okay if you're hurting."

"I'm not hurting, why would I be hurting? I just want to go train that's all."

"You know I figured this had been hard on you, but with everything that was happening on Namek I never even got a chance to stop and think about it."

"What do I have to do to get through to you? I don't want to have this conversation okay, so just leave me alone."

"Okay fine, I'll just go home and leave you to your business. But just remember, if you want to talk just track me down. And in 3… 2… 1…'

"...When is it gonna stop hurting?"

"And there it is."

"I keep thinking that the pain is gonna go away but it doesn't, all I can is distract myself from it by saving the universe and all that crap, which is actually pretty awesome, but that doesn't get rid of the pain. Whenever I see her face or her picture I just… I get this empty feeling and all of that pain just comes flooding back up to the surface…"

"And that's why you keep insulting everybody?"

"No that's just me, I get off on that stuff."

"Figures. Anyway I kind of get the feeling Kai, and I'm not really sure that it ever really goes away, like with my Dad. First during the year we were with Piccolo, then when we went to Namek, and now that he's gone again. Sometimes it's easier, but there are times when it becomes too much for us to bear. But you don't have to go through this alone."

"...I miss her Gohan, I really do, it's just really hard for me to talk about. I'm not really one for showing emotion."

"Well talking things through, that's what helps me. Talking about all of the great times, that's what keeps her in your heart."

"You think so?"

"Yeah I do."

"...You know I think the best memory that I have of her was the last birthday that I had with her before she died, when I turned five she taught me how to use Ki."

"Sounds like fun."

"Yeah, they were good times."

"You know I'm glad I have you as a friend Kai."

"Me too… Gohan."

"Hey you called me by my name!"

"Don't get used to it Ponytail."

"And he's back."

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At the same time, Bulma, Tien and Yamcha had all escorted Raditz, Piccolo and the rest of the Namekian people over to Capsule Corp "I'm betting you guys weren't expecting the place so big, or so awesome for that matter."

Raditz on the other hand was more preoccupied by something else that had caught his attention in the form of a Capsule Corp spaceship "Is that what I think it is?"

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Nightfall came, and everyone had called it a day several hours before.

With his armor now full repaired, Raditz silently made his way towards where the spaceship had been parked "So I guess this is the path that I'm on now."

"You weren't even going to say goodbye?"

Raditz glanced back and saw Nail approaching him, now clad in his vest once again "I've never been good at this, I like to focus on the task at hand."

"Fair enough. So what do you intend to do now?"

"For all this time I've been laying low so as not to arouse suspicion from Frieza or his men, but despite that I ended up hurting a lot of people. A lot of those wrongs can never be made right, but maybe as I travel across the universe I can find those who suffered and at least try to make amends."

"Sounds like a plan more or less. I could tell that your mind was made up so I wasn't intending to stop you, I merely believed that you could use some company and a training partner. I already spoke to the new Grand Elder and my people and they understand my intentions."

"...Come along with me if you must, I won't stop you."

"Well then, lead the way old friend." and with that, both Raditz and Nail boarded the ship and departed from Earth.

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Months quickly passed by, and compliments of Bulma and her family, the Namekian people enjoyed everything that life on Earth had to offer, so much so that before anyone knew it, their vacation had quickly come to an end, and the Namekian Dragon Balls were once again ready to be used.

Bulma was particularly surprised by how quickly the Namekian Dragon Balls had been able to recharge "So you mean that the Dragon Balls of your people only take 130 days to recharge themselves then?"

Dende nodded "That's right, 130 days makes one full year for the Namekians."

"Well that's cool, that's only about ⅓ of the time it takes here on Earth. Anyway what do you say we summon Porunga and get this party underway."

"Oh that reminds me, during our time here on Earth we taught our dragon how to speak English so we don't have to translate to Namekian anymore."

"Well that's convenient." Yamcha commented "But hey I don't see Gohan anywhere."

"WAIT WAIT WAIT! Don't start without us!" that was when Gohan and Chichi suddenly ran onto the scene "Sorry we're late, cram school ran long today."

"Cram school? Well good for you kid, having an education and keeping up training at the same time. That's not easy, especially not at your age."

"Well my mom and I reached an agreement that I had a balance of studying, training and just having some fun as a semi normal kid."

"And you pulled that off how exactly?" asked Kai.

"I might've gotten Launch to help me out with a jar of pepper within arm's reach."

"Momentary grudging respect." they fist bumped "So Little Green what do you say?"

"I say two things." Dende shot him a look "First of all, never call me that again. Second of all, let's get this party started! Eternal Dragon Porunga, rise and grant our wishes!"

"You know looking back maybe we shouldn't do this in the middle of- Actually you know what I don't give a rat's ass."

Sure enough, in the typical summoning fashion, the Dragon Balls glowed, the skies were covered with a thick layer of pitch black clouds " **You have summoned the great Porunga, name any three wishes within my power and I shall grant them. Speak and let your desires be known to me-"**

"Yeah let me stop you right there big guy." Kai held up a hand "Look I'm pretty sure you get this a lot but can we just get like four wishes? I mean we're just gonna end up bringing you back here in four months and doing this crap again, plus we're just bringing a few schmucks back to life and crap."

" **Well it is unconventional, but considering the ease of these wishes, I will accommodate your-"**

"And relocating an entire race."

" **Oh that's just a dick move!"**

"Alright let's just get these over with and then we can all get on with our lives. Anyway here's the shtick Biggest Green, a friend of ours died on an exploding planet so we need you to summon his soul here to Earth so that you can safely bring him back. You getting this?"

" **I am. However, I cannot grant this wish."** this left everyone looking concerned, well everyone except Kai.

"And why the hell not?"

" **I cannot summon the soul of the one known as Son Goku because his body and his soul are still joined, I cannot summon one without the other."**

"...So to dumb it down a little bit, you're saying that Goku's still alive?"

" **Essentially yes."**

"Alright then, good to know. Good to know. Makes our lives easier at least."

"But that doesn't make sense." Tien pointed out "If Goku is still alive then why not come back to Earth?"

"Knowing him it's probably either trying some kind of alien cuisine or doing some kickass training Space Dandy style."

"...Have you ever actually seen Space Dandy?"

"No but I'm pretty sure that's what goes down in it." (I've never seen Space Dandy myself either so I have no idea if this is accurate or not).

"Topic for another day."

"Right, anyway we can just use one of the next wishes to bring him here directly, but in the meantime let's just focus on bringing the cue ball and the Pokemon back to life. Hey big guy you know who I mean right?"

" **The Earthling known as Krillin, I am aware."** Porunga's eyes began glowing red.

It was only a matter of seconds before Krillin appeared before them "Uh… hey guys how's it going?" he was met with applause "Alright now this is what I call rolling out the proverbial red carpet."

" **Your first wish has now been granted, speak to me your second wish."**

"Way ahead of you." Kai glanced up at Porunga "Next up is the Pokemon."

" **The Earthling known as Chiaotzu, I understand."** Porunga flashed his eyes " **The Earthling known as Chiaotzu yet again walks among you."**

Sure enough, at that moment Chiaotzu appeared "Hi!"

"Chiaotzu!" Tien wasted no time in pulling him into a bear hug.

"And that takes care of that." Kai glanced back at Gohan "You wanna do the honors this time around?"

"You betcha!" Gohan looked up at Porunga "Summon my father Son Goku to stand at the side of his friends and family!"

" **It shall be done."** Porunga's eyes began to glow red, but after a moment of silence he suddenly stopped " **I cannot do this, the request has been denied."**

"...Come again?"

" **The one known as Son Goku informs me that he wishes to return to Earth in his own time and under his own power. However, he does extend his regards to his son, telling him to be strong and fulfill his promise until he does return to Earth."**

"But… alright, I understand." Gohan let out a sigh "All good things come to those who wait, dad will come home soon enough. I just know it." he was met with a smirk of approval from Piccolo and several others.

"OF COURSE!" Master Roshi suddenly exploded "The man is terrified of his own wife, for all of his power as a Super Saiyan the one thing he doesn't have the balls to face is her!" he found himself face to face with Chichi holding a sword "Uh no need to look into that, it was just a joke."

"Huh. Respect." Blonde Launch gave Chichi a thumbs up.

That was when Moori stepped forward "Well my friends, I believe the time has come for us to take our leave. For all that you've done for myself and for my people, you have our eternal gratitude."

"Hey it's been fun you guys, at least the lot of you have got more emotions than Big Green back there." Launch was met with a growl from Piccolo.

Dende took the chance to say his goodbyes to Gohan "Well Gohan I suppose that this is goodbye my friend, this adventure has been a great one."

"Yeah, it really has." Gohan took Dende's hands in his and wiped away a few tears "You be sure to take care okay."

"You as well. Porunga, please take all of the Namekians from Planet Namek currently residing on Earth and transport them to a new homeworld."

" **Very well, your wish is granted."** Porunga's eyes glowed red, and one by one all of the people of the Namekian race, with the exception of Piccolo, disappeared from the planet Earth.

"Goodbye my friend, I'll never forget you!" and Dende was the last one to disappear.

Gohan wiped away a few tears and gave a sad smile "Goodbye my friend, maybe our paths will cross again someday." he glanced over at Kai "So are you for some training? Be sure to keep in mind what you said before."

"Don't settle for being better when we could be the best." Kai caught him in a fist bump with a huge shit eating grin "And we're going all the way to the top."

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 **For now the universe is safe once again, thanks to the efforts of Goku and the rest of our heroes. But as the old saying goes, this is just the calm before the next storm descends upon the Earth. What lies ahead for our heroes Gohan and Kai, and how will they rise to the challenge? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, the VERY LONG war on Planet Namek, along with the Frieza Saga as a whole, has at last come to an end. Just as a heads up, the next chapter or two will cover my adaptations of DBZ movies 3 and 4: Tree of Might and Lord Slug, both of which having significance to the plot. You'll see why soon enough.**

 **In case that last scene before Namek explodes didn't make it clear, the method of how Goku escaped will be different from canon, which will lead into the next chapter.**

 **Instead of having Vegeta around to go searching for Goku, I figured that now that I have Raditz in his place, I would have him go around the universe trying to make amends with those that he hurt. The inspiration from this came from two different places: First of all, Gilthunder from the Seven Deadly Sins. Second of all, from the ending of Power Rangers Wild Force. As for having Nail accompany him, I want to keep as relevant to the story as possible.**

 **Now then, I'm going to be starting a new tradition: Every time I finish a saga in this story, I'm going to respond to reviews that have been left for this story.**

 **Cyber Initiative: I made it explicitly clear as to why I made that change of Kai being Yamcha's nephew instead of his son. I leave the author's notes at the end of each chapter explaining these things, so please read all of them before reviewing**

 **xSonallyGirl129x: Thank you for the review and the compliments. I've checked out some of your works as well, and I'm very impressed. I'm particularly fond of Rewrite the Stars.**

 **pr0dz: I think the problem with my previous attempts was that I wasn't giving myself enough freedom to explore every possibility that I wanted to take advantage of, so starting from the beginning of the Saiyan Saga was the best angle for me. Now all I can do is wait and see how it turns out in the future.**

 **xSonallyGirl129x: Thank you, and I have no intention of giving up on the Team Four Star references anytime soon.**

 **Liltye504: I agree about there being too many Gohan x Videl fanfic out there, to the point where it becomes boring and predictable. Ever since I read a fic called the Erased Chronicles I've grown interested in the pairing of Gohan x Erasa, only I want to find a long term fic where they get paired together but neither of them become ridiculously OP.**

 **Sektor: Yes I do plan to pair Gohan with Erasa. As for Kai and Videl, well I haven't decided about that one just yet.**

 **Cyrax: I thought about it, but I decided just to leave it up just to see how people like it in comparison to the current fic I'm working on.**

 **ULTIMATE PETER: Yes I do intend to keep working on Power Level lists after the Frieza Saga, and I usually use lists created by Vegito1089 on YouTube as a sort of basis, so I will be continuing making my own list of Power Levels at least up until the end of the Majin Buu Saga. Unfortunately it's my opinion that the quality of his list began to spiral downwards when he started covering Dragon Ball Super, so I'm not sure if I'll continue after that.**

 **Guest: I don't currently intend to pair Raditz with anyone, at least not at the moment. I might at some point in the future.**

 **Ssj lil tye: Actually I do cover Kai's appearance in the first chapter, you just have to look closely.**

 **Green Lantern HJ: I did consider that option, but nothing is set in stone as of yet.**

 **Darkjaden: I thought about that but I want to keep as true to Goku's character as possible, and his son getting killed or not, I don't see it in his character to kill out of rage.**

 **Ushindeshi: Thank you, and that was actually one of the reasons why I chose him.**

 **Liltye504: No, if I were to do that then I would just be copying the same premise as the fics Rewrite the Stars by xSonallyGirl129x and Piccolo's Choice by saucemonkey. What I want is to do something original, but I am open to suggestion if you have any ideas.**

 **SSJ Lil Tye: I can't spoil anything just yet but I can guarantee that both Gohan and Kai will have important roles in the future timeline.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 3 million

Super Saiyan Goku: 165 million

Frieza (100% power): 120 million and decreasing due to strain

Frieza (Half body): 12 million


	16. Father and Son, Divide and Conquer

Many great stories have multiple different sides. Some of them are important, some of them not so much, but regardless they still exist, and they have an impact on the story overall.

To this point, this story is divided into two different parts focusing on two different characters going through two different sets of challenges.

The first part starts with the legendary Super Saiyan, Son Goku.

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 **(Last time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation…)**

Goku found himself stranded on the dying Planet Namek with no means of escape ' _I can't believe this, this just can't be happening!_ IT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S JUST NOT FAIR! I gave up an easy chance to get home, I gave everything I had to defeat Frieza, and I've fought with every ounce of strength I had only to just hold on to my sanity and my sense of reason, and THIS IS HOW THE UNIVERSE DECIDES TO THANK ME?! BY LEAVING MY STRANDED ON A DYING PLANET?!"

"Quite the opposite actually." a second voice answered him "You've done the universe a great service and you should be honored to serve, but keep in mind that a wise man once said that no good deed goes unpunished. Which is why I'm here for you now."

Goku whipped around the confront the source of the second voice, but all that he saw was a flash of purple and orange before he blacked out.

And only a few seconds passed before Planet Namek finally met its fate in a blinding fiery explosion, reducing it to nothing but spacedust.

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 **(And now, here's some new stuff…)**

Goku's eyes snapped open and he bolted upwards, then he cringed from the pain that he was feeling, and he looked down to realize that a large percentage of his body was covered in bandages "What the- Oh man my head is pounding and… Okay everything hurts… Where the heck am I anyway?"

"Well at least you're far more calm than before, so that's fortunate." a voice noted dryly "But considering the last time you were conscious was on a planet that was about to explode, so it shouldn't be that surprising."

Goku glanced over to the side and found Cooler sitting in a chair by the bed he was in,reading a book nonchalantly, and his eyes widened "Oh hey Cooler… Wait a second, you were the last thing that I saw on Namek… But then you knocked me out…"

"Incorrect Son Goku, I appeared to save you since you had no alternative means of escaping before the explosion, and once I did appear before you your body finally gave out from the strain under which it had been during that battle."

"And then you brought me here?"

"I did place you inside a Healing Chamber but that didn't restore any of the stamina that you had lost, you've been asleep for about a week."

"A week? Oh man…" Goku laid back down and glanced out the window at what Cooler's planet looked like on the outside, and his thoughts started drifting.

"You seem distracted, what is it?"

"...It's about Frieza."

"I'm listening."

"He begged for mercy at the end of it, but despite everything that he had done, the pain that he had caused, the people that he hurt… he even killed my own son and my brother right in front of my eyes. But despite that, I just… I couldn't bring myself to just leave him there to die. I wasn't in this fight to win, all I wanted was to make sure that he couldn't hurt my friends or anyone else again. But now after I met someone like him, I can't help but wonder… How is it that there's someone like him out there, someone so despicable in every way imaginable? Now I'm thinking that maybe this is some kind of sign, maybe there are some people out there who just have to die."

"Don't be so narrow minded about this Son Goku. Think of it this way, you know that Frieza and his men have slaughtered billions of people throughout the universe."

"Well yeah."

"People that had families."

"I know. There were warriors out there who fell to Frieza's might, warriors who love and cherish life and understood just how precious it is. However they understood something that you're having difficulty grasping, there are times when in order to preserve life, you have to be prepared to take it away as well."

"But…"

"Don't try to deny it, you know I'm right. You have to realize that not everyone in the universe can be saved, and even some of those who can be saved may not want to be saved, no matter how much you may want to be able to save them."

"Well I hate that."

"You don't have to like it, you just have to accept it. I myself have lost people that I could've considered to be my friends, but that's part of life. Making mistakes and learning from them."

"...Alright, I guess I understand. Thanks Cooler."

"Don't thank me yet. First of all, I should commend you for defeating Frieza. That's a feat that few can claim, and even fewer of those claims are actually true. Anyway everyone believes you to have perished along with Planet Namek."

"Wait what?!"

"Worry not, they intend to wish you back with the Namekian Dragon Balls as soon as they are restored."

"How do you know so much about this?"

"I've been monitoring the situation from afar. Anyway you have much to do before then, you have to get far stronger before you can return to Earth."

"But I beat Frieza and you don't want to kill me."

"Not at the moment, but that's an issue for another time. Frieza may be out of the picture but my father King Cold is not. His power makes even myself and Frieza pale in comparison."

"...Oh crap."

"Indeed. The Zenkai boost that you've received should help your chances considerably, but raw power will not be enough. You need to learn some new techniques before you're ready to face him."

"You think he'll come for me?"

"Without so much as a second thought. I have one technique in particular that I believe to be suited for you, and I am willing to teach it to you."

"Really, what is it?"

"Not so fast, I need you to do something for me first."

"...Oh crap."

"More or less. Anyway there is a grave situation taking place on one of the planets on the edge of my domain."

"What do you mean?"

"A wicked tree known as the Tree of Might has planted its seed and taken route on the planet Tech Tech."

"Tree of Might? Sounds serious."

"It is, the fruit of the Tree of Might was originally intended only for the Eternal Dragons. The tree is also known as the Tree of Death because it burrows far beneath the surface of the planet to find the nutrients it needs in order to bear this fruit, if it is allowed to grow then it will feed on the soil sucking out everything it would need in order to survive and the fruit will be rich beyond imagination. You must hurry and stop it from baring this fruit."

"Why would we need to do that?"

"Because it takes so many nutrients and so much energy to produce this fruit that everything the tree touches is completely destroyed, if this process is not stopped and soon then the tree will suck all that it needs from Tech Tech and leave it as nothing but a wasted and depleted desert wasteland and almost all of its people will be completely wiped out."

"...I won't let that happen."

"By my estimation you have about 15 days before the first fruit is born, and all life on the planet is wiped out. Regardless of whether or not you make it there in time, you must go and face the warrior responsible for planting this seed, or else the universe will be thrown into chaos." he snapped his fingers and one of his servants entered with a set of orange and blue colored armor similar to what Raditz wore "This is one of the older models of our armor, I took the liberty of coloring them to what I believed was your liking." (just imagine Bardock's armor but orange and blue)

"...I like it. Now I need a ship though."

"Take one of the pods outside."

"Right."

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Days passed, and Goku's trip through the stars to the planet Tech Tech seemed like only a matter of hours, mainly due to him being sedated during the trip.

Goku stepped out of the crater in which his pod had landed, and it only took him a few minutes of flying before he found something that made him sick to his stomach: an entire city that had been reduced to runs, with streets filled with dozens of corpses, whether they be men, women or children, drenched in their own blood or that of each other. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists furiously "Why… Why did something like this have to happen? I guess Cooler was right after all, Frieza wasn't the only monster in the universe. But dealing with whoever is responsible for this can wait for a few minutes, at the very least these people deserve a proper burial."

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It hadn't taken very long to go about the grim task of burying the unfortunate victims of the Tree of Might, and it didn't take very long for Goku to find the Tree of Might either "Looks like I found what I'm looking for. This thing is definitely massive, if I'm gonna do any sort of significant damage then I'm gonna need to start attacking it at the trunk. I can't afford to hold out on it either, so I had better pull out the big guns. **Kaioken 10x!"** he quickly powered up his Kaioken 10x aura "Alright here goes. **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a quick Kaioken enhanced Kamehameha, engulfing the trunk of the tree in an explosion, but when the blast subsided it was revealed that the tree had sustained no damage "Oh come on! So what now, should I hit that thing again?"

"I wouldn't bother if I were you." a new voice told him "All you're going to end up doing is destroying everything around the tree instead of the tree itself."

Goku looked up and saw a figure in grey armor with a red scouter appear in front of him, but he froze at the figure's face ' _He looks like… me? No it can't be, there's no way my eyes would ever show so much evil.'_

"How truly pitiful, do you actually believe that you can destroy the Tree of Might?"

' _This guy's power level is amazingly high, it's almost as high as Frieza's was when he was using 50% of his full power._ Tell me, who are you?"

"You and I are very much alike Kakarot, you and I are both Saiyan warriors struck from the same mold and built for destruction. I can tell from your already massive power level that you truly are a Saiyan warrior, if you were to join up with me then the two of us could rule the universe together."

"Thanks but no thanks now answer my earlier question, who are you?"

"I am Turles, the last and the mightiest of the Saiyan warriors." he shot Goku a look of disdain and disgust "And you Kakarot are a pathetic feeble excuse for a Saiyan warrior, we sent you to destroy the Earth and you failed. You could never have learned to be a true warrior thanks to a pitiful planet like this so called Earth, how about you show me that you're smarter than he was and join me."

"Not a chance, especially not after what you did to the innocent people of this planet."

"It's a shame, but then again how much of a fool would I have to be to take on a traitorous piece of trash like yourself? The Tree of Might has already left this planet a dry and withered up wasteland, and after all of the fruit that I've eaten from the Tree of Might over the years not even the likes of Frieza himself could stand up to me as I am now. Observe." he held up a fruit from the Tree of Might and devoured the whole thing, causing his entire body to bulk up slightly and his aura to turn purple and flare wildly.

' _Well he's definitely far more powerful than before after eating that fruit but that doesn't change the fact that it sickens me, a Saiyan has to risk their life to train and get stronger to reach this kind of level of power and he just cheated his way up here without any effort whatsoever. But all the same I had better be careful with this one.'_

"I've eaten the fruit of the Tree of Might more times than you can count, my energy keeps expanding to an amazing extent and now I'm completely invincible."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

"Do you really think you can defeat me boy? Your power next to mine is like that of an anthill when compared to a mountain."

"We'll see about that."

"I guess we will." Turles flared his purple aura "This amazing, I can feel the energy inside of my body building up endlessly!"

Goku had to brace himself, despite already using his Kaioken 10x ' _This is ridiculous, even now I can't sense any sort of limit to his power!'_

"Time to see just how far a fruit from the Tree of Might can take me now." Turles suddenly burst forward and appeared behind Goku faster than he could track "Oops."

Goku aimed a kick at Turles' head.

Turles blitzed behind Goku and kicked him in the back, sending him into the air.

Goku rebounded and fired off a quick Kamehameha.

Turles easily deflected the Kamehameha with one hand "Just pathetic." then he suddenly burst forward and slugged Goku in the face, sending him flying into the Tree of Might "How did you like that one?"

' _I didn't expect his power to increase as much as this.'_

"This is incredible, it's beyond anything I could ever have imagined! Nothing can stop me now, especially not you!" he burst forward and aimed a fist.

Goku managed to block the attack, but just barely.

Turles quickly rebounded "Looks like I overreached thanks to this overwhelming power, but I won't miss this time." he promptly slugged Goku in the gut and attempted to smash him into the ground even further.

Goku managed to block the strike ' _One thing is for sure, his power and speed are both far beyond that they were before.'_

"Don't bother, you can't win this fight." Turles began launching a furious barrage of kicks, eventually managing to knee Goku in the jaw, sending him crashing to the ground "Don't give up now, I'm just getting started!" he grabbed Goku by the legs, swung him around and let go, sending him flying into another part of the Tree of Might.

Goku rebounded and charged.

Turles forced him to go on the defensive with a furious barrage of attacks, then followed up with a Full Power Energy Wave.

Goku was forced to block it, engulfing him in an explosion. When the smoke cleared, it revealed Goku, his crimson Kaioken 20x aura flaring wildly ' _To think he would actually force me to bring this out.'_

"So I take it now that you're finally fighting me seriously?"

"More or less, I figured that as a Saiyan warrior you at least deserved to see this form as what was going to wipe you from the face of the universe."

"Oh well how very kind of you, well if that's the case then I suppose it would only be right if I went all out as well." his aura burst into life, flaring even higher than before "Are you surprised? Don't be, after all of the fruit that I've eaten from the Tree of might over the years such an increase in power can be obtained in a matter of seconds. We're both Saiyans, only I've eaten the fruit of the Tree of Might so I would say that the advantage would go to me."

"I wouldn't be so sure, you may have unnaturally boosted your power to incredible new heights but you lack the. I've trained this form, mastered it and even gone beyond it, so I would say that I have the advantage here."

"Well I guess we'll see about that soon enough." Turles charged forward.

Goku met the charge in the middle, resulting in them trading even blows, which promptly ended when he blitzed behind Turles and aimed a kick at the back of his head.

Turles dodged the attack as well as the follow up attack and aimed his own fist at Goku's gut full force.

Goku blocked the attack with his forearm and broke away, then began firing a barrage of Ki blasts.

Turles stopped the onslaught directly directly in the middle with his own barrage of Ki blasts, eventually breaking off from the clash and forcing Goku to go back on the defensive with a furious barrage of punches "If you're struggling against me then you've got a long way to go boy!"

"Forget it, I'm not going to lose to you!" their fists met in the middle, sending out a massive shockwave.

"One more!" Turles fired off his Kill Driver.

"One step further!" Goku managed to fire a quick Kamehameha, just barely cancelling out the Kill Driver "Get ready Turles, now I'm serious and this is where the true battle begins!"

"Of course. I must admit, a battle like this was well worth the wait. You truly are a worthy foe to defeat in the heat of battle!" he fired his Sudden Storm barrage.

Goku quickly blitzed through the barrage and slugged Turles in the gut, sending him skidding backwards.

Turles lowered his guard after blocking the attack "My arms are numb and I can feel chills going down my spine. Come on, I think it's time we get serious." he flared his purple aura.

"You've got that right. **Kaioken 20x!"** Goku flared his Kaioken 20x aura, his skin now turning a deep shade of crimson as a result.

"I'll crush you with everything I have!" Turles charged forward.

Goku quickly blitzed in front of Turles and promptly slugged him straight in the gut full force, sending him flying back into the bulk of the Tree of Might.

Turles burst back up, panting slightly as he wiped some of the blood from his lip "I have to give you credit where credit is due, that one actually hurt a little bit. But that being said, I'm far from finished in this fight!"

"You're persistent and willing to fight, I guess you've got more Saiyan blood in you than I gave you credit for."

"Come on boy!" Turles fired another Sudden Storm.

"That attack isn't going to work on me anymore. **Kamehameha!"** Goku fired off a quick Kamehameha, cancelling out the Sudden Storm.

"I've got you!" Turles quickly blitzed behind Goku and kicked him in the temple, sending him tumbling away and crashing to the ground, as well as literally knocking the Kaioken right out of him in the process "What a shame, I was really hoping you would put up more of a fight than that. So much for you actually being worth anything, but then again I guess that's to be expected of the likes of you Kakarot. But then again considering you're related to Raditz I guess it's no surprise."

"What… was that…?" Goku slowly staggered to his feet, his eyes flickering and his body beginning to crackle with bio electricity despite him being in his base form.

"I have no interest in a weakling like you, I'll just wipe you out and get on with my day, that being slaughtering whoever is still alive on this planet and then going on to take Frieza's place as the ruler of the universe."

"Don't you dare…" Goku glared up at Turles, his eyes flickering teal "If you do anything to my friends… or my family… or my home… if you dare to insult the people I care about… I will… MAKE YOU PAY!" he was engulfed in a blinding golden light that covered the entire battlefield, and when the light disappeared it revealed Goku in his Super Saiyan form looking angry as hell.

"So you still have some strength left and want to continue this battle do you? Well fine then, go on and have another taste of my power!" Turles fired another Sudden Storm barrage.

Goku suddenly batted them all away with surprising ease, deflecting them all into different parts of the Tree of Might behind him "Well then what do you suggest we call that?"

"That… That was just a fluke, nothing more and nothing less! But a miracle never happens twice, I'll be sure to blow you away this time!" Turles quickly fired another Sudden Storm barrage at him.

Goku turned and dodged every single blast thrown at him with ease ' _This new level of power, I guess I was so enraged at the thought of this guy killing the others and insulting my brother that I ended up somehow accessing my Super Saiyan form. I'll have to work on it later. Still though this form is amazing, my battle instincts are at their peak! I can see every attack coming and dodge them all like they're moving in slow motion!'_

"I don't understand, how is this possible?"

"I'll tell you how it's possible, through the power of genuine hard work and not trying to cheat your way to the top." Goku then leapt back onto the top of a plateau and flared his golden electric aura as he let out a primal roar "It's over Turles, you no longer have any chance of defeating me."

"Is that so? Well I'm willing to take that challenge." Turles leapt back onto a plateau "Don't think I'm going to go down so easily, I am the strongest Saiyan who has ever lived!" and with a furious roar he powered up to his maximum, his aura crackling with black electricity "Yes that's it, that's the power of my Saiyan blood and the Tree of Might coursing through my veins! Go ahead and power up as much as you want, I'll just push myself beyond that!" he summoned a Sudden Storm, which then formed into a much larger Ki blast "Now then, just let yourself be erased with the rest of this pathetic planet so that my conquest of the universe can finally continue!" he burst forward and fired the Ki blast.

Goku sidestepped the attack "Was that supposed to do something?"

"Shut up and stop dodging you fool!" Turles aimed a kick.

Goku ducked under it and easily dodged the oncoming barrage of punches and kicks with an amused and confident smirk on his face, though he quickly wiped it off ' _No Goku, you can't lose control, not again.'_

"Are you trying to mock me?!" Turles quickly grew frustrated and fired a Sudden Storm barrage from each hand.

Goku just swerved his body around a little bit and ended up dodging every single attack with ease as he glided off of the plateau with his feet grinding into the side of it.

Turles burst downwards to meet him.

Goku sent out an invisible Eye Beam, sending Turles flying clean through the Tree of Might as he landed on the ground.

Turles furiously burst right back up from the rubble and leapt back onto the side of the Tree of Might "What was that supposed to be? Sure your moves are pretty impressive but your attacks are pitiful. That isn't all you've got is it boy?"

"Far from it, as a matter of fact I'm just getting started!"

"Oh please, you'll never beat me with attacks like that. I don't very much appreciate that attitude of yours either, I hope you're ready because I'm not holding back this time."

Goku suddenly blitzed behind Turles and began dealing him a furious barrage of punches to the chest and abdomen, the force destroying the plateau that they were standing on and sending Turles crashing to the ground.

"That's not possible!" Turles burst back up into the air and blocked another fist using his own forearm.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me this is all you can do after all that talk."

Turles aimed a kick.

Goku blitzed behind Turles and landed a kick of his own, sending him flying through the Tree of Might again, then fired a quick Masenko, the force sending him crashing into a mountain behind the Tree of Might.

Turles furiously flared his aura and broke free of where he was lodged in the mountain "You little…"

' _This form is powerful but the problem is that I can feel my control over it beginning to slip, I'd better end this fast before it gets out of hand._ I'm going to finish this battle with this next attack."

"You wretched, arrogant little brat! I won't lose, not to anyone and especially not to you!" with a furious roar Turles powered up to his absolute maximum, his aura turning a deep shade of crimson.

' _His power just shot up to a whole other level, that means that he's finally beginning to lose his cool.'_

"Well if that's the case then I'm gonna hit you with everything I've got!" his crimson aura flared even higher, releasing a massive barrage of laser like beams made of his Ki in every direction, the sheer power cutting into and through the bark of the Tree of Might.

' _Well that's just great, now Turles is releasing all of his Ki in every direction like a barrage of lasers as if he's trying to make it into some kind of Final Weapon. Actually now that I think about it Final Weapon has a really nice ring to it. It looks like cornering him the way that I did just enraged him to the point where he's unleashing all of that power in that form like some kind of a fight or flight response, this might turn out to be rather problematic.'_

"Time to say goodbye!" Turles fired a massive barrage of Ki blasts infused with a strange form of black electricity.

Goku charged forward and dodged every laser, though a few of them ended up grazing his elbow and cutting off a few strands of his hair ' _This is bad, if I get hit by even one of those lasers then I'm as good as dead. I'm going to have to end this in one shot.'_ he quickly leapt back onto the side of the Tree of Might and cupped his hands at his side, blue Ki charging up in between his palms " **Ka…"** he dodged another blast and landed on a piece of rubble " **Me…"** he dodged more blasts by leaping onto different pieces of debris " **Ha…"**

Turles fired a massive Sudden Storm barrage in every direction.

Goku leapt through the attack, barely managing to avoid being hit " **Me…"**

"I think it's about time we end this battle, and you can't avoid being hit in mid air!" Turles formed two purple Ki blasts, one in each hand, and then combined them into one massive Ki blast "This battle is over and I win, now burn in hell! **Meteor Burst Cannon!"** he fired a two handed version of his Meteor Burst, pouring every ounce of Ki he had left into it.

' _Now!'_ being sure to time it just right, Goku used one foot to kick the air and propel himself upwards, then used the Kamehameha that he was charging to grind up the Meteor Burst Cannon like it was some kind of wheel until he was right in front of Turles and held up the blast "This ends now! **HAAAAAAA!"** he fired a full power Super Kamehameha at Turles at point blank range.

Turles could only scream in agony as he was sent flying by the blast, being carried up the the trunk of the trunk of the Tree of Might, resulting in a massive explosion that shook the entire planet, destroying both Turles and the Tree of Might, obliterating them and leaving not a single trace behind of either of them, and with the destruction of the Tree of Might, but the damage to the planet had already been done, and the planet and its people had paid the price as a result.

With the battle at last over, Goku dropped to his knees as his Super Saiyan glow faded from existence, reverting him to his base form "I guess… this is as far as I can go… right now… But that also proves… just how much futher I can go…"

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A few hours went by, and the sun was now rising over the now restored but now unpopulated planet of Tech Tech.

Goku stared down at the graves he had buried before the battle as he knelt down and placed some flowers on each grave "I'm sorry that I couldn't get here in time to save you, a pretty big part of me blames myself for you guys not making it through this. I guess Cooler was right when he said that I can't save everybody. But that being said, it doesn't mean that I won't at least try." he prepared to make his way back to his ship, when he paused and noticed something "Wait a second, I think I sense somethng. Yeah it's pretty faint, but there's definitely a Ki signature nearby. And it feels kind of like Raditz, does that mean it's a Saiyan?" he quickly bolted across the skies for a few miles, then landed on the ground and began digging, and after a few minutes he found what he was looking for: a short figure with a slim build, spiky hair standing tall, a tail falling freely from his lower back, and the cracked and broken remains of a blue jumpsuit and brown and white colored Saiyan armor "So I was right it is a Saiyan, and he's still alive! I'd better get him back to Cooler's planet before it's too late!" and he gently put the Saiyan on his back and took off towards his space pod.

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Several days later…

He opened his and found himself strapped down to a bad, and immediately he started panicking and trying to free himself "Wh-Where am I?! Where's Turles?! Where's Gure?! Gure where are you?!"

"Easy easy!" Goku quickly tried to calm Tarble down "It's okay you don't have to worry, you're safe here."

"Who… Who are you, what happened to my people? Where's my wife?! Did Turles kill her like everyone else?"

Goku lowered his head and let out a sigh "Well the good news is that… Turles is dead and the Tree of Might is destroyed. I did both of those things."

"You… You did?" the Saiyan's face lit up with hope "So then there's a chance that at least some of them survived right?!"

"Well… actually by the time I got there… they were all dead… all of them… It was a miracle that I found you before it was too late."

"...Oh." the Saiyan's face fell and looked away as tears began streaming down his face over the loss of his people "I see."

"I'm sorry, if only I had gotten there sooner then… maybe I could've saved at least a few of them before Turles got to them."

"Please, just don't blame yourself." the Saiyan slowly turned to face Goku "If it wasn't for you then Turles would've made every world like Tech Tech, and at least now my wife and the rest of the people of Tech Tech can rest in peace, so thank you for that." the tears continued to flow endlessly.

' _His eyes… so gentle and compassionate, but they're so full of pain… they actually remind me a lot of Gohan… I wonder…'_ Goku knelt down and put a hand on the Saiyan's shoulder as he removed the straps binding him "I know how you feel. I actually lost my son not too long ago, at the hands of Frieza."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. I understand all too well how much it hurts to lose someone you care about and be helpless to do anything about it." his mind flashed to Gohan and Raditz dying by Frieza's hand, and of Grandpa Gohan as well "But you'll heal. The pain does go away eventually. I can help you, if you want that is."

"Y-You can?"

"Sure. I still have a lot of work and training to do, but when I do go back to my home planet, why don't you come with me?"

"Me? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. People like Frieza and his father, what they believe in lies in power and dominance, but what I believe in lies in people, hard work and dedication. You fall into the first category though. So what do you say?" he held out his hand "I guess that would kind of make me a master right? So what do you say?"

"Master and student? I've never actually had a master before." the Saiyan gave a small smile and slowly accepted Goku's hand "To be honest, my father just shipped me off to that planet because I wasn't good at fighting, so you're really the first person to actually care about me enough to bother to train me."

"Then I guess I'd better do this right. My name is Son Goku by the way."

"My name is Tarble of the Saiyan race."

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And as that story ends, not only has Son Goku grown stronger both in body and in mind, but the student has now started the path of becoming a master in his own right.

But as one story ends, another begins as the son starts down the path of following in his father's footsteps.

But before that, a little bit of light entertainment that is intended to be turned into a plot device later on.

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The vacuum of space was dark and cold.

And that's exactly why Raditz and Nail found themselves lucky to be travelling in a heavily furnished space pod complete with anything they would ever need "You have to give it to those people on Earth, they know how to make a damn good ship."

Nail nodded "Indeed, and now as we complete our travels we can train as we please without any unnecessary distractions-" he was cut off by the phone on the ship ringing "What in the universe is that?"

"My guess is Ghostbusters." Raditz pressed the button and his expression dulled "Oh you've gotta be f*cking kidding me."

" _Hey yeah it's me, long time no see. Don't ask me how I've got this number, I've got a punch of people now."_

"What the hell is going on?"

" _Okay so here's the deal, from what the almighty Lord Popo told me they used the Dragon Balls to wish back everyone who was killed by Frieza and his men, and technically Vegeta worked for Frieza when he killed me, so bam! Nappa's back baby! Whoo to the whoo!"_

"What about all of the ones that you killed?"

" _Well technically I worked for Vegeta, but that has changed! I'm in Hollywood now!"_

Nail stiffled a chuckle "I suppose that would mean that they're doing a live adaptation of Mr Clean?"

" _Ha that's hilarious green guy! Find me the guy who writes your material and give me his number, because I'm a producer now."_

"Of course you are, what do you even do?" asked Raditz.

" _Actually I'm in charge of this new project, I wrote it myself. It's about this one guy who gets killed tragically by his best friend, but then comes back as a ghost and haunts him until his death by another former friend. I call it Citizen Nappa, the merchandising rights alone are gonna make a f*cking mint! We just signed on this great new actor too, his name is Mark Satan. We'll need to work on the first name though, I'm thinking Hercule. So what do you think?"_

"I-"

" _What do I care, you're not on my board."_

"But I-"

" _Listen I'll see you around and when you and your Namekian buddy get back to Earth give me a call! We'll do lunch! Ciao!"_ and then he hung up.

"...And suddenly I find myself questioning every decision I've ever made."

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 **(And now onto the next part of the story…)**

A full year had passed since the war on Planet Namek, since Goku had awakened the Super Saiyan form, since Frieza had at long last been defeated by Goku's hand, and since the destruction of Planet Namek by Frieza's hand.

Now the Earth would once again be in danger, and thus the time has come for the son to follow in the footsteps of the father.

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A typical day in West City, at least for most that is. You see, in reality, it was the day of the West City carnival.

Gohan was currently exploring the wonders of the booth where you have to use a ball to knock over some bottles and win a prize "So you can just win stuff like this so easily?"

Kai nodded and handed him a ball "Yeah, just give it a shot."

"Alright, being sure to hold back but still channeling power into my arm, and…" he threw it, but only knocked over 2 of them "Oh come on! You cursed milk bottles, I swear I will conquer you yet!"

"Gohan you do know those games are rigged don't you?"

"Rigged?! Why didn't you bother to tell me that before I made a fool of myself and wasted my money?"

"Because I love to screw with you."

"Oh ha ha, very funny." Gohan just scowled and looked away took a sip of his soda, his tone catching Kai off guard.

"Okay why the hell are you acting like it's your time of the month? We both know that's my thing and this is our only day of the week where we get to just do whatever shit we want, and besides the carnival only rolles around once a year."

"Yeah I know, it's just…" Gohan let out a sigh "It's been an entire year since everything that happened on Planet Namek, but my dad still hasn't come back to Earth. I mean he didn't even let us wish him back home, or even give any kind of message. I know he's still out there somewhere but what's he doing, and I mean he does want to come home doesn't he?"

"Hey you said it yourself, all good things come to those who wait and that Goku could come back in his own good time. Besides you and I still have a lot of work to do before that actually happens, as in you going Super Saiyan and me beating the ever loving shit out of you after you go Super Saiyan."

"Nice to know that you've got your priorities in order."

"It's what I do, and speaking of priorities I need you to hear me out for a second. So I fire the Nail Gun with one hand right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well what if I used two hands instead, make it like a Double Nail Gun."

"You mean like the Kamehameha?"

"NO! Not like the Kamehameha, the Kamehameha doesn't blow the garnish straight off of a locker!"

"Last time I checked neither do energy guns."

"That's what makes it awesome, just like how the Special Beam Cannon drills through shit and that's what makes it special!"

"I'm pretty sure you're special-" Gohan paused as their heads snapped up towards the upper atmosphere "You feel that?"

"Yeah, there's something heading towards the planet."

"But what could it be?"

"I don't know but whatever it is it's definitely not good. It's the apocalypse and now we're all gonna die! Quick spunky sidekick, get me Chris Evans, Sean Schemmel and Bon Jovi and make it snappy!"

"What about Josh Brolin?"

"What about Monkey Soup?" and that pretty much ended the conversation.

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Dr Briefs looked through his telescope "Oh my, this isn't good my furry little colleague."

"What's going on dad?" asked Bulma "Is it gonna hit?"

"I'm afraid so my dear, it won't be long now."

"What?! How the heck can you be so calm? Can't we just destroy it?"

"Well we thought about that, and it definitely is an option but the problem is that it happens to be inhabited."

"So you're saying we just have to redirect it somehow?"

"Possibly."

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" _Well ladies and gentlemen you've seen it here, that's the computer simulation of what's going to happen to the Earth later this afternoon! Now if you're anything like me then you're downright terrified and you have no desire to spend the last moments of your life in some dead end TV studio, so have a semi happy end of the world and I'll see at least some of you in Heaven when the dust settles."_

Krillin looked at the news "Oh for crying out oud, I just wanted to see the sports and instead I find out that the world is going to end again. The world can't end, I've never even had a girlfriend yet, or even gotten laid! It's not fair, I haven't even lived yet!"

"Oh yeah… there there honey…" Master Roshi on the other hand was just snoozing the end of the world away "No need to worry… there's enough of me to go around…"

"And some people just sleep this kind of stuff away."

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People were dealing with the crisis in different ways.

On one hand, a good number of normal people

On the other hand, Yamcha, Krillin, Chichi and Bulma were all waiting in anticipation for Kai and Gohan to deal with the meteor before it hit the Earth.

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Gohan and Kai bolted upwards into the upper atmosphere "Keep in mind Kai that we don't want to destroy the thing, just change its course."

"First of all I'm not cool with being Mr Pink." Kai pointed out dryly "Second of all I say that it would be a lot easier to just blow the whole damn thing to bits."

"Well of course it would but there are innocent people on that thing, try to put yourself in their perspective."

"Hey I'm not saying I would, I'm just saying that it would be easier. Whatever let's just get this over with."

"Right. **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** the two of them launched a Double Kamehameha at the meteor… only for the meteor to be completely unfazed and their attacks to bounce off of the surface like they were nothing "So this part is bad right?"

"Well now it's about to crash into us so yeah I'd say that's bad." note how dry and unfazed his tone was, as if he had already resigned himself to this.

And that was before they got hit by the meteor.

The meteor passed near the Earth but just barely missing crashing into the planet, and it exploded almost immediately afterwards.

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Yamcha the first one to get up from eating dirt "Is everyone alright?"

Bulma spat out some dirt "I think so." she looked up and noticed what looked like a meteor shower passing overhead "Looks like they had to blow up the planet."

That was when Krillin noticed something "Guys check it out, it looks like some kind of ship landed in the city."

"That's not good." Yamcha gripped the 4 Star Dragon Ball hanging around his neck ' _Goku, I chose to wear this Dragon Ball to protect it until you got back. You gave everything you had to save all of us from Frieza now it's time for me to do the same.'_

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As it turns out, that spaceship actually belonged to Lord Slug and his henchmen, who have conquered several planets throughout the universe, with the Earth being their next target.

And their last because let's face it, you guys know how this goes.

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A crowd had soon gathered to see what was going on.

One of Slug's soldiers stepped out first "Alright men, now let's move in!" he stepped all the way out, with several more of Slug's soldiers following "Attention inhabitants of Earth, prepare to be conquered in the name of Lord Slug! Anyone who resists will be exterminated, so accept our rule now if you want to live!"

Needless to say, none of them believed in any of this and they just burst out laughing.

"On my mark. Fire!" and the soldiers started firing random Ki blasts at the crowd, which quickly quelled any doubts.

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Slug was told by one of the soldiers that terra freezing the Earth would take a total of 10 days and promptly killed the soldier in charge, and was told by the new one that it would only be 3 days.

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Fortunately, this was when the cavalry arrived.

" **Spirit Ball!"** Yamcha fired a Spirit Ball, skewering many of the soldiers, and kicked another soldier's mask in "It looks like somebody needs to teach you not to mess with other people's planets, and I'd be glad to volunteer!"

"You tell them Yamcha! **Destructo Disc!"** Krillin fired off his Destructo Disc, killing 10 soldiers at once.

"Alright, good job Krillin."

"Thanks." he was promptly tackled by 3 soldiers.

"Get away from him!" Yamcha charged at them at full speed.

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Slug and his men watched as the combined efforts of Krillin and Yamcha kicked the living crap out of all of their mooks, but Slug's eyes were fixated on the Dragon Ball that Yamcha wore around his neck.

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" **Destructo Disc!"** Krillin sliced through 7 more soldiers with ease "You see? That's how-" he was cut off by two of them catching him off guard and slugging him in the gut.

"Krillin!" Yamcha gently lowered him to the ground "Just stay here and don't move, I'll take care of them myself." he then proceeded to blitz through several more of Slug's men with ease, but he lost his Dragon Ball necklace in the process ' _Dammit, well at least nobody here knows about the Dragon Balls.'_

That was when Slug suddenly appeared and picked up the Dragon Ball "My my, people are so careless with their valuables these days."

' _...Yeah okay, that one is on me._ Who are you guys, what do you want?"

That was when Slug's top three henchmen Angila, Wings and Medamatcha all appeared in front of him and the others "Our master Lord Slug has comandered this planet, follow his edict and you shall be spared or you can try and join the countless others who have tried to resist and died slowly and painfully by his hand."

"You don't really think we're going to let you-"

"You don't have a choice you fool. Wake up Scarface, you're in denial. Look take my advice and just stay out of our way, you're far more out of your league here than you realize. You're playing with the big boys now."

"Oh get real, as if you guys are big boys and what do you want with our planet anyway?"

"It's simple, we're going to terra freeze it and turn it into our own personal star cruiser."

"Do you really think I'm going to sit here and let you do that?"

"It's not as if you have a choice." this was when Slug stepped forward and held out the 4 star Dragon Ball "You wouldn't happen to know where to find the rest of these would you?"

"But how do you-"

"I'm a nomad my friend, I've been to Namek before. Nice place, now where are they?"

"As if I'm going to tell you-"

"Well sorry to disappoint you old man, but it's going to take a lot more than a lifetime to find the Dragon Balls without a radar!" Bulma barked.

"Bulma!" Yamcha quickly slapped a hand over her mouth "Don't listen to her, she doesn't know what she's saying."

"Oh by all means, she doesn't have to be shy. I love secrets." Slug quickly used his telekinesis to send Yamcha flying into the cliffside and pull Bulma towards him, then used his powers to read her mind and got the information he needed on the Dragon Balls, as well as the Dragon Radar "Yes, this will do very nicely."

"Let her go!" Krillin charged and tried to stop them, only for Wings and Medamatcha to knock him out by simultaneously kneeing him in the gut, leaving him out cold.

Slug snatched the Dragon Radar from Bulma's waist, and then let her go, causing her to pass out and fall to the ground "What a resourceful girl, keeping a radar to detect the Dragon Balls." he handed the radar to Medamatcha "There are 6 more Dragon Balls like this one scattered across this planet, I want you to use this device to find all of them. You have 1 hour, fail me and it will be your final mistake."

The men scattered, all of them being fearful of Slug's wrath.

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An hour passed, and all of the Dragon Balls had been gathered.

Slug quickly gathered all of the Dragon Balls together and summoned Shenron himself "Now arise dragon, I call upon you to grant my wish!"

The Dragon Balls glowed, the skies darkened, and Shenron appeared " **Why have you summoned me? State your wish so that I may return to my slumber."**

"Great dragon, that are only two things that my wealth cannot buy! I wish to be returned to the prime of my youth never to grow old again, I want eternal youth!"

" **Very well, it shall be- Wait a second hold on, something seems really familiar about all of this."**

"Just do it!"

" **Very well, it shall be done."** Shenron's eyes glowed crimson, indicating that the wish was being fulfilled.

Slug quickly felt himself getting younger and let out a malicious victorious laughter "It's done, at last the almighty Lord Slug has returned!"

" **Your wishes have been granted, I bid you farewell."** and with that, Shenron disappeared as the Dragon Balls scattered across the planet once more.

"I'm young again, my strength his greater than it's ever been, I feel absolutely incredible! I can feel the power coursing through me once more! Kneel before me you fools, Lord Slug the almighty has been reborn!"

They promptly knelt before him.

"I can feel it, everything my youth granted me has been restored! My youth! My strength! My impeccable singing voice!"

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Now that his youth and full power had been restored, Slug and his men launched the terra freezing the outskirts of the Earth's atmosphere, releasing a thick dark cloud that covered the planet, blocking out the sunlight and lowering the temperature all over the planet, freezing the oceans in the process.

 **I see trees of brown**

 **And skies of black**

 **And I think to myself**

 **What a wonderful world**

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Gohan finally came to and found himself almost freezing to death "Dammit it's cold, I must've landed in the polar ice caps or something."

"No, they simply terra froze the planet."

Gohan looked and saw two figures, one short with purple skin and a mohawk and the other tall with pink skin and long white hair "Who… Who are you guys?"

"Oh yes of course, how could I have forgotten? You may refer to me as Shin for the time being, and this is my attendant Kibito."

"So you guys were the one who healed me- Oh no what about Kai?"

"Cool your ass I'm right here." Krillin floated down towards him.

"Oh good. You said your name was Shin right? So are you guys by any chance do you intend to help us fight off the ones who did this?"

Shin shook his head "I'm afraid not, it goes against the rules of my position to interact with the inhabitants of this realm but at the moment I had to make an exception. Your planet must survive, and you must be the ones to protect it."

"...I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about but I'm going to assume you want me to kill the guys who did this to the Earth, am I right?"

"Yes."

"Okay then. Come on Kai, let's move." and he grabbed Kai by the hand and took off into the air at full speed.

"I suppose it's time for us to take our leave then." and Shin promptly grabbed onto Kibito and they both disappeared.

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By this point, everyone had gathered back at Kame House to try and make sure they didn't freeze to death.

"Well this oughta warm us up a little bit." Bulma handed Krillin a cup of soup "There, that oughta do the trick at least for a little while. Just hang in there for a little while, I'm gonna bring some to Yamcha." she stumbled slightly due to the after effects of Lord Slug using his mind reading on her, but she quickly recovered and made her way up the stairs.

' _Okay seriously when the hell is Yamcha gonna pop the question already? I can feel the sexual tension all the way from here.'_ Krillin let out a mental sigh, followed by a shriek.

Bulma bolted down the stairs "Krillin it's Yamcha, he's changed into his gi and he took off out the window! And Red Dawn is on Netflix!"'

"Wait a second, you don't think he…"

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He did.

Yamcha looked up from where he was hiding behind a truck "Looks like I'm gonna have to be cautious about this , it's pretty obvious that I can't beat their boss with the level that he's at right now. But that being said, that doesn't mean we can just sit back and do nothing. I guess all I can do for now is try and finish off as many of the space trolls as we can until the likes of Piccolo can get here."

Unfortunately, that was when one of the soldiers, along with several others, noticed them "And just where do you think you're going?"

"It's actually a matter of where you're going, and that's to hell! **Spirit Ball!"** Yamcha was quick to unleash a Spirit Ball, blitzing through every single one of the soldiers with ease.

However, that was when Angila showed up and suddenly blitzed through Yamcha with ease before he knew what hit him, sending them both crashing to the ground "And to think the likes of you actually killed so many of our men so easily, it's honestly too hard to find good help these days. But enough about that, I think I'll finish you myself."

Unfortunately for him, that was when a Ki blast drew a wall between Angila and Yamcha, and a caped figure threw one of the soldiers at Angila and another one at the light fixture on Slug's ship, revealing himself to be Piccolo "Are you alright?"

Yamcha spat out some blood to the side as he got back to his feet "Well I'm still alive, but thanks for making the save in a Batman like fashion.

"Don't worry about that, and frankly I don't get that reference so let's get the lackeys over with already."

"Right." Yamcha dropped into a combat stance "I'm ready."

"Good, because now the real battle is about to begin."

That was when Angila returned, now joined by Winds and Medamatcha "Now you're dealing with the big boys."

"Alright, just hurry up and tell us what your gimmick is already."

"Gimmick?"

"Yeah like the last guys, from what I was told about it they were some kind of Wheel of Fortune and wrestler stereotypes. What does that make you guys?"

Angila shrugged "Well we're just here for your planet, though if I had to choose then I would have to say that I'm the pretty one."

"You get 6/10 at the most."

"You sassy bitch."

"Takes one to know one." then Piccolo turned to Medamatcha "I'm guessing that would make you the weird one that has the freaky powers."

"I can spawn mini me's!" note how he said this with a disturbingly huge shit eating grin that left them somewhat creeped out.

"Just spectacular." then he turned to Wings "And I'm guessing that that would make you no doubt the big tough stupid one."

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR I'LL KILL YOU!" Wings let out an outright snarl.

"Alright alright, you're not tough."

"That's better."

"Yep."

Tien raised an eyebrow "Wait, didn't you-"

"Just give him a minute."

That was when Wings finally got it "HEY! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he charged at Piccolo in a blind rage.

Piccolo leapt onto the roof of a cargo truck, letting Wings ram his fist into the side of it and end up getting stuck "Now now, that truck is not your eating disorder."

"You're a penis!"

"It's been so long since you've seen yours that you don't even recognize one do you?"

Wings leapt onto the top of the truck and fired his fist forward in a rage.

Piccolo easily caught the fist and crushed it, then raised his elbow.

"Please don't break my arm."

"No." so Piccolo then proceeded to break his arm, causing Wings to cry out in agony.

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Tien leapt back and dodged a rapid barrage of Ki blasts ' _Dammit, he's stronger than I thought he would be and I can't find any sort of openings.'_

Medamatcha fired another barrage of Ki blasts, with some of them actually damaging Tien, sending him crashing to the ground "Not bad, you made it through the first round. But nobody ever makes it past the second round. Care to try your luck?" he made several odd gestures and spawned mini clones of himself from his back.

"Gross." Tien retreated into the air " **Tri Beam!"** he fired a Tri Beam, only for the mini clones to dodge all of them and latch onto him "Dammit!"

"You can feel it can't you? The way that they're sucking away all of your energy!"

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Piccolo easily kicked Wings off of a building "This is just pathetic."

"Oh please, you think you're so great? Well I'm gonna show you!" Wings wandered his way inside the building, only to get blown off of the roof again "Oh god dammit! Alrght now I'll go for the left, he won't see me coming from-" he got blown off of the roof again "Okay so he saw that coming. You know what fine, I'll wait down here and catch him off guard." and he wandered back into the building.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Oh hey, I'm just waiting for that green jackass so I can surprise him."

"Neat."

"Yeah he'll never see it coming- Oh wait."

"Yeah." and then Piccolo blasted him through the wall.

Wings slowly sat up and coughed up blood "Alright hold on, please don't kill me. You're strong I admit, but you're nowhere near strong enough to take on Lord Slug so why not join him while you still have a chance to? So what do you say, high five?"

"Down low."

"What-"

"Too slow."

and with that, Piccolo merely held out a hand towards Wings' face and fired off an Explosive Demon Wave, incinerating Wings on the spot before he even had time to scream.

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Angila noticed the explosion from afar and let out a sigh "So it looks like I'm actually going to get my turn for once. Wings that fool, he just couldn't measure up could he?"

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Medamatcha watched as his mini clones sent Yamcha crashing to the ground "I'm so proud of those little guys." he let out a whistle, causing the mini clones to merge back into his body.

"Yamcha hang on, I'm coming!" Piccolo attempted to rush to Yamcha's aid.

That is, before Angila's arms burst out of the ground and grabbed him by the ankle "I've got you!"

"Someone needs to put him out of his misery, like me!" Medamatcha promptly fired a Ki blast at them.

Piccolo used his own body to shield Yamcha from the blast, and when the blast subsided, all that had been damaged was his weighted turban and cape, which he promptly ripped off "If that's all you got then this will be easy."

"That's enough of that Piccolo." that was when Gohan, now wearing a gi identical to Goku's, only minus the blue undershirt, dropped down onto the scene, with Kai by his side "Take Yamcha and get as far away from here as you can, I'll take over this fight and finish it myself."

Medamatcha let out a chuckle "Coming here was a big mistake boy, freezing to death would honestly have been better. I think your friends over there can testify to that."

"One of those friends happens to be my teacher, and the other happens to bethe uncle of my best friend." Gohan promptly knelt down beside Yamcha "You did a great job all by yourself Yamcha and Piccolo, but let me handle this." he held out two Senzu Beans "Kai and I made a quick stop to see Master Korin before we came here." he fed one of them to Yamcha and then gave the other one to Piccolo, then turned back towards Slug's men "I'm giving you guys one warning and only one warning, unfreeze the planet and get out of here and I'll let you live."

"Did you hear that Angila? He thinks he's all that, he's quite the comedian isn't he?"

Angila smirked "Have any other strong words you'd like to throw at us little man?"

"Actions speak louder than words, and words won't win this battle." with his milky white aura flaring into life, Gohan easily dodged two simultaneous attacks from Angila and Medamatcha and grabbed Medamatcha by the neck using his ankles, then promptly flung him directly into the side of Slug's ship.

Medamatcha emerged and quickly snapped out of his daze "You little shit, my babies are gonna love you!"

"Let me have some of the fun!" Angila thrusted his arms into the ground and grabbed Kai by the ankles "I've got him Medamatcha, let the little Medas have at him!"

"I'm on it!" Medamatcha quickly unleashed his mini clones, which then latched onto Kai's face and head, before Medamatcha himself lunged.

"Oh no, now what ever should I do? Oh I know. **Kaioken!"** Kai boosted his new Zen Ryuken technique to the next level and sent out a small scale Explosive Wave, obliterating all of the clones attached to him, then fired a simple Ki blast at Medamatcha before he could pounce on him from above, obliterating him on the spot.

"You little upstart prick!" Angila furiously fired a Mouth Energy Wave.

Kai countered the blast with a quick Ki blast of his own, forcing Angila's Mouth Energy Wave back down his throat, causing his head to explode and killing him almost immediately, and then he caught Gohan in a high five "Well the guard dogs are down, now where's the great dane?"

That was when Slug made an explosive entrance onto the scene, killing all of his remaining soldiers as they were trying to retreat "It's impossible to find good help these days, look you're with the government or the church then just go ahead and get the f*ck off of my property, and considering I now own this rock that's effectively everything. On the other hand, if you've come to apply to apply for the soldier job then just use the side entrance."

Gohan let out a quick gulp and braced himself "Thanks but no thanks ugly big green and ugly, I'm self employed."

"I seel, well I've already staked my claim here so don't interfere."

' _This guy's power is incredible, not that it's anything Dad couldn't beat if he just went Super Saiyan but at this point I'm gonna have to be careful. No Gohan , you have to focus. Dad would never give up, and neither can you.'_

That was when Krillin stepped up, getting way too cocky for his own good "This guy is asking for it. Don't worry Kai, just sit on back and let me handle this one."

' _...This is going to be far more amusing than it should be.'_

"Remember this ugly! The name! Is KAI! And it rhymes! With DIE! And any minute now, you're about! To! See! WHY!" Kai charged in, only to get backhanded by Slug "Change of plans, he's all yours Gohan! What possessed me to do that?!" and he was sent flying away from the battlefield.

"Kai! You're gonna pay for that!" Gohan flared his white aura and charged towards Slug at full speed.

"Is that all you've got? You're pathetic." Slug dodged and easily blocked a Masenko.

Gohan charged after Slug into the air.

Slug blitzed forward and slugged Gohan straight across the face, sending him crashing down to the ground.

Gohan quickly recovered and went back on the offensive.

Slug caught both of his fists with ease "Is this all of the power you're capable of?" he promptly smashed Kai down to the ground.

"Gohan hold on!" Piccolo attempted to rush to his side.

"No, stay back!" Gohan held out a hand "I can handle this myself."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Slug lowered himself to the ground and picked Gohan up out of the ground by one of his ankles "You may have had a chance yesterday, but thanks to the power of the Dragon Balls you're fighting Lord Slug in his prime! And you know, there's a certain sport that I excel at."

"What's it called?"

"Competitive Bitch Toss!" he promptly flung Gohan through a truck, as well as through the wall behind said truck.

Gohan emerged from the rubble and spat out some blood ' _Come on Gohan, you've gotta think of a way to get yourself out of this. It's times like this I wish I had learned the Kaioken too, but there's no telling if my body would be able to handle the strain._

"It feels good to be young again." Slug nonchalantly fired his Darkness Eye Beam.

Gohan barely managed to get himself out of the way and thrusted his hand forward, managing to punch Slug clean across the face.

Slug gave an arrogant smirk "Now that wasn't very nice now was it?" he backhanded Gohan into another building "Nothing like a little bit of window shopping is there?" he grabbed Gohan by the face and threw him back out onto the street, followed by slugging him in the gut, then in the face, and then sending him flying through another wall. Well, sending his head through the wall anyway. Then Slug roughly grabbed him and began pummeling, before sending him tumbling back down the street with a single Ki blast "I don't know why I'm wasting my time with the likes of you."

Gohan slowly staggered to his feet once more, now bloody and battered but still not beaten, though the top of his gi was practically shredded halfway ' _Well I guess finshing this fight quickly is out of the question now. But no matter what I can't give up now, everyone is counting on me to beat this guy, so I can't fail them.'_ then the realization suddenly sunk in as his surroundings faded away ' _Like I did against Beets, or against Vegeta and Nappa, or against Frieza. Whenever my friends needed me the most I was always too scared to help them, I've always been letting them down this entire time, and they've always had to save me! I can't run from this battle, no one is here to protect me, they're all depending on me! But I can't let them down, not again! Kai, Piccolo, Yamcha, everyone. All of you please just hang in there, I need you to lend me your strength so that I can beat him. None of you would give up, My dad wouldn't give up, and neither will I!'_ his aura suddenly took on a golden shade

Slug nonchalantly waltzed up to him "This is boring, it's time for you to die." he clocked back one of his fists and let it fly forward.

Much to his surprise, Gohan caught it with one hand, and before anyone knew what was happening his aura and hair had turned a shade of gold, and his eyes had taken a shade of bluish green "No way, not today, especially not to the likes of you!"

"What the- But how are you doing this?!"

"I know exaxtly what your kind are like, you think that you can just waltz in and take our planet because there's no one around strong enough to stop you! But you forgot one thing: the blood of the great Son Goku is coursing through my veins, and on my father's name I refuse to let him or anyone else down!" Gohan quickly bent Slug's wrist and broke it with ease, then promptly slugged him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground with ease.

Slug could still feel the burning aura on his face where Gohan had punched him "His power has surpassed my own, how could this be?"

Gohan burst forward and kicked Slug straight in the gut, sending him crashing into a building.

Slug burst out from the building, demolishing it almost immediately.

Gohan began blitzing through Slug over and over again, ending the brutal and endless assault by smashing Slug in the face, sending him crashing into another building.

Slug staggered back to his feet "What the hell got into you?!"

Gohan fired off a rapid barrage of Ki blasts and headbutted Slug into a wall "I got my second wind, that's what."

Gohan gripped his now useless wounded left arm and let out a chuckle "Well well, you're just full of surprises aren't you? You even managed to wreck a perfectly good arm." he then ripped his bad arm clean off.

"You know you're actually supposed to leave it on, it gets better."

He just regenerated it and removed his other glove and sleeve.

"Or I guess you could just do that instead. Wait a second, that means that…"

He removed his helmet, revealing his full appearance.

"Your jaw is enormous! And oh my gosh, you're a Yoshi. Wow Kai was right, it is fun to say things like that."

That was when Slug made it worse by entering the Great Namekian form, transforming to the size of a Great Ape.

"Oh crap."

" _Gohan you have to be careful!"_

"Yeah I figured that much, is that you King Kai?"

" _Yes it's me, now listen very carefully. Slug is one of the ancient Namekians who discovered the key to unlocking a higher consciousness within called Super Namekians, but the problem is that their power corrupted them and turned them into beings of pure evil and malice rivalling that of the likes of Frieza himself. Thanks to the power of the Dragon Balls, the good Namekians were able to banish the Super Namekians from their homeworld forever and sever any connections with them, even life links like the one that existed between Piccolo and Kami. Thanks to the power of the Earth's Dragon Balls, he's regained his youth and his full power has been restored, and with this transformation he's become even more power than the likes of Frieza. Above all, be very careful."_ then the connection shut off.

"Okay this is definitely bad."

Slug let out a menacing and maniacal chuckle "Oh yes, the view is much better up here with all of the skyscrapers!"

Gohan stood his ground and flared his new Super Saiyan aura "Well then I guess I'll just have to cut you back down to size!"

"I must say that I am impressed boy, you're one of the few who has seen my true form and not run away from fear."

"Look, I don't wanna have to hurt you."

"What?!" Slug stomped down his foot, only to realize that he had missed, and began sweeping through various buildings "Why you little runt, you dare pity Lord Slug?!"

Gohan dodged another sweep and fired off a stray Masenko as he retreated.

Slug turned and found that he couldn't see Gohan, but he could sense him "Oh my, looks like somebody is out of breath."

Gohan quickly dodged one of the arms but found himself trying and failing to track Slug "This is bad, where did he go? How could someone that big possibly hide himself?"

One of Slug's hands burst through the building on the left, another hand from the building on the right, and his actual face burst through the building in the middle "I've got you!" he fired off a quick Mouth Energy Wave to stop Gohan from charging any attacks, decimating several of the surrounding buildings in the process "What a feisty little guy. Oh well he's dead now." that was when he noticed something as the dust settled "How the hell did I miss him? I shot at him point blank!"

Sure enough, the smoke cleared to reveal that Gohan had blocked the Mouth Energy Wave at the last second, though his black wrist bands fell off in the process, and he smirked "Not yet, and not anytime soon. It's times like this I have to love those lucky wristbands Dad gave me before we left for Planet Namek."

"Get over here you wretched little-" Slug extended his arm in an attempt to grab him and crush him to death.

Gohan leapt above the attempted grab and ran up Slug's arm, then fired a simple Masenko at his face and sent him crashing to the ground, before he retreated ' _This isn't good, his power level definitely multiplied with that transformation. Come on Gohan you need to think, there has to be a way to beat this guy.'_

"Need a hand?"

Gohan looked back and saw Kai, Tien and Piccolo step up "Kai, all of you? I guess I got a little bit in over my head didn't I?"

"A little bit, it happens."

"Well I guess I should apologize, I wanted to prove to all of you and to myself that I could handle stuff like this on my own but the truth is that I'm just not strong enough to defeat him by myself."

"You don't need to apologize, we've all been there at some point." Yamcha told him "Sure you're already amazingly strong as it is, but it takes being able to trust and believe in others and having friends by your side to make you even stronger."

"So you'll help me?"

"If by help you you mean take all of the credit after beating the ever loving shit out of this guy then yes. **Kaioken 10x!"** Kai powered up his Kaioken.

"Never change Kai, never change. Anyway I have a plan. At this rate none of us are gonna be able to last a second against this guy, if we want to have any sort of chance of winning then we need to combine all of our power for one all out assault. Agreed?"

"Yeah works for me."

"Alright, we'll do it on my signal."

"I've had more of you than I can stand!" Slug roared at the top of his lungs "I'm going to kill you if it's the last thing I do!"

"Looks like he's pretty much losing his cool." Gohan flared his new Super Saiyan aura and dropped into a combat stance "Alright everybody get ready, it's just about go time."

"DIE!" Slug fired a Mouth Energy Wave, packing every ounce of Ki he had left into the attack, intent on incinerating the city along with them.

"Alright everyone, let's go! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Gohan fired a full power Super Kamehameha.

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Kai fired a full power Super Kamehameha.

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Yamcha fired a full power Super Kamehameha.

" **Special Beam Cannon!"** Piccolo fired a Special Beam Cannon, with all 5 attacks combining into one and clashing with the Mouth Energy Wave, though it increased in size and began slowly pushing them back.

"Come on people, don't give in!" Gohan packed more Ki into his blast "I'm not going to lose, not to anyone especially not to you! _This is bad, we're all giving it everything we've got and it's still pushing us back!'_

"This is my chance!" seeing an opening, Piccolo broke off his Special Beam Cannon and flew up to the Mouth Energy Wave, then began pushing it back with all of his strength.

"Piccolo what in the world are you doing?!"

"You guys hold it off until I take care of it!" Piccolo began pushing the Mouth Energy Wave back as he continued flying upwards.

"What?! Piccolo!"

"Just trust me!" Piccolo burst up towards Slug and attempted to fire a Ki blast.

Unable to speak without breaking off of his Mouth Energy Wave, Slug attempted to hit Piccolo with his Darkness Eye Beam.

Piccolo narrowly dodged the blasts and fired two simultaneous Explosive Demon Waves, one at each eye, causing Slug to cry out in pain and his Mouth Energy Wave to waver "Now!"

"Right! Come on everyone, just give it one final push!" and with a furious roar, Gohan unleashed every ounce of strength he had left, with Kai and Yamcha both doing the same, finally breaking the through the Mouth Energy Wave, engulfing Slug in the combined blast.

Slug could only scream in mangled agony as he was sent flying into the terra freezing generator, destroying the machine as well as killing him in the massive explosion that followed.

"It's… It's over…" Gohan powered back down to his base form and grinned "We won… We really won…" then he collapsed forward from exhaustion and lost consciousness.

Piccolo caught him as he lowered himself back to the ground ' _You've gotten strong Gohan, truly strong. You really have made me proud with your performance today.'_

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A few days went by, and things had returned to normal.

Yamcha was with Gohan and Kai back at the carnival in West City again, at the exact same booth, and he easily knocked all three bottles over with one "It doesn't have anything to do with power you guys, it's all in the wrist. That way you can get more action on the ball when you throw it. Go ahead, give it a shot."

"Alright." Gohan flicked his wrist as he threw, getting all three bottles in one shot "Now that's what I'm talking about, I guess we do still have a few things to learn."

"Um, Gohan…" Kai pointed to where the ball had gone through the stand, as well as through several more stands behind it."

"...I might need to work on that." but he still burst out laughing at this.

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 **Son Goku and Son Gohan, father and son, survivors of a warrior race. They have been tested in the heat of battle, and they have emerged stronger both in body and in mind as a result. But as the calm before the storm subsides and the storm looms ever closer, do they have what it takes to rise to the challenge? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And thus the new generation of Z Fighters has at last proven that they have what it takes. This was a semi breather chapter after the hell that everyone had suffered because of Frieza on Planet Namek, and meant to take advantage of some ideas revolving around my adaptations of movies 3 and 4, the Tree of Might and Lord Slug respectively, so it's divided into two separate stories, one of the adaptations focusing on Goku and the other on Gohan, hence the title of the chapter.**

 **I had Goku be saved from Planet Namek exploding by Cooler for two reasons: First of all, to make something different from canon. Second of all, to find a way to make further use of Cooler in my story without just shoehorning him in or cutting and pasting him in from another story. Also, in case it wasn't clear Goku's part in this chapter takes place during the four months after the battle with Frieza, whereas the part with Gohan and Kai takes place a year after that.**

 **Tarble is Vegeta's younger brother from the OVA Yo Son Goku and his Friends Return, I always had a soft spot for him and thought that he had a lot of unused potential, especially after reading the fic Honor of the Disgraced by Cosmic Cannon, so I figured why not have Goku take him as an apprentice.**

 **I'm going to have Shin and Kibito make a few brief appearances in a few chapters leading up until the Majin Buu Saga, so I can say that they're trying to find any warriors strong enough to tangle with the likes of Buu, if for no other reason but to make Shin less of an overall disappointment.**

 **Gohan going Super Saiyan in between sagas is probably the biggest change from canon since I had Raditz be a good guy, but since he's one of the two main characters of this fic, I wanted to give him a lot of bonus development. Granted he's not as strong as Goku right now but he's definitely strong enough that he would surpass Frieza at full power. Also I figured that since people are whining about Slug being a ripoff of King Piccolo, it would be the perfect place for it to happen. Think about it, it parallels Goku's fight with King Piccolo perfectly. By saving the world from an evil Namekian that used the Dragon Balls to regain his youth, Gohan has taken the first step to following in Goku's footsteps.**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 2.7 million

Super Saiyan Gohan: 135 million

Kai: 340,000

Kai (Kaioken 10x): 3.2 million

Goku: 3.8 million

Goku (Kaioken 10x): 38 million

Super Saiyan Goku: 190 million

Weighted Piccolo: 3.5 million

Unweighted Piccolo: 4.55 million

Yamcha: 305,000

Krillin: 220,000

Tarble: 2,200

Cooler (suppressed): 6.5 million

Turles: 10 million

Turles (fruit): 100 million

Wings: 500,000

Medamatcha: 750,000

Angela: 1.8 million

Old Lord Slug: 30 million

Young Lord Slug: 60 million

Lord Slug (Giant form): 120 million


	17. Goku's Return, A Message From The Future

**(From now on I'll be answering reviews at the beginning of chapters to make things more efficient)**

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** Thank you for the feedback. Shin and Kibito appearing early on is something that I recycled from the original Rise of a New Generation fic, and it was inspired by Shin's role in the iconic DBZ fic Break Through the Limit. I wanted to make Shin, well less of an overall disappointment as a Supreme Kai. I had actually decided to make Gohan go Super Saiyan before Goku returned to Earth after reading the DBZ fic Son Gohan the Warrior, which had him go Super Saiyan on Namek after Goku did and then have him master it while Goku was out in space for a year, so I decided to do something somewhat original and have him learn it while Goku was gone, but in a way that was rather poetic. Goku awakened some of his true power when fighting against King Piccolo, an evil Namekian, so I thought it was poetic for Gohan to do the same in a similar fashion. I'm glad to hear that you like the DBZ Abridged references. I'm a huge fan of TFS, and I have no intention of stopping with the references anytime soon, especially since season 3 is the best one so far. I can't do anything about Yamcha and Bulma's child from the future because I feel like that would be copying what you did in your story Rewrite the Stars, and the child needs to have Saiyan blood for this to work. Oh and for the record, I don't intend to introduce Erasa into the story until after Act II (Cell Saga) ends, and maybe in one of the chapters in between Act II and Act III (Majin Buu Saga), in which I'll be covering a few more movie adaptations. I'll be including at least two of those, the two confirmed for now being Bojack Unbound and Fusion Reborn (minus the fusion for obvious reasons).

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Following the war on Planet Namek and the climactic battle between Goku and Frieza, the planet itself had been reduced to nothing more than intergalactic rubble.

Contrary to what everyone in the universe believed, Frieza was still alive after the explosion, albeit just barely, with both of his legs, his left arm and half of is head missing, floating through space in a near comatose state, dreaming of his defeat by Goku's hands "I, Frieza… completely humiliated… by that… Saiyan ape…"

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At the same time, King Cold, the father of Cooler and Frieza and the _true_ ruler of the universe, had arrived on the scene of where Planet Namek once stood "Report."

One of the soldiers immediately rushed to his side "Your majesty, it would seem that Planet Namek has been completely destroyed. No one could've survived, not even your-" he was silenced by a harsh glare.

King Cold stood from his throne and made his way over to the main window of the ship "To think that my own son Frieza could've met his demise. My clan is feared throughout the universe, what fool would dare to challenge our supremacy? Well regardless of whoever or whatever this fool actually believes himself to be, I shall award him the honor of dying by the hand of King Cold himself!" his sheer intensity of his anger was enough to shatter the main window, dragging a good number of his soldiers out into the cold depths of space.

"Your majesty look!" one of the surviving soldiers displayed an image of Frieza floating unconscious not far away "It's a faint signal but we have been able to lock onto Lord Frieza's position!"

"Excellent, now bring him aboard before I sent the lot of you cretins to join him! Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir yes sir!"

"Now get to it!"

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What followed next was several hours of the best scientists of the Frieza Force attempting to reconstruct Frieza's body with cybernetic enhancements, thereby making him even more powerful than he was before.

When Frieza finally opened his eyes, the first thing he did was glance up at King Cold and make a simple demand "Father, we're going to Earth right now. The Super Saiyan shall pay for what he did, and he will pay with his life!"

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All was come on Earth, and the sun was shining over Mount Paozu.

Gohan was doing homework in his room, slowly but steadily filling out each answer and putting it in the correct spot, and eventually he stopped and let out a sigh ' _It's been a full year and a half since everything that happened on Planet Namek, since Dad defeated Frieza… since the last time any of us have actually seen dad. A lot has happened since then, like Krillin and Chiaotzu being brought back to life, that evil Namekian Slug invading Earth, and since I became a Super Saiyan just like Dad. Still though, more than a year and Dad still hasn't come back to Earth, so I can't help but wonder… Where are you right now Dad? What are you doing out there? When do you actually plan to come home?'_

That was when Chichi poked her head into the room "Hey there honey, how's the homework coming along?"

"I actually just finished."

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Bulma leaned back in a chair and let out a sigh "I'm not gonna lie you guys, I'm really liking this whole piece thing."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah I know what you mean, but to be honest I can't really help but wonder exactly where Raditz and Nail took off to."

"Well knowing what Saiyans can be like I'm guessing they're gonna be off training or chasing after Goku but at least they're not here, no offense to them but considering what Piccolo and the other Saiyans can be like they kind of scare the ever loving crap out of me."

"Oh come on babe, underneath all of the warrior vibe they're just a bunch of softies."

"Who stole my spaceship!"

"Hey the guy spent all those years working for Frieza, I say if he wants to have a little bit of freedom then let him."

"Well either way the ship didn't have a ton of fuel and it's programmed with an automatic return feature, so I doubt it's gonna be that much longer before they get back."

"I just wish that we could say the same for Goku." and that made the mood considerably more somber.

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The sun was setting over Kame House.

Kai stood on the beach with his hands cupped at his side, his Kaioken aura quickly flaring into life "Alright, here goes. **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a quick Kamehameha into the ocean, the resulting backlash drenching the entire island with a massive wave "Well that could've gone better, but ever since the whole thing with Slug and with Gohan going Super Saiyan my progress has been slow going."

"Don't get so frustrated so easily." Piccolo dropped down in front of him "You want to be the best, that's a fine goal, but don't be so impatient to do it."

"Says the guy who blows mountains up and broods up in the polar ice caps." Kai just laid down on the sand and gazed up at the setting sun "I bet Goku is up there right now getting stronger by the second, which means that I can't afford to get behind him. Saiyan limitations or lack thereof be damned, as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as limitations. Which means that I'm gonna keep pushing myself until I'm stronger than Goku or Gohan. No seriously, there's only one thing that I hate more than someone being stronger than me and that's the color pink in any way, shape or form."

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The next day came.

A loud crash sounded through the grounds of Capsule Corp as Raditz and Nail finally touched down back on Earth "We're back bitches!"

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't say that." Nail pointed out.

"You agreed, I uppercutted you in the jaw."

That was when Krillin ran up to them "You guys have a lot of nerve coming back here and pulling a stunt like that!"

"Oh cool a valet, word of warning I don't tip."

"Don't you even remember who I am? We met when you and Beets showed up 2 ½ years ago and I even helped Goku fight Vegeta!"

"Actually Yamcha and the triclops helped Kakarot, everyone else fought Nappa. Well except for that one little bald idiot who got killed by the Saiba-" Raditz paused, then looked at Krillin, and then burst out laughing.

"Oh yeah? I dare you to come over here and laugh at me!"

Raditz jumped down in front of Krillin "Ha. Ha. Ha." and a puddle of green liquid formed on the ground.

"Yeah see now we can laugh together." this was followed by Yamcha and Bulma showing up on the scene.

"I can't sense Kakarot's energy anywhere around here."

"Wait a second, are you telling us that you and Nail didn't find Goku anywhere out in space in all that time?" asked Bulma.

"If we did then the short one without the nose wouldn't be pissing himself in front of me right now."

"...Oh yeah fair enough. Speaking of which we have enough to deal with right now without having to clean up a pool of Krillin's urine, you Raditz are due for a shower. No seriously you smell like wet dog, now follow Yamcha and he'll take you to one of the showers on the second floor. Kai is in another one on the third floor and I kind of promised I'd bring him some extra clothes." and so Bulma walked off in one direction, with Yamcha walking off in another direction and Raditz following him.

Krillin just watched both of them in stunned silence ' _Yeah you better run.'_

"You on the other hand might need an extra set of clothes yourself." Nail pointed out rather awkwardly.

"...This conversation never happened."

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Bulma laid out a new set of clothes for Kai while he was in the shower "Hey listen up squirt I'm setting out some new clothes for you and I'm gonna wash your gi."

"Fine but be careful, that thing is dry clean only." Kai pointed out from where he was in the shower.

"Yeah whatever lets you sleep at night." and she walked out.

"No seriously it loses its durability!" he received no reply "Hello?"

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While ignoring Kai altogether, Bulma made her way into another bathroom, threw the ruined set of armor into the laundry, and laid out a brown t shirt and a pair of jeans "Hey Raditz I laid some stuff out for you."

"Yeah great, thanks." Raditz just stared up at the ceiling without really paying attention, the water trickling down his face ' _Why are you still hiding among the stars Kakarot, why not return home in triumph after conquering Frieza? I want to see your newfound Super Saiyan power first hand."_

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Yamcha leaned back in his chair "So Raditz and Nail are living here now? That's… neat I guess."

"A Namekian warrior is sitting across from us and Goku's brother from the deepest depths of space is taking a shower in the other room." Krillin pointed out dryly "I don't think neat is the first thing that comes to mind."

"Well it's what I'm thinking of."

That was when Bulma came out onto the patio "Okay so I just got a look at Raditz's ass, and despite the fact that it's really not that bad he's got this weird hole in it."

"To be fair madam I'm fairly sure both genders have those holes." Nail pointed out "I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about."

"No you idiot, I mean a hole above that one."

"...Does that mean he's a female?"

"I have no idea."

"Earth woman!" Raditz called from down the hall "Where's the cleansing powder?"

"We don't have that here, we have soap!"

"What the hell is soap?"

"It's that yellow block there made of animal fat!"

"That sounds awesome!" and cue the chomping noise "Oh god that was a mistake, this tastes nothing like what you just said!"

"Okay I have to admit, this is pretty neat."

"Is that the beta male?" Kai barked from another shower.

"No Krillin and Yamcha just got here."

"No I meant Sonic the Hedgehog and the more badass Piccolo look alike!"

"Oh yeah they got here about a half hour ago."

"Well better them than some gigantic bubble gum monster, I swear there's only one thing I hate in the world and it's the color pink!" this was followed by several sopping wet footsteps, and then a blood curdling scream.

"Okay I have to admit maybe having him living here won't be so bad after all."

That was when Kai came back out of the bathroom, wearing a pink shirt and a yellow pair of sweatpants, clearly enraged to the point where it was dangerous to provoke him "Say one goddamn word and you all die." he was met with lots of laughter and promptly flared his aura up to Kaioken 20x "WHAT THE F*CK DID I JUST SAY?!" this promptly shut them up, aside from a few stifled chuckles.

Nail on the other hand eyed Kai for a moment with curiosity "That technique that you used in a comical sense, what was it exactly?"

"Well it's called the Kaioken." explained Yamcha "Me and Goku learned it during our training with King Kai, by controlling every ounce of energy in your body you can amplify it for a short burst and when you do it right your power, speed, destructive force and defensive force all get multiplied several times over."

"I see, that's quite interesting. Any drawbacks that we should be aware of?"

"Well if you don't do it right then you could really mess yourself up, if you lose control of the technique at any point you could cause yourself some serious damage."

"I see, that actually is quite similar to another technique that the Grand Elder taught me several years ago. It's called the Namek-Ken, the principles are quite similar to the Kaioken only instead of energy control it's derived from willpower. Using sheer force of will to amplify your various attributes, you can increase every attribute several times over. I never used it before because it can be quite dangerous if used incorrectly."

"But do you know how to use it?" by now Kai had calmed down considerably and was actually curious about the technique.

"I haven't mastered it but I do know it well enough to teach it to someone else. That is to say that I know how to teach it to you, if you want me to."

"YES! I mean, let's do this Big Green."

"On the condition that you never call me that." Nail stood and downed a glass of water and bolted to his feet "Now come, let's get started."

"...Once I have my gi back, there is no way in hell I'm fighting in this thing.

"Of course."

"And in the meantime." Kai whipped out a deck of cards "Alright then sprouts and whatever the hell Big Green is packing under there, lay them on the table."

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Gohan was in the middle of throwing punches and kicks in his room, when he suddenly froze in the middle of a kick due to what he was sensing ' _This power… no, it can't be…'_

"I take it you felt that too?" Raditz made himself known from where he was standing directly outside Gohan's window "That intense wave of energy I mean."

"I could never forget that energy, but I thought that my dad dealt with him."

"And yet here we are, he's headed for this planet as we speak."

"Which means that we don't have any time to waste. I'm gonna suit up and head out, you gather the others and meet me there."

"Right." and so Raditz blasted off.

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Tien froze in place from where he and Chiaotzu were training in the mountains "No way, it couldn't be… Chiaotzu are you feeling that? There are two enormous power levels approaching the planet, and the second one is larger still."

"Yeah see the thing is Tien, the last time we had to deal with something like this, I ended up blowing myself up." Chiaotzu pointed out.

"Yeah I was actually gonna ask you to hold off on that this time."

"I don't know, I do kind of want that sundae."

"Chiaotzu!"

"Alright alright I'll wait."

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Upa glanced up from where he was meditating "There are two massive power levels approaching the planet, and the second one is larger still." he glanced over at Bora "Father I-"

"Go, do what needs to be done." Bora gave him a short nod.

Upa returned the gesture and blasted off into the skies.

' _Good luck my son.'_

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"SON OF A BITCH!" Kai blasted a nearby wall in frustration.

"What's the matter?" asked Nail "Are you still angered by the shirt that you have to wear right now?"

"No I- well yes actually I'm absolutely livid, but that's not the point! Use your senses for a second you idiots! Goku just had to play the mercy card didn't he? Now Frieza's still alive and he's coming for payback!"

"Why do you say that like we can't beat him?" asked Yamcha "I mean you know about Gohan's little power up a few months ago."

"Of course I do, what pisses me off is the fact that I can't kill him!"

"Welcome to our world."

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Frieza glanced through the main window of their ship down at the Earth below "Behold father, there is the Earth dead ahead. But alas we've gone to the bother of visiting my assailant in his own home and he's nowhere to be found, how rude of him wouldn't you agree?"

King Cold just rolled his eyes "Such a measly little planet, I still say that we should just destroy it and get this over with."

"No father, I demand satisfaction from him for what he did. I have yet to treat this so called Super Saiyan to the nightmare that is my ultimate form."

"Well call him whatever it is that you like, the fact remains that he won't survive what we have planned for him."

Frieza glanced down at the radar and noticed two ships approaching the Earth "Speeding our way to Earth are we Super Saiyan? Well I do hope for you to hurry up and face the cold hard reality of the situation, and that is that I'm still the most powerful being in the universe!" he received a look from King Cold.

"Ahem."

"What?"

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Chichi made her way into Gohan's bedroom, only to be just in time to see him blast off into the sky in his own orange gi "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, again with this?! Son Gohan you fly into this room right now, your new tutor is gonna be here any minute! What are they going to think if they see you airborn?!"

Gohan just ignored her and continued to blast across the planet "Come on dad if there was ever a time for you to show up _before_ the fight starts then this is it!" he glanced back "I can sense Kai's Ki coming up fast behind me."

Sure enough, Kai came up alongside him using the Kaioken, still wearing the pink shirt and looking pissed as all hell "Say one word about this and I will do to you what Limp Bizkit did to music in the late 90's."

"...Duly noted, but do you think it's really him?"

"We were on Namek so you should already know the answer to that. You shouldn't be surprised though, you of all people should get that once you've had a man inside of you you know when he's coming. Eat your heart out George Takei."

"...What?"

"I'll explain that when you're older."

"For the last time, that line doesn't work when we're the same age!"

"Agree to disagree."

"Fine but I don't get it, does this mean that my dad didn't beat Frieza back on Namek or is it something else?"

"How the hell should I know? Anyway there's only one way to find out."

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Raditz bolted across the skies with Yamcha, Krillin and Nail in tow ' _The fact that Frieza is still alive shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, he's as stubborn and slippery as they come. But what really concerns me is, what about the other power that I'm sensing? It makes Frieza pale in comparison.'_

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King Cold sipped on a glass of wine and gave a calm smirk "I must say that touring these outlying sectors is quite relaxing now isn't it?"

Frieza on the other hand just hardened his gaze on Earth, his body beginning to crackle with electricity ' _He will pay, that much I can guarantee.'_

"You're going to burn your cybernetics clear away my son, honestly your opponent can't have gotten you this worked up."

"Forgive me father, I just can't contain myself. I'm so excited I feel as if I could just explode instantaneously. Alright enough stalling, initiate the landing procedures."

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The scene on Earth was still quiet, but it wouldn't be for long.

Raditz hit the ground with the others "Alright Frieza's ship should be landing around here any minute now."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Krillin.

"Are you really questioning me right now cueball? Keep in mind that three out of four of those here have actually fought Frieza, you're the only one of us who can't say the same."

"I hate to admit it Krillin but he has a point-" Yamcha glanced upwards and his face twisted into pure horror "Oh you've gotta be kidding me."

"Surprise!" sure enough, true to Yamcha's fears, Bulma and Puar landed on the scene in a capsule plane "Hey what's up you guys, I hope you don't mind us dropping in! Actually I don't care if you do, here we are!"

"Yeah and what the hell are you doing here, are you both out of your gourds?!"

"What do you think babe? We want to see Frieza in action, heck I even went all the way to Namek and I never even caught a look of the guy."

"I'm pretty sure no one ever complained about not meeting Hitler, I mean some people do but they're f*cked up. Seriously though, do you have any idea how insanely dangerous it is to be here?"

"Well of course I do, heck if Frieza put his mind to it then he could pop this planet like a water balloon right? Well we might as well have a front row seat, I want to see if Frieza lives up to the hype."

"...Oh god."

That was when Tien and Chiaotzu dropped down onto the scene "I take it we weren't the only ones to sense it then?" they received a few simultaneous nods "Okay good, I'm one of the ones that actually fought Frieza back on Namek."

"And f*cked with the Red Mage." Nail received several odd looks "What, is that not normal saying on this planet?" he received several simultaneous head shakes "Oh."

"Anyway, a good number of us already know what we're getting into, especially with Goku still out who knows where. I think the best course of action right now is for us to mask our power levels so that their Scouters can't track us down. And by the looks of it I'm not the only one who caught onto that, some of us are already keeping a low enough profile."

"The who?" Krillin nearly let out a yelp of terror when he noticed Piccolo standing a few feet away from them "Piccolo? Oh man he's so close and I didn't even see anything from him before."

That was when Gohan and Kai dropped down onto the scene with the rest of the group "Well I guess we're not the only ones who felt that power approaching the planet."

"Rah rah." Kai grumbled as he glanced over at Raditz and Nail "Looks like I'm the only one who didn't get the short end of the stick with her."

"Nice shirt." Raditz muttered.

"Oh f*ck off Sonic the Hedgehog, now all we need is Piccolo and then we'll have the whole potpourri of pathetic."

"You realize I'm right here." Piccolo pointed out.

"Oh good boy, did you want a dog treat?"

"...Nice shirt."

"Kiss my ass Big Green." this was met with a snicker from Nail.

"Yeah it's the kind of shirt that really screams- HE'S COMING!"

Gohan and the others looked up just in time to see King Cold and Frieza through the main window of their ship, but he quickly braced himself ' _No Gohan now's not the time for you to lose your nerve._ There's no doubt about it, Frieza is onboard that ship. He's still alive, and apparently this time he's brought a friend who's even more powerful. Everyone listen up, Frieza and his men all have Scouters that can track us from halfway across the planet so keep your Ki signatures hidden and don't fly under any circumstances. Also make sure that nobody has any sort of nervous breakdown."

Unfortunately, Krillin was already there "Oh my god guys we are so screwed! I don't know what we're gonna do! I mean this is completely crazy! Why did I come here again?! We're going to die!"

"...Well to be fair if he wasn't doing it then I probably would."

"Well let me give you idiots a reality check." Kai gave them all a smug look "None of us even need Goku or anyone else, between me and Gohan here you have enough pure unadulterated badass amongst you as it is. Now if all of you would just f*ck off, you guys can all just sit on your hands while the two of us go up there and take care of business." the weight of his overconfidence was somewhat dialed down by the fact that the back of his pink shirt read JUICY, which he was not aware of."

"Yeah I have a better idea Kai. How about instead of that we go with my plan, which is for us to hide our power levels, sneak closer to them, survey the situation and then catch both of them by surprise."

"...Y'all are a bunch of bitches."

"And you're mentally unstable."

"Try something we didn't already know."

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Frieza and King Cold both stepped out of the spaceship and looked around "So this is the so called home planet of the Super Saiyan, Earth was it? I've destroyed worse I suppose."

"Do keep in mind my son, our reasons for coming here were not to merely toy with these pitiful Earthlings." King Cold pointed out "We came looking for that Super Saiyan who hurt you as badly as he did. Yes we shall crush the life out of him, anyone in the universe who threatens our supremacy must be completely and utterly conquered!"

"Well between the two of us father, I'm sure that we can slaughter him like the primate that he is but I'm far more powerful than I was before, so I may very well be able to vanquish him all on my own."

"Well I hate to disappoint you Frieza but I'm afraid that the opponent you're so eager to face won't be home for another three hours, shall we wait for him?"

"Without a doubt father but I want to crush his spirit before I finish him off, maybe slaughtering the earthlings will be a nice touch. How many can we get in three hours I wonder? Well I do believe that I know the best way to find out. Alright soldiers listen well, the scavenger hunt will proceed as such: Normal human heads are worth one point, Namekian heads are worth twenty points, filthy half Saiyan brats are worth fifty points. And if you find any miserable, odious, insubordinate full blooded monkey garbage, you win the grand prize of any planet of your choosing. Now get to it men!"

"Sir yes sir!" the soldiers scattered.

' _I do hope you hurry Son Goku, I've crawled back from the brink of death itself for the sole reason of claiming my revenge upon you.'_ Frieza was ripped from his thoughts by several of his soldiers turning into a pile of severed scorched limbs "Oh?"

This was courtesy of a figure landing in front of him with black eyes and black spiky hair, his attire consisting of an orange gi with no undershirt and the Kanji for Demon on the back of it, as well as dark blue wristbands and boots "So how many points do I get for those?"

"Well well quite a joker then are we? Alright you have our attention, what is it that brings you here?"

"What else? I'm here to kill you where you stand."

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Kai glanced over a plateau, his shirt now reading DUM CUMPSTER "Alright so Space Dildo and his buddy are just over this next formation, now before we move in we need a plan so here's the deal: All of you will attack from the front, and while you're all getting slaughtered like bugs by an exterminator Gohan and I will flank them, taking them from behind and securing the kill on them. Ready? Get to it!"

"Yeah how about no." Gohan gripped him by the shoulder, his way of telling Kai to chill the hell out.

"F*cking buzz kill."

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The figure that presented himself to Frieza had black eyes and black spiky hair his attire consisting of an orange gi with no undershirt and the Kanji for Demon on the back of it, as well as dark blue wristbands and boots "So how many points do I get for those?"

"Well well quite a joker then are we?" Frieza rolled his eyes "Alright you have our attention, what is it that brings you here?"

"What else? I'm here to kill you where you stand."

King Cold's frown deepened "Sorry, could you repeat that?"

"Did I stutter? I said I'm here to kill you where you stand."

Frieza blinked "Well it would seem that he's serious father, oh I'm just shaking in terror aren't you? Well if only you knew with whom you were picking a fight."

"Oh believe me I know who you are, you're Frieza. You really shouldn't be that surprised that I know who you are, truth be told I've known about you for years."

"Ah you flatter me. It would seem that my reputation precedes me even on the likes of this worthless rock, well not completely seeing how it would seem that someone neglected to tell you that I am the most powerful being this universe has ever seen."

"And it would seem someone failed to tell you that you're gonna die here and now because of your own arrogance."

"...And just like that I'm growing bored of this." Frieza glanced back at a random soldier "You deal with this fool, and the rest of you go kill anyone you come across." this prompted the soldiers to take off to fulfill Frieza's orders.

The mysterious figure, who will be referred to as Spike for the time being, was quick to address all of them "Let me make this clear to all of you, surrender now and I'll let you leave this place with your life. This is your first and last warning, once we start this there's not gonna be any going back."

"Oh is that right, well we're gonna see about that soon enough." the first soldier stepped forward and scanned Spike with his Scouter "His power level is only 10, this better be some kind of joke for wasting our time like this. Yeah you're gonna be all over the landscape kid but you don't have to worry, you won't suffer too much." he fired a barrage of Ki blasts.

Spike dodged every single one of them without even cranking his neck, and then he blitzed through the soldier and incinerated him in an instant "You can't say that I didn't warn that one about the consequences."

"Bad move kid, and now you're gonna die!" the rest of the soldiers charged at Spike in a foolish blind rage.

Spike blitzed through all of them in mere seconds, leaving them as blood covered corpses on the ground "And then there were two."

Frieza gave him a small smirk "Seems you're tougher than you look."

"You have no idea."

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Gohan's head snapped up along with all of the others "Okay please tell me you guys are sensing it too, what the heck is going on down there?"

"I don't get it, what's going on?" asked Bulma "What exactly am I missing here?"

"There's another huge power level that just showed up out of nowhere, and it feels like all of the smaller power levels that were there before, they're gone now. It feels like someone just did in all of Frieza's soldiers in an instant."

"But that doesn't make any sense, everyone is right here."

"Whatever it is, there's some major shit going down behind that mountain." Kai noted "And someone is gonna get slaughtered, and is it just me or does this feel kind of familiar?"

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Frieza studied Spike for a moment and let out a chuckle "Well what do you know, that actually wasn't half bad, for an Earthling that is."

"I hope you're ready, I'm coming for the two of you next."

"Oh I'm quaking in my boots."

"You're not wearing boots."

"Did you hear that father? This fool intens to kill the both of us. Tell me how this is for a final thought, the warrior who overestimates his abilities has already sealed his own fate."

"You would know that better than me."

"What was that?"

"I thought that it would be obvious, and just out of curiosity what's with all of the spare parts sticking out of you?"

"You impudent little- These are not spare parts, what you are looking at is the ultimate combination of science and nature."

"Oh wow, I've definitely never seen that before." his tone was dripping with a mix of sarcasm and foreshadowing "If you were smart then you would've stayed home, but now that we're both here we're gonna do this one way or another."

"Curse your insolent tongue! Well father it would seem that this primate requires some discipline of his own."

King Cold let out a sinister chuckle "No one talks to my son that way, go ahead and give him everything he deserves."

"Excellent. Not that you merit the attention but I'm going to kill you myself, you should be grateful for such an honor."

"Hate to break it to you but that's not gonna happen." Spike told him flatly "I'm going to rip you apart myself, it's as good as done as it is."

"As good as done you say? I find that very much hard to believe."

"Either way just be sure to come at me with everything you've got, I have no intention of going easy on you like Son Goku did."

"Is that a fact? Oh but of course, you and he are in league."

"You could say that but all you need to know is that he's one of the people who made me who I am today, their inspiration is what keeps me going."

"Is he now? Well then it's only fitting that you share his fate."

"Tell me something though, what was that you were saying a minute ago? When you told your men to go and wipe out any Earthlings they could track down you said you wanted it to get done before the Super Saiyan arrived back on Earth right?"

"That is what I said yes, wipe out humanity but now that I've found myself short of minions thanks to you I suppose I will have to roll up my proverbial sleeves and dish out the carnage with my own hands."

"You don't have enough time to do that."

"Is that so? Clearing out the planet before the Super Saiyan gets back shouldn't take the likes of me more than an hour or two."

"Wrong again, and by the way Frieza do you want to hear a secret? I happen to know that Goku isn't the only Super Saiyan, as a matter of fact you're looking at one right now."

"What?!" Frieza was left stunned for a few seconds, but then he regained his composure and let out a chuckle "Well I must admit that you almost had me there, you my good man are a consoment bluffer in the face of death."

"We'll see about that." Spike slowly began to power up as the rubble began shaking around him, his eyes beginning to flash teal and his hair beginning to stand on end.

And now Frieza was scared "No, no it can't be! Not again!"

With a mighty roar, Spike powered up.

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Kai and Gohan both shared a look, as did Tien and Yamcha "Okay so shit is definitely about to end up going Deadpool levels of sideways, my guess is that either Goku is back and about to wreck some shit or we just felt Frieza's mom. Hey who just thought of Frieza with boobs?" he received no replies "Oh come on, there's no way in hell I could be the only one."

"Well you are." Raditz just looked away ' _He must never know.'_

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King Cold studied Spike intently for a moment "So this is a Super Saiyan then is it? Well now this is interesting."

Spike finished his transformation and gave them a smirk "So tell me you two, do you like what you see?"

Frieza noticed the look in Spike's eyes being similar to what Goku had back on Namek, and be began unconsciously backing away in fear "It's… It's those eyes… He has… the exact same eyes…"

"Hey what's the matter Frieza, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"I… I AM NOT SCARED OF YOU!" with his fear being overshadowed by his pure unyielding rage, Frieza attacked Spike by firing a Death Blaster, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

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"Looks like it's begun." Gohan and Kai shared a look "Let's see if we can sneak closer under all of the chaos and get a closer look at what's going on." and so they rushed off, with Piccolo and the rest of the group following right behind.

Bulma on the other hand was left behind and was pissed as all hell "Where the hell do you idiots think you're going?! Well that's just nice, way to leave the defenseless woman like me out in the middle of nowhere!"

Puar was growing nervous "Now that we saw them we can go home right?"

"You want to go home after we made it this far?! They must've forgotten who it is they're dealing with! Bulma laughs in the face of danger, we're not talking a giggle here but a big old hearty laugh!"

"...Oh no."

"Now let's get moving!" Bulma grabbed Puar by the tail and bolted off after the others "Here I come you sons of bitches! Don't think that you can get rid of me so easily, I've been washing your dirty clothes remember!"

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King Cold observed the flames flickering amongst the smoke "As much as I do applaud your zeal my child you shouldn't destroy the planet, no not just yet. You'll never get the showdown with this Son Goku that you want so badly if you level the playing field."

"Yes I did consider that father, so I chose not to use full-" Frieza cut himself short when he saw what happened next.

When the flames subsided and the smoke cleared, Spike was just standing there without so much as a scratch "I wasn't kidding around when I told you to come at me with everything you've got, believe me when I tell you that you're gonna need it. Now come on already, let's get this over with."

"No one tells the might Lord Frieza how to fight! NO ONE!" Frieza attacked Spike with another Death Blaster.

Spike blocked this one and was sent skidding backwards great distance, but eventually he was able to deflect the blast with ease "Fine then don't listen to me, I just told you exactly what you have to do if you want to kill me. Come on now, what part of everything you've got did you not understand?"

"Are you truly in such a hurry to meet your doom? Well so be it then." so Frieza leapt into the air and began charging a Supernova.

"Frieza don't, the planet can't handle that." King Cold pointed out.

"He said to give him everything, if I have to kill Son Goku in space then so be it!" and on that note, Frieza fired his Supernova downwards towards Spike and into the surface of the planet itself, laughing maniacally all the while.

"It'll cut through the core! Frieza, to the ship!"

Frieza returned to the ship, only to whip around when he saw the Supernova rising back out of the ground "What in the- How is he?!"

" **Naa~ savena!"** and then Spike rose out of the ground carrying the Supernova with him with one hand "Is that all you've got?"

"DAMN YOU!" now Frieza was really losing his cool as he dropped down to the ground in front of Spike in a rage "Why won't you just die?!"

"Well I don't know about you Frieza but it looks to me like you dropped the ball."

Frieza just started twitching with rage.

"Dropped the ball."

He just kept twitching.

"Dropped. The. Ball-"

"DROP THIS BALL!" Frieza fired a Ki blast into the Supernova, detonating it almost instantly and engulfing Spike in the explosion that followed.

King Cold dropped to the ground next to Frieza "Excellent work my son, it would seem that that yammering fool was all bark and no bite."

"Well I have to admit that while I may have lost my cool for a moment there, it did turn out to be a nice warm up before the real Super Saiyan arrived."

"It turned out to be nice for me too." this voice caused Frieza and King Cold to both whip around and find Spike standing directly behind them, his hands cupped at his side and charging with blue energy "It's nice to know that I'm getting some much needed catharsis by proxy, so see you in hell. Give Vegeta my regards. Oh yeah, go to hell!" and he incinerated Frieza on the spot with a quick Kamehameha, leaving him as nothing more than a number of body parts scattered all over the place.

King Cold on the other hand had dodged the blast at the last second and was left in a mix of disbelief and snarling like an angry animal "To think that the likes of you…"

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By this point, Gohan and Kai and the others had arrived on the scene just in time to see Spike do the deed and kill Frieza on the spot "Okay so we're not the only ones who saw that right?" he received several simultaneous nods "Okay good, because whoever that guy is he was able to take out Frieza like he was nothing and in no time flat!"

Kai on the other hand was more focused on something that hit him in the face "Okay is it just me or did I just get hit in the face by Frieza's shlong?"

"...I don't want to know."

"How can you tell what's going on down there?" asked Bulma "You guys must need glasses or something, but either way it looks to me like Goku got back just in time huh? I guess all of the training he was doing out in space really paid off too, yeah I told you guys he'd save us didn't I?"

"No Bulma, whoever that is down there it's not my Dad, but he's definitely a Super Saiyan without a doubt." Gohan promptly flashed into Super Saiyan himself "Come on Kai, let's go see if we can figure out who this guy is-"

"And steal the glory for ourselves? Way ahead of you." Kai blasted off himself, with Gohan right on his tail and the rest of the following suit.

"Guys hand on I'm coming too!" Yamcha prepared to blast off himself.

"Oh no you don't!" Bulma threw her arms around Yamcha's neck "There's no way in hell I'm letting you ditch me twice in one day!"

"...I don't have a say in this do I?"

"Nope."

"Yeah I figured, let's move it." so Yamcha flew off after the others with Bulma latching onto him tight.

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Spike stared at the spot where Frieza once stood, and then he levelled his gaze on his second and final target "And then there was one."

King Cold quickly suppressed his rage and gave a calm smirk "I must say that you're quite talented boy, excellent work. You Super Saiyans far exceeded my expectations, you were able to destroy my son Frieza and appear to be none the worse for wear. If you're interested I seem to find myself short an heir."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you have two sons?"

"Frieza was the only one worthy of ruling my throne one day, Cooler is nothing but a waste of space who doesn't know how to command fear properly. As for you though, with your fearless strength you would make a worthy addition to my clan. Think of it, you would be a prince and magnificent worlds if not the universe as a whole would be at your disposal."

"Unfortunately for you I have a policy, not working for sociopaths who don't understand just how precious life truly is."

"...You turn up your nose at my offer."

"And what offer is that, to claim to want me as your son and then kill me when you think that my guard is down? Do you really think I'm that much of a fool?"

"Well well, quite perceptive aren't you?"

"A lot more than that." Spike blitzed forward and slugged Cold clean in the gut "I can't allow you to take your unhappiness out on anyone else."

"What are you talking about primate? I kill whoever I want whenever I want, it's how I've built my empire! The weak die and the strong survive, that is the law of the universe!"

"Is that a fact? Fine then your majesty, we'll be playing by your rules."

"Glad to see you understand." King Cold leapt into the air and in an instant he had charged up a Supernova "You see I happen to be capable of gathering energy a lot faster than either of my sons can, and your failure to realize that is what seals your fate! Grovel at my feet before your inevitable demise, it's only fitting that you pay for disgracing my family with your life!"

"I think we'll see about that." Spike quickly cupped his hands at his side, blue energy gathering in his palms "You've murdered billions of innocent people, I won't let this go on any further than it already has. **Ka… Me…"**

"You fail to understand that I am the supreme master of this universe, it is I who decides who lives and who dies!"

" **Ha… Me…"**

"All living things are mere playthings to me, there is no one in existence who can comprehend my power and cunning!" and then King Cold fired the Supernova.

" **HAAAAAA!"** with a mighty roar, Spike fired off a full power Kamehameha, pushing back the Supernova almost instantaneously.

"What?! But how?! How could a mere Saiyan ever surpass my might?!" these were the last words that King Cold was able to utter before he was engulfed by the Kamehameha, blowing him to bits and annihilating him right on the spot.

With the battle at last over, Spike then proceeded to fire a blast at the ship as well, destroying it on the spot, before he powered down.

Gohan and the others looked on in awe "Okay so that really happened right? Who exactly is this guy?"

Now that everything had settled down for a second, Spike glanced over at the others "Hey there what's up you guys?"

"F*CK THIS GUY!" that was from Kai.

"I'm about to head over to where Goku is going to land, if you want to see him when he touches down then follow me." this was left with everyone looking speechless.

Gohan was the first one to find his voice "Where he'll land, how is it that this guy knows about my dad?"

"I know you probably have a lot of questions, I promise all of them will be answered soon enough. I can show you to exactly where they're going to touch down, Goku will be here in about three hours so if you want to be there to see him then I suggest we get moving." and so he blasted off into the skies.

"...If he knows where dad is going to show up then I'm going with him."

"Are you sure about that Gohan?" asked Upa "Keep in mind that we don't know the first thing about this guy."

"Maybe not but keep in mind that he just saved all of us from Frieza and now he's offering to take us to my dad, I think it's at least worth looking into." he received several nods of agreement from the others and blasted off.

Kai flew right next to him "You know I'm only doing this because I wanna believe that he has snacks and the bible does say to love thy neighbor."

"First of all Kai, he's not our neighbor. Second of all, you're an atheist."

"A hungry atheist."

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Spike checked his GPS watch after he and the group flew a short ways "Okay it shouldn't be too much further from here."

" _Fly 300 meters and land near Idiot Rock."_

"So that's what they called it before Idiot Crater, that should be right around here." he touched down in the designated area, with the others doing the same, and he pulled out a small box of capsules "I'm sure that you all have a lot of questions as to why I brought you here."

"Snacks!" Krillin blurted out.

"Well-"

"To kill us?" Piccolo guessed.

"Actually-"

"To kill snacks!" Kai exploded.

"...Not even gonna dignify that last one." Spike pulled out a capsule and opened it to reveal a small mini fridge, and he pulled out a Hetap "Goku isn't going to get here for about three hours so until he does, I figured we might as well relax while we wait. I brought plenty of soad, beer and Hetap."

"Isn't it a little bit early to start drinking?" asked Tien.

"Hey 5 o'clock was 20 hours ago." and then Bulma started gulping down a can.

Spike tried to suppress a chuckle "Well anyway I brought plenty, if you guys want any then help yourselves."

"Anyone touch the Hetap and you die." Kai promptly downed a can "So where exactly do you know Goku from anyway?"

"Well I did know him once a really long time ago, he was part of what inspired me to dedicate myself to martial arts."

"So how did the two of you plan this?" asked Raditz "I mean how do you know that he's gonna be here in three hours?"

"Well unfortunately I can't tell you that quite yet, not before Goku gets here anyway. It's a pretty long and complicated story and I'd really rather not have to explain it more than once."

"I suppose I could respect that but answer us something else in the meantime, how does a boy like you get that kind of power?"

"Well… like I said I can't really go into specifics but I had a brutal sensei, he was a great man and I try my hardest ever single day to honor his memory. After all, there's nothing like a great teacher to make one stronger."

"I see. Next question, when you defeated Frieza and his companion-"

"That was his father actually."

"Right, anyway you transformed into a Super Saiyan correct? How did you unlock that power, and how is it that there's another Saiyan left in existence? Myself, Kakarot and the boy here should be the only Saiyans left alive after Frieza wiped out our race, so how is it that you have Saiyan blood?"

"You're close but you're a little bit off, there is one Saiyan left in the land of the living after your planet was destroyed. He was sent to another remote planet on the edge of the galaxy because he had a low power level and deplored violence."

"...Makes sense I suppose, are you related to him then?"

"Not by blood, and for the record I'm not a full blooded Saiyan like you or Goku. My father was a Saiyan, but my mother was not."

"Wait a second." Gohan pulled on the back of Spike's gi, on the symbol on the back to be more specifc "That symbol is the one worn by me and Kai, by Piccolo's students. Does that mean that you know Piccolo?"

"Not exactly, not in any way you would understand."

"Well what can you tell us now?" asked Bulma "Can you tell us your name or is that a big secret too?"

"If by big secret you mean someone's brain would probably explode then yes, but I can at least tell you that I'm 17."

"...Well damn. Anyway boys I think we've grilled him long enough, if it wasn't for this guy then I'm pretty sure Frieza and his dad would've blown away the entire planet."

Kai on the other hand was now studying Spike intently while simultaneusly gulping down a can of Hetap, his shirt now reading PULL MY HAIR, not that he knew this ' _But if this guy has never even met him before then how in the name hell does he know where and when Goku's gonna touchdown? He said that he's only half Saiyan but at the same time he doesn't look like he's from another planet, so that means that he would have to be from Earth too, so how could we not know about him? So either he's lying or… maybe… Wait hold on a second!_ Did someone drink the last Hetap?! Your ass is grass and I'm gonna mow it!" this was met with an ominous silence, and he just growled.

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2 hours and 45 minutes passed.

Gohan made his way over to where Piccolo was meditating "Hey Piccolo there's something that I've been wondering about for awhile."

"What is it?" asked Piccolo.

"Well a year ago back when Dende and all of the other Namekians used the Dragon Balls to move to another home planet how come you didn't want to go along with them? I mean they are your people aren't they?"

"There isn't some great mystery to it, a peaceful life with my violence hating brethren would've bored me out of my skull."

"So then that's why you train so hard every day, to keep from getting bored?"

"That's one way of looking at it."

"Yeah Kai is pretty much the same way, whenever we're not hanging out or training together he's just off training on his own."

"The kid is ambitious, he said it himself. You shouldn't settle for being better when you could be the best, and you turning Super Saiyan back when we fought Lord Slug just makes him want to get that much stronger that much faster."

"You don't think he'll do anything too dangerous do you?"

"Kai is ambitious, reckless and insane, and he's got a massive amount of pride, but he's not stupid.

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Speaking of Kai, he was brooding over the empty can of Hetap in his hand when looked over and noticed Spike staring at him "What the hell are you looking at, what do you see something that you like?" this prompted Spike to look away "Yeah that's right jackass you keep your eyes to yourself. I don't swing that way, I'm a real man!" and yet his shirt read BLOWJOB PRINCESS, not that he knew this.

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Tien glanced over at Spike "I suppose he might have heard of Goku out in space for his victory against Frieza and decided to come meet him here, do you think that would be too much of a stretch?"

Chiaotzu gave a simple shrug "I don't know Tien, it looks to me like he belongs right here on Earth."

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Spike glanced down at his watch ' _Oh thank god it's up, having to wait so long… it just brings back a lot of painful memories._ Alright it's been three hours everyone, Goku's ship will be touching down any minute now." this got everyone's attention almost immediately "Take a minute to sense it out and you'll be able to feel out his Ki signature, and try not to get overwhelmed by how huge it is. Oh and I'm sure you realize that there are two, that'll make sense soon enough."

Kai took this chance to start running his mouth "Well I don't sense it so you're wrong, in fact I think you've been lying to us this whole time! The only one I'm sensing is some unfamiliar Ki signature and there's no way you could've-" he was cut off by two Saiyan pods crash landing not far away from them.

"You were saying?"

"Well… that could be anyone."

"Kai now is not the time for you to be acting like you." Gohan rushed off towards where the pods were located, wiping away a few tears ' _You're home now dad, you're really home after all this time.'_

Sure enough, the first pod slowly opened, and who should stumble out but Goku himself, now clad in a set of Frieza Force armor, lacking the shoulder guards that the majority of the soldiers had, only Goku's suit was orange and blue instead of brown and green. He looked around in surprise at the sight of everyone before him "Okay next time don't stop at the planet with the gigantic Fake Namek sign on it- Wait what the heck, what are you guys all doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Dad you made it!" Gohan wasted no time in bolting towards Goku and pulling him into a tight hug "You're back, you're really back!"

Goku's eyes softened and he returned the hug "I missed you too son, feels like you've gotten a lot stronger since the last time we saw each other. I heard about what you did with that evil Namekian guy Slug, you're already a Super Saiyan huh? I wish I could've been there to see it in person."

"I could feel you spurring me on, that's what pushed me to beat him. Plus I actually had a lot of help from Kai and the others."

"Well you still took him down, and I'm really proud of you. Hey by the way, how exactly did you and the others know where we were gonna land?"

"Well it was all thanks to that guy back there, he knew where and when you were gonna touch down." Gohan pointed to where Spike resided in the back of the crowd "Is he some kind of friend of yours or something?"

"That one back there? Nope, never seen him before."

"Wait a second, you mean you have no idea who this guy is?" asked Yamcha.

"Sorry but I've never met the kid before."

"But if he's not a friend of yours then who is he?" asked Upa "And how could he figure out exactly where and when you come back to Earth?"

"I don't have a clue, but come to think of it Frieza's ship locked onto my position so I bet they had a pretty good idea of when we were gonna touch down. Speaking of Frieza who put him in his place anyway? I felt some crazy Ki signature blitzing all over the place down here, it felt kind of familiar but kind of warped at the same time."

Kai took the chance to step forward, his expression increasingly smug "Well Palmtree if you must know, while you were off acting like a jackass in space I took charge of the situation like a true warrior would. I gathered up every pathetic excuse for a fighter I could find here on Earth, and Gohan, and together we prepared to spearhead an assault on-"

"That one over there." Gohan pointed to spike.

"I was getting to that!"

"No you weren't, anyway he took out both Frieza and that other guy with him without even breaking so much as a sweat, plus he turned into a Super Saiyan and blasted Frieza's father right into the sun!"

"A Super Saiyan huh?" Goku glanced over to Spike "So a Super Saiyan and you were able to take out both Frieza and his dad? Way to go kid, congratulations on that. But I was told that there weren't any Saiyans left, what with the whole thing about our planet getting exploded and all that."

"That's true, I'm only half Saiyan." Spike told him "My father was a Saiyan and he died some time ago."

"...Oh, sorry. Hey that reminds me, I've got someone I want you guys to meet. It's okay, you can come out now."

Sure enough, the hatch on the second pod opened and Tarble slowly made his way out and over to the group "Uh… hello."

"It's kind of a long story but since over the past year and a half or so I've been training this guy here like my apprentice, and he's gonna be staying with us for awhile so be sure to treat him right."

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Tarble bowed to all of them "Sensei has told me a lot of great things about all of you."

"Yeah I still haven't gotten used to him calling me that, and I'm pretty sure I never will get used to it."

"I imagine not." Spike gave a small smile, then turned deadly serious "Well a deal is a deal everyone, I promised you I would tell you everything once Goku arrived, and now that he's here I'll stand by my word. That and even if I did try to pull you aside a certain few of us will here what I'm saying anyway." he shot a glance over at Piccolo and Nail when he said this, earning some skeptical looks in return.

"Fair enough I guess." Goku sat down on a rock "Okay first of all I've gotta say it, thanks for taking care of Frieza for me. I let the guy off way too easily."

"Well you were supposed to be the one to defeat both Frieza and his father but I wasn't willing to take any chances, also call it a little bit of catharsis, which is why I stepped in. It didn't do too much damage in the grand scheme of things."

"Makes sense I guess, Frieza must've made some really good time in his ship. I didn't think they would beat us back, he didn't learn his lesson after Planet Namek but I would've finished what I started. He wouldn't have had the chance to mess with Earth."

"He landed three hours before you, there might not have been an Earth by the time you actually made it back. Well if it wasn't for your little secret you've been packing up your sleeve."

"Well add that to the list of questions, how exactly do you know about that?"

"I'll get to that in a minute, but first I have to confirm a few things. You can transform into a Super Saiyan at will if I'm correct, at first you had to undergo intense emotional strain in order to access it, but after significant training you managed to master it to an extent."

"That's right, but being a Super Saiyan yourself I guess you go through the same thing."

"If that is the case then I would be honored if you would show me, I have to know for myself just how I stack up against you."

Goku glanced over at all of the others, as if to tell them to back away for their own safety, then gave Spike a simple nod "Works for me." he quickly flashed into Super Saiyan, drawing gasps from most of those present "So is this what you had in mind?"

"Thank you for humoring me, I knew that your power would be amazing but it's even more remarkable than even I had anticipated."

"Good to know you like what you see, so what do we do now?"

"Well first of all, I think it's only best that I return the favor." and so Spike flashed into Super Saiyan himself, drawing more gasps from everyone present "So do you like what you see, do I stack up to you?"

"I think I know what's coming next."

"Then you know not to let down your guard." Spike blitzed towards Goku and held up a hand to him, charging what looked like an Explosive Demon Wave, but he dissipated the attack when he received no physical response "You didn't even try to dodge my attack. Why is that?"

"I can sense when someone has bad intentions, I could tell that you weren't gonna hurt me with that blast."

"Fair enough, but it's only fair to warn you that this time I'm going to follow through without hesitation."

"Go right ahead."

"Then I will." Spike dropped into a combat stance identical to that of Piccolo, something that didn't go unnoticed, and he charged at Goku and let a barrage of punches fly.

Goku dodged and blocked every attack being thrown at him, though some of them had more noticeable difficulty than others, being pushed back a few feet, but he still didn't take any damage.

Satisfied with what he had seen, Spike powered back down to his base form "I always knew that you were amazing, but you're even moreso than I remembered. I ripped through both Frieza and his father like they were nothing, but you fended me off so easily."

"Well I guess you weren't really trying your hardest against me."

"And now I feel as comfortable as I can with telling you the truth, and now I come clean as to who I am." Spike breathed a deep sigh "What I'm about to tell all of you is sensitive, but you all deserve to know the truth. I arrived here to this day in a time machine from the year 775, 11 years in the future."

"Ha!" Kai barked out a laugh "I told all of you Back to the Future wasn't a bunch of bullshit, pay up bitches!"

"We don't know that for sure just yet, I don't know if this will actually change anything." he pointed at Gohan "I'm who that boy there is going to grow up to be, though not under the best circumstances. I am Son Gohan of the year 775."

"...WHAT?!" was the simultaneous chorus from almost everyone present.

"Yes I know, it's shocking but please let me finish before you all start gasping simultaneously okay?" that shut them up "Like I said before my father was supposed to kill both Frieza and his father like he did in my timeline, but I ended up changing things. I need all of you to help me before everything you all know and love is ripped away from you forever."

"What exactly are you talking about?" asked Raditz.

"Three years from now, on the 12th of May around 10:00 in the morning, on an island nine miles off of South City, they will make themselves known to the world. They're a pair of monstrocities with power far greater than anything this world has ever seen before."

"So we are going with Back to the Future." Kai noted.

"Will you lay off the movie references? Anyway they're a pair of combinations of man and machine, androids created right here on Earth. And the man who created them is someone you should know very well father, none other than the resident madman of the Red Ribbon Army, a scientist by the name of Dr Gero."

"Wait are you serious?" asked Goku "But I wiped out the Red Ribbon Army when I was a kid, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah you mentioned that to me a few times when I was growing up. You crushed the Red Ribbon Army itself years ago, but Dr Gero was able to survive and carried on with his research with only one goal in mind: Revenge."

"So what's he after this time, is it gonna be that stereotypical taking over the world routine again?" asked Kai.

"Knowing what he's like I wouldn't be surprised, he never issued any demands but it did line up with what he was going after back in the day. It didn't take long for Dr Gero to get what was coming to him though, he created those two androids to terrorize mankind and get revenge on you, and the first person they killed was the doctor himself. They get off on chaos, suffering and destruction in any way they can find it, and now that their inventor is dead no one knows how to bring them down."

"Well Gohan you're a Super Saiyan and you dealt with Frieza and his father easily like they were nobody, if you say they're trouble it's worth noting." Piccolo noted "So how did you fair against them?"

"About as well as an ant does against a boot, I tried to take them down myself and I fought with everything that I had but I was lucky to escape with my life, though I didn't escape unscathed either." he pulled up the left leg of his pants, revealing a robot leg in place of where his real leg should be, and then he pulled up his shirt to reveal a deep scar along his stomach "This was the price for my recklessness."

"It's not like you to be so reckless Spike, why the hell would you go into a fight like that two against one?" asked Kai "Even I'm not that stupid, you should've brought someone else with you."

"There was no one else to bring with me… all of them are dead."

"Come again for Awesomeness?"

"Out of everyone here, I'm one of the only two who's still alive ten years from now. She's the other one." he pointed at Bulma "On that fateful day three years from now, all of them will be killed. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, Upa, Raditz, Tarble, Nail, even Piccolo, all of you are going to die by the hands of the Androids. After that day, me and Kai are the only ones who managed to escape with our lives. We spent the next few years training and honing our skills in order to get strong enough to take down the Androids and avenge everyone they killed… but that didn't really pan out. 8 years after the Androids appeared, and about a year after I lost my leg to them, Kai knocked me out and went off to combat the Androids. I don't know if he was trying to prove something to me or himself or the Androids, or if he was doing it because he knew that he wouldn't come back, but when I came to my worst fears were confirmed. He knew he wouldn't win, so he did the only thing he could… he self destructed and took one of them with him. By the time I found him, the only thing that was left of that battle was a few scattered pieces of hair and a few limbs and body parts… and Kai's body turned to stone. I felt like the world crashed down around me, and there was nothing I could do to fix it. I just broke down crying right then and there. My best friend, one of the few people I had left in the world, was gone, and now I was all alone. I spent the next few weeks in a haze of grief and rage, but once I did stop crying the first thing I did was bury Kai's body on Mount Paozu, next to his mother." this caused Kai to visibly stiffen "It was in those moments when I gave up, and the other Android continued wreaking havoc. It was only about six months later that I realized that if I didn't stand up to them no one else would, so I went along with Bulma's plan: time travel. It was the only way that I could think of to make up for the mistake I made back then." he clenched his fists tightly to the point where it began bleeding "With Piccolo and Kami both dead in my time, the Dragon Balls and the wishes I could use to undo everything that's been done, they don't exist anymore. I don't have what it takes to do this, and I'm the only one left!"

"Wait Gohan hang on a second." Goku cut in "What about me, why am I not helping you out in your time? Do the Androids end up killing me too?"

"No they don't, in fact you never even meet them."

"What?"

"About 6 months before the Androids show up Father you're going to come down with a certain illness, and it's going to be the death of you." this left everyone visibly shaken "It's a virus that attacks the heart, no one knows exactly how it came to be which leads to some considerably disturbing theories, but either way not even a Super Saiyan can overpower it. Even if we did have Dragon Balls we couldn't wish you back, since you die of natural causes."

"A heart virus huh, and Senzu Beans can't do anything to make it better?"

"We did try that but it just made it worse."

"But… But it's just not fair! Why do I have to miss out on all the fun!"

"...You really are just unbelievable father, I don't ever think I'm going to understand the Saiyan mindset."

"I'm a Saiyan and I still don't." Tarble pointed out.

"Welcome to the club, but I guess it is somewhat comforting that he's not afraid of them and he's willing to rise to the challenge. It's reassuring to me to know that he hasn't changed even in a different timeline." Future Gohan pulled out a small vile and handed it to Goku "When the symptoms start to appear, they're listed on the vile, be sure you take this."

"What is it?" asked Goku.

"It's the medicine that you'll need, the virus you're going to come down with is incurable right now but within the next decade or so we pretty much have it down. You can thank Bulma for that, anyway just use the medicine like I told you and everything will be fine."

"Alright that's awesome, thanks Gohan! You know I just wish you would've saved me the suspense and told me about this from the start!"

"Well to be honest I shouldn't be messing around with history and trying to change the future anymore than I have to, but with the future what it is it's not like I had a choice. But I have no doubt in my mind that you'll keep the world safe so it doesn't turn out like in my time, both myself and Bulma know it all too well."

"That's another thing, Bulma actually built a time machine?"

"It took a lot of trial and error, mainly to determine whether or not it works the way we want it to, as in changing the past to change the future, or whether or not it would end up just branching off into a separate alternate timeline."

"So summing up, determining how much of a bitch Multiverse Theory is and how much bullshit Back to the Future actually turns out to be." Kai summarized dryly.

"I always missed your sense of humor Kai, and yeah pretty much. Oh and for old time sake one other thing."

"What?"

"Nice shirt."

"...F*ck you."

"I really did miss you my friend, and all of you as well."

"Yeah, so one other question. What other future shit can you tell us about?"

"Nothing that wouldn't risk jeopardizing the course of history any further than I already have I'm afraid, but when you do overcome this threat, because I know you will, I'm sure you'll find the peace you all seek somewhere down the line." Future Gohan let out a sigh "Well that about covers everything, I guess now I should be getting back to the future-"

"HA!"

"-so that I can let Bulma know that I gave you the medicine and warned all of you about the Androids."

"Right, and tell her I said thanks for the medicine." Goku told him "And good luck son."

"I should be saying that to all of you, now that you know just how hard you have to train I know you'll come through for me."

"So will we see you again?"

"At this point it's hard to say, it took us about four months to charge up the time machine for a round trip but if I can stay out of harm's way until it's charged up again then I guarantee you'll see me again. In three years time, on the day of reckoning. You'd better count on it."

"Sounds good to me, you be sure to make it back and until then we'll all be training non stop these next three years to make sure you coming back wasn't for nothing."

"That's what I'm counting on." Future Gohan pulled out a capsule and opened it, revealing his time machine in all of its glory "If you don't believe what I'm telling you then that's fine, but regardless of that you should still committ to training yourselves harder than you ever have before." and with that, he hopped into the time machine and disappeared from the timeline in a flash.

Tien broke the silence after a few minutes "Well I don't know about you guys, but I think I had better start training myself."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah I know what you mean, looks like we've got one hell of a fight on our hands. Hey that reminds me Goku, there's something I've been wondering."

"What's up?" asked Goku.

"Kind of the obvious question that we forgot about in the heat of the moment, but how in the name of hell did you get off an exploding planet?! Look King Kai mentioned that Frieza's ship was too damaged because of Raditz blowing a hole through it earlier, from what we were told it was the only way you could've gotten off Planet Namek before it blew."

"To be honest I didn't think I would make it off, I guess you could call it sheer luck. I could only look on in horror and refuse to accept what was happening, but then I saw a flash of white and purple and then I blacked out. When I came too, that was when I realized exactly who had saved me. His name is Cooler, and he's Frieza's older brother."

"...WHAT?!" was the effective simultaneous chorus from pretty much everyone with the exception of Tien, Tarble and Raditz.

"Yeah I know, that was about my same reaction, but that wasn't the first time that he had helped me out. During our trip to Namek Tien and I got blown off course to one of his planets and he helped us get a lot stronger through some weird methods I still don't totally get. The second time around after Namek he agreed to train me to help me get control of going Super Saiyan and teach me a few new techniques, in exchange for dealing with a threat to one of his remote planets on the edge of the galaxy. I got there… but the scene was horrible. Everyone was dead, all because of some bloodthirsty psychopath of a Saiyan, or I guess a Saiyan in that case. I fought him and eventually I managed to take him down, but the damage was done. I did what I could and buried those I found, and that was when I found Tarble buried underground. I brought him back to the planet where Cooler had fought me before and had him healed, and I offered him a place here on Earth with us and sort of agreed to take him on as my student."

"You as a master." Piccolo let out a loud snort "Now that I'd like to see."

"Well I trained him and taught him a few things, but the rest of the time I was out in space I was pretty busy. What happened on the planet Tech Tech made me realize something I had never considered before, there are a lot of other planets out there in the universe, and not all of them have us, so I just decided to do whatever I could to help, and working for Cooler for awhile helped me to do just that."

"Which also raises the question brother." Raditz shot him a smirk "Why bother with the armor exactly?"

"Well my clothes were pretty much ruined after my fight with Frieza so Cooler gave me some armor to wear, and to be honest I kind of like it."

"You look good in that, it's exactly like the armor father uses to wear."

"Is that right? Well at least it's not pink."

"Hey cheap shot asshole, cheap shot." Kai promptly flipped him off "And at least I don't smell like, well you."

"Hey that's- Actually yeah that's fair."

"Anyway quit holding out on us Goku, what new techniques did you learn from the mini fridge guy? You spent a year and half with him so you had to learn something."

"Okay you saw right through me, anyway it was really tough to learn and it took me a really long time but I finally got it down. In the year and a half I had I learned one technique that Cooler had picked up from the planet Yardrat, he calls it Instant Transmission."

"That sounds amazing, you think you can demonstrate?" asked Yamcha.

"Demonstrate? Yeah sure why not, see here's how it works. For this move to work you have to focus hard on the Ki signature a person is giving off and then you lock onto it, after that you immediately go to wherever they are. With enough practice anyway, now where should I go to to demonstrate? Oh I know." he placed two fingers to his forehead and began flickering in and out of existence "Three… two… one… later!" and then he disappeared.

"So are we just supposed to wait or-"

"I'm back!" Goku blitzed back onto the scene wearing a new pair of shades.

"I don't get it, how's that any different from regular super speed."

"Oh you wanna bet, you recognize these bad boys?"

"...Oh shit did you just pull some kind of ghosting move on Master Roshi and steal his sunglasses?"

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner!"

"But Master Roshi's place has to be at least 7,000 miles away, maybe even more and that's just getting there!"

"Yeah I know, plus it can let me get to other planets in a matter of seconds. Isn't it totally awesome?" Goku proceeded to stick the shades on Krillin's head "Hey Krillin you think you could give these back to him for me?"

"Yeah sure, why not." needless to say Krillin was still a little bit thrown off.

"Hey try actually doing the technique, it churns your stomach something fierce."

Tien and Yamcha were quick to get things back on track "Alright guys listen up, I think we should all agree to meet at the sight of the attack three years from now. Everyone remember the date?"

"Everyone but Kakarot would be my guess." Raditz noted dryly "He said on May 12 at 10 in the morning on an island 9 miles off of South City, but I think we should all agree to arrive at no later than 9 am in case the Future Gohan's information was a little bit off."

Piccolo nodded "That makes sense but let me just say this, if anyone is having doubts or getting scared, yes I'm looking at you Krillin, then you should stay back. If these enemies are half as fearsome as Gohan's future self made them out to be then every move we make will have to be absolutely critical, we can't have anyone slowing us down. Let me dumb this down in case some of you don't get it, if you don't think you have what it takes then stay home and stay out of our way."

"The way I see it you'd be a liability." Kai pointed out "Keep in mind that you're linked to the Dragon Balls because of Kami."

"Hasn't stopped me before."

"Which lead to all of the shit on Planet Namek." he was met with a simple grunt "Yeah that's exactly what I thought."

That was when Bulma thought of something "Hey hold on a second you guys, I've got an idea that just might work. All we have to do is gather the Dragon Balls, have the dragon tell us where to find this Dr Gero guy that's making the Androids, find him and then murder that son of a bitch in cold blood before he can ever even make them!"

"Yeah let me stop you right there Afro, as much as I love the phrasing of that I think I speak for all of those here with Saiyan blood when I say no. And when I say no, I mean hell no to the hell no."

"Have you lost what little sanity you've got in there?! This isn't a game and you know it, if we lose then we lose everything!"

"Which further proves the fact that we wouldn't go into this if we didn't think we would kick their asses."

"For the love of god someone please tell me they're on my side!"

"Bulma if Kai thinks that it's okay to figh them then you know that Goku pretty much feels the same way." Yamcha let out a sigh "But when you think about it the guy hasn't really done anything yet so taking him out now would be a little bit drastic."

"But they're Saiyans and Kai is a little sadist, they can't help being bloodthirsty freaks! We can stop this before it even happens, if you all die this time we won't be able to bring you back with the Dragon Balls."

"I know that, but as a martial artist I've gotta know for myself if I have what it takes. Besides if I die protecting you and Kai then I die like a boss, just like my sister would've wanted." he was met with various nods from Krillin, Tien and Upa "Besides I've been doing a lot of thinking about this stuff lately, we've all come a long way from when we first met. Keep in mind that I used to be afraid of women and Krillin and Goku used to hate each other but we've all grown a lot since then, whenever we face a new enemy we put all of that behind us, and then before we knew it we were all lifelong friends."

"Nice speech." Gohan commented.

"You like it? Yeah I practiced it in case something like this came up, besides it's all totally true for that matter."

"...Fine, I don't like it but I do get it." Bulma let out a reluctant sigh "Do whatever you want to you savages, I don't care anymore. You guys can be a real pain you know, I'll never understand how a civilized delicate personel like myself got mixed up with a bunch of brutes like you in the first place."

"Probably something to do with your dripping wet-" Kai was shut up by several smacks to the back of the head "Hey it's true and you all know it!"

"Shut it you little bastard!"

"Alright it's settled then, let's bring peace too the future!" Goku was met with a small number of cheers.

"For the record I'm against this and frankly you all sound like a bunch of psychopaths, I'm not kidding when I say that it's totally certifiable. But either way I'm stuck with you idiots, so for now I'm gonna stay with all of you."

"Right, so in 3 years we'll meet on May 12th at 9 am on the island 9 miles off of South City like the Future Gohan said, but if you're scared or you think you'll slow us down you might as well just stay home."

"If that's the case then I suppose it's time for us to take our leave." Tien gave Goku a simple nod of respect "Good to have you back Goku, and see the rest of you in three years." and with that, he and Chiaotzu blasted off into the skies.

' _I wonder just how strong Tien will be when the three years are up, knowing him probably about as strong as I am right now, or maybe even stronger.'_ Goku glanced over at Raditz "Hey Raditz I was thinking, I was gonna spend the first year or so training Tarble. Did you wanna get in on that, maybe like a whole Saiyan thing? Having another sparring partner would really help speed things up."

' _Plus get in some brother bonding as the blue haired psychopath called it.'_ Raditz gave him a small smile "I see where you're going with this Kakarot and I think it's a good idea, let's get to it then."

"...So you wanna go drive cars first?"

"Bitchin." they high fived.

"This is the beginning of a beautiful thing." Goku glanced towards Gohan "So it looks like it's gonna be the four of us for awhile then-"

"Actually dad, about that." Gohan cringed a little bit "I was actually thinking of training on my own with Kai Piccolo for awhile, if you're okay with that."

"...Oh, well okay then. I guess now that you're a Super Saiyan like me you don't really need my help as much as Raditz and Tarble do." Goku glanced over to the others to lower the level of awkwardness "So Krillin, Yamcha, Upa, are you guys up for coming with us too?"

"I think I'll pass." Upa told him "Don't get me wrong Goku, you are my friend and I owe you a great deal, but I doubt I would be able to train at your level to any point where it would be of much benefit to either of us, so I think I'll just train with Krillin and Master Roshi."

"I understand Upa, don't worry. And Yamcha what about you?"

"Actually I'm thinking of training with Kai for the time being, maybe see if we can work on the Nail Gun." Yamcha told him.

"Whatever you think is best. Alright guys let's go, and Gohan you'd better double time it with us because your mom is gonna be real mad-" Goku suddenly froze as his face turned incredibly pale.

"Dad are you okay?" asked Gohan.

"Yeah just… thinking about what your mom is gonna do to me for being gone for as long as I was."

"And I took off out the window without telling her anything."

"We're both gonna die."

"Probably." and so they both blasted off into the skies, their mood now increasingly more sour than before.

"Well they're f*cked." Kai glanced over at Nail "So going back to this Namek-Ken thing you mentioned before…"

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 **Now that the three years of training at last begun, the fate of the Earth, potentially the entire universe rests on the shoulders of our heroes. Will it be enough to face the chaos waiting for them when the moment of truth at last arrives? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we move onto the second act of Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation. I'll be honest, for awhile I was really torn about what to do about the person from the future since Vegeta isn't around, and by extension there would be no Trunks, so coming up with this was a real challenge, but in the end I decided that Future Gohan was the best way to go. Also, sorry if this chapter took a little bit longer than usual, but I was suffering from a bit of writer's block.**

 **The Namek-Ken is basically the Namekian version of the Kaioken, only with willpower instead of Ki control, as is being used by Nail. I wanted to give him some kind of power up to keep him on par with the rest of them and keep him relevant to the story. Plus I wanted to give a little bit of variety to some techniques so I had this one derived from willpower, which is also partially why I'm giving it to Kai. I've noticed that the Kaioken puts way too much strain on the body, hence why it never goes past 20x, but I figured that something more flexible could give the likes of Kai and Nail the edge they need to stay relevant to the story. It won't be seen until next chapter though.**

 **Now that I've added Tarble into the story and since I haven't actually had Goku and Raditz interact since the fight on Planet Namek, I figured that it would be interesting to have the three surviving Saiyans train together, and have Goku help both of them reach Super Saiyan.**

 **In case it wasn't clear, here are the training groups as set up for the next chapter:**

 **Goku, Raditz and Tarble**

 **Gohan and Piccolo**

 **Yamcha, Kai and Nail**

 **Krillin and Upa**

 **Tien and Chiaotzu**

 **Just so you know, next chapter is not going to be the official start of the Android Saga. It's going to be more of a filler slice of life/ training chapter, meant to be a little bit of a breather before we get into the heavy stuff with the Androids and Cell.**

 **Oh and by the way, awhile back I did a little something where I created new episode titles based on the chapters of this fic, so I thought I decided to continue that trend for now:**

 **The Scheme is Shattered! Raditz Strikes back at Zarbon!**

 **A Touch-and-Go Situation! Frieza's Trump Cards Loom Ever Closer!**

 **The Countdown to Battle Begins! Enter the Ginyu Force!**

 **First Up for the Ginyu Force! Guldo's Time Freeze!**

 **The Champion Recoome! Kai Shows His Stuff!**

 **The Ultimate Tag Team! Nail vs Burter & Jeice!**

 **Battle of Saiyan Pride! Raditz vs Vegeta!**

 **Frieza's Overwhelming Malice! Yamcha's Desperate Struggle!**

 **Heroes Regroup! Calling Forth Porunga!**

 **Frieza Closes In! Mighty Porunga, Grant Our Wish!**

 **A Nightmare Transformation! Frieza's Power Level: One Million?!**

 **Frieza Bares His Fangs! Gohan's Overwhelming Attack!**

 **Gohan and Kai's Tag Team Attack! Frieza's Second Transformation!**

 **Frieza's Final Transformation! The Ultimate Nightmare Begins!**

 **The Moment of Truth Approaches! Goku and Tien Arrive At Last!**

 **Defeat Frieza, Goku! The Tears of the Proud Saiyan Warrior!**

 **Goku vs Frieza! The Super Showdown Begins!**

 **A Boundary Pushing Brawl! Goku Fights with his Back to the Wall!**

 **Kaioken Times Twenty! An All or Nothing Kamehameha!**

 **The Final Trump Card! Goku's Ultimate Spirit Bomb!**

 **Awaken, Legendary Warrior! Goku the Super Saiyan!**

 **The Angry Super Saiyan! Goku Throws Down the Gauntlet!**

 **Avenge the Fallen, Goku! Countdown to the Planet's Destruction!**

 **Full Power Frieza! Shenron, Grant Our Wish!**

 **Goku's Furious Roar! A Last Minute Resurrection Wish!**

 **Duel on a Vanishing Planet! The Final Showdown!**

 **Goku's Final Attack! Countdown to Planet Namek's Destruction!**

 **Goku Vanishes into Space! Welcome Home, Super Warriors!**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 4.2 million

Super Saiyan Goku: 210 million

Gohan: 3 million

Super Saiyan Gohan: 150 million

Future Gohan: 3.8 million

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 190 million

Piccolo: 3.6 million

Raditz: 2.8 million

Nail: 2.2 million

Tarble: 1.24 million

Kai: 600,000

Kai (Kaioken 20x, comically enraged): 15 million

Krillin: 260,000

Yamcha: 375,000

Tien: 350,000

Upa: 330,000

Mecha Frieza: 160 million

King Cold: 75 million


	18. Three Year Training, Warriors Ascend

**xSonallyGirl129x:** Thank you for the feedback, I'm glad to see you're enjoying the story. Also, in regards to Kai, the vibe I want him to give off was along the lines of Vegeta from DBZ Abridged, which will be much more prominent now, with a little bit of Deadpool sprinkled in just for fun. Yes the pink shirt was just too good to pass up. I did consider doing a Future Goten in this fic, but in the end I decided on doing Future Gohan since I believe that someone who has all of the memories of his time with the Z Fighters would have more of an emotional impact instead of just their student or child. I haven't exactly worked out a plan for the likes of Upa or Nail just yet, but I'll make sure that they stick around at least for a little while. All in all, I'm glad to see you like my story so far and I hope I continue to meet your expectations.

 **Guest:** I'm glad to see you enjoy my story. I have heard of Kuriza a few times before, and while I admit that the idea of incorporating him into my story would be interesting, I'm not sure if I have a good enough grasp of the character to make that work properly. I'll do some research on the character later on and see if I can make it work, but just know that if I do decide to include him, it won't be at least until around the time of the Majin Buu saga.

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The warrior from the future, actually Son Gohan from the future, had come and gone after leaving his dire warning, and now our heroes had gone their separate ways.

Unfortunately, a few of them would find some… roadblocks, case and point.

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And by roadblocks, I mean this.

"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Chichi shrieked at the top of her lungs "You think I'll stand for this?! Well you're wrong, I will not let you interfere with my baby's education! Am I the only one who's concerned about preparing our son for the future?! Why do you think I bought him a sleep study bed and those learning tapes?! And now you have the gall to tell me that you wanna take him away to train again?! You must be out of your mind! As for you and those other two morons I couldn't care less."

"But I already told you Chichi, if we're going to beat these androids then we're going to need Gohan's help." Goku told her "I know education is important, really I do, but 3 years from now the whole planet will be in big trouble."

"What else is new? Don't talk to me about education when you haven't had one job or made one zeni the whole entire time we've been married, I just feel like I've been raising our son all by myself."

"...Yeah I guess it does kind of sound pretty bad doesn't it? But Gohan wants to go and he's ready to fight, just ask him yourself. He is the one who beat that Slug guy after all."

"Yeah I know, it's part of the reason why we keep having to deal with the psychotic little demon that is Yamcha's nephew." Chichi let out a sigh "Look Goku I know that I come off as books in and books out all the time and I might have some anger management issues, but ever since we've been married we've been surviving off prize money, welfare and my father's money. What I want is for Gohan to have what it takes to make something better for himself than what we can give him. I know that despite being insanely intimidating I can't stop him but I want to make this clear, this is his last fight. After this he focuses on his studies and that's all there is to that, you got it?"

"Yeah I gotcha." Goku gave a small smile.

"But let me warn you now that if he fights and gets hurt or god forbid dies and you or any of your friends could've saved him… there is no dragon in this _universe_ that will save you from my wrath." the smile was wiped away and replaced with a look of pure fear.

"...Yeah okay. Do you feel something warm and wet trailing down your pants too or is that just me?"

"Go change your pants before it gets onto the floor."

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Tarble and Raditz observed the conversation from afar "I suppose there are some forces in the universe that even a Super Saiyan can't hope to overpower."

Raditz nodded grimly "I only knew her for one day and it only took me that long to figure out that that's one battle Kakarot will never be able to win."

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Dr Briefs on the other hand was taken aback by the request Kai had made to him "Wait hold on a second, you want me to build you a 500g training room?"

Kai nodded "That's about the sum of it yeah, no less than that. I already know every detail of how Goku and the Triclops trained at 100x gravity on their way to Planet Namek, if I'm gonna surpass a Super Saiyan I have to go as far beyond that as I possibly can."

"But you can't handle that, you're just a kid!"

"Then I'll force myself to."

"You'd be crapping out your own spine!"

"Yeah I know, the challenge excites me. Just look at my nipples. LOOK AT THEM!" he flared his aura for emphasis.

"Alright alright, if you're so adamant about it then I'll build you your ship. What's the worst that could happen?"

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Piccolo glanced up from his meditation to see Gohan standing in front of him "I was wondering just when you would come."

"I knew that I could find you here." Gohan noted "Piccolo you and I both know that if we don't give it our all for the next three years, what my future self told us will come to pass. I can't let that happen. You need to get a lot stronger, and I need to hone my Super Saiyan form as much as I possibly can."

"I've been anticipating this for a few weeks now, so I'm going to take that scrawny body of yours and whip it into shape."

"And that's exactly what I'm counting on."

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Master Roshi stroked his beard as he sat down in front of the TV in Kame House with a mug of beer in his hand "I have to admit I never thought I would see the day, you of all people taking on your own student Goku. You really have come a long way."

"Well I had a good teacher to get me started." Goku gave a shrug "But to be honest part of it is because I feel guilty for what happened to his planet, and another part is because I kind of want to be able to experience first hand just how far he's gonna go. Either way I just wanna know exactly how I can do right by the kid."

"You can't control everything that goes on in life Goku, and unfortunately you can't save everyone everywhere." Master Roshi locked eyes with Goku, his expression deadly serious as shown in only rare moments Anyway I want you to listen carefully, because I'm only going to tell you this once. I've lived longer than you can comprehend and I learned from my Master Mutaito the essence of controlling and properly maintaining Ki with efficiency many many years ago. From what you tell me how far this young Saiyan has come is impressive, but he's not as physically strong as you which means that he has smaller Ki reserves than you do. In order to increase his Ki reserves, you have to build his body past its limitations and surpass them, and once you've figured out his limitations you have to be sure to tell him that they have much more potential than they believe they do and that they have to push even harder in order to reach that potential."

Goku pondered this information for a moment before getting back to his feet "I think I'm getting what you're saying Master Roshi, thank you."

"I wouldn't thank me just yet, I forgot half of what I just said." this caused Goku to fall to the ground in a comical fashion "But in all seriousness, don't push him to take any steps you don't feel he's ready for."

"I understand."

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The rain was pouring down over the wasteland.

Gohan charged at Piccolo at full speed, the milky white aura of his base form flaring higher and higher with each passing second ' _I can see his attacks coming so clearly!'_

"Don't let down your guard, just because you can see my attacks doesn't mean that you'll be able to do any damage!" Piccolo wasted no time in dodging, weaving and parrying around every punch and kick being thrown at him, and he attempted to kick Gohan's legs out from under him in order to throw him off balance.

Gohan leapt over the kick and dealt Piccolo a sharp kick to the face before retreating away to gain some distance.

"So that's where you're at in terms of pure skill at the moment. I'll be honest with you, a few days ago Goku paid me a visit."

"And he said what exactly?"

"About what I expected him to say, he asked for details on what happened with Slug and how you went Super Saiyan. He's gonna be taking his time for now with training up that new apprentice of his Tarble, and then he's gonna try and buff Raditz up to his level too."

"And what did he say when he got what he wanted to know?"

"He said it sounded like you handled yourself pretty well on your own, but at the same time he confirmed just how much latent power you have locked away inside of you that you've yet to completely tap into. The first thing I did after that was have him get me some Senzu Beans for us to use while I whip you into the best shape that we can over these next three years." he threw the bag in question to the side "You should be glad that I got these Senzu Beans, from here on out I'm kicking things up a few notches Gohan."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. I'm more than ready for you Piccolo, if we're gonna beat these androids then I need to get stronger than I've ever been before." Gohan flared his white aure once more, and with a mighty roar he burst forward, launching a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Piccolo dodged and weaved his way around Gohan's attacks, earning a few cuts and bruises in the process, but eventually he found an opening and managed to slug Gohan clear in the gut, sending him skidding backwards "You're not the only one aiming to get stronger for what's coming."

"Yeah well…" Gohan pulled himself to his feet and spat out some blood "I say is that all you've got?"

"You're eager, I'll beat that out of you soon enough."

"We'll see about that."

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Goku touched down with Tarble in a remote area in the already remote Arctic "Alright here we are, this oughta be a good place to get started."

Tarble didn't look exactly convinced "I don't mean any disrespect sensei, but why would you choose the arctic?"

"You're fine, that armor will be enough to keep your nipples from getting rigid. Forget I said that, the armor will be enough to keep you warm."

"I understand that, they have built in butt heaters but there are more deserts on this planet than I can count so why would you choose the arctic?"

"So that's why my butt felt hot while I was fighting Turles. Anyway you're not always gonna be able to fight with what we're used to, so we've gotta be able to adjust to colder climates." he held up a bag of Senzu Beans "And these are gonna be more than enough for us to get by for a good long while."

"Even with as much as you eat?"

"I'm not sure if any of the others know this but one of these bad boys will keep a normal person full for at least ten days."

"And for us?"

"About 2 hours."

"Fair enough I guess."

"You'd better be sure to be careful while we're here, the temperature is at least 20 below 0 and the high altitude makes the air twice as thin as what you're used to, though the gravity is only about 1/10th of what you're used to."

"Planet Tech Tech actually had the same gravity as this planet so I've adjusted to it painlessly over the years."

"Well that makes things easier but all the same I think we should get to work right away, keep in mind that this is the main reason why we're here."

"Right." Tarble discarded his armor to give himself some more room to move, but he quickly felt the effects of the cold climate "I didn't think it would get so cold so fast."

"I don't do the cold training very often but sometimes it's a nice wakeup call, and sure it takes some getting used to if you've never done it before but your body will adjust so you don't have to worry."

"R-Right." Tarble quickly tried to steel himself, but considering how cold it was he could barely stop himself from shivering.

"Okay so first off the first thing we need to work on is getting you to go Super Saiyan like me and my son Gohan can do."

"A Super Saiyan, as in the legendary golden form you used to defeat both Frieza and Turles and how your son defeated Lord Slug?"

"All monologues aside, pretty much yeah."

"But I don't know Sensei, do you really believe I'd be able to?"

"Well yeah sure, I mean Gohan and I both did it so I don't really see any reason why you shouldn't be able to. We'll spend some time while we're here teaching you how to transform and then I'll do the same with Raditz and the three of us will be able to get into the real training from then on."

"Well I guess but what about you sensei, if you spend all of your time training me then won't you be held back?"

"It might at first, but that doesn't matter." Goku gripped Tarble by the shoulders in a comforting manner "Tarble just listen to me for a second, once you do manage to go Super Saiyan that will really help to speed things up for all of us. Just imagine how much harder you're gonna be able to push me and Raditz when you spar with us. Trust me you can do this, you've just gotta believe in yourself okay?"

"...Okay sensei, I understand."

"Good. So we've got about three years to train before the androids show up, I'm gonna make myself stronger than I ever dreamed of being. As for you, well by the time we wrap this up you might even end up being stronger than I am."

"Stronger than you sensei? But that's crazy, there's just no way."

"It's anything but crazy, it's my dream for you Tarble and I'm gonna make sure that it comes true someday."

"I… I don't know… I just don't think I have it in me, what about what your son from the future told us? For all we know I might have been a Super Saiyan in his timeline and I died because of the androids."

"I get that but that really doesn't have to do with anything anymore, our timeline is already kind of different from that one since he's the one who beat Frieza and King Cold. Besides that right there is exactly what this fight is about, making a difference. You already are by coming with me and training."

"Y-Yeah I guess so."

"Now it's all a matter of putting in the work."

"...Alright sensei, I promise I'll try. Let's get started."

"Good that's the spirit Tarble, but I should warn you in advance that I'm gonna be a lot tougher on you than I have been up to this point. Do you think you can take it?"

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

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The rain poured down from the skies above.

Gohan was soon sent crashing to the ground with a loud crash, but he wasted no time in pulling himself back to his feet and readying himself for another round "I'm not done… not yet… I have to get stronger… to protect my friends… to protect my family… I have to get stronger… so much stronger…"

Piccolo studied the look in Gohan's eyes intently for a moment, but then he just shook his head in disapproval "All I see is you psyching yourself up and making yourself far too over eager for your own good."

"What?"

"Gohan if you just tell yourself that you have to win then it isn't training, it's pointless. You have to willingly face the reality of the situation and do the real work involved with it, if you can't tap into your true power then all of the motivation in the world won't be enough to protect your friends and your family."

Gohan's expression was one of horror.

"Having something that you want to protect can make you stronger, that much is true, but when your emotions dominate your reason and cloud your judgement they can become more of a hindrance than a help. You want your emotions to complement your strength rather than just compensate for it, if you're too desperate to win and if love makes you afraid then you won't be able to assess the situation from a logical standpoint, which will cause you to misjudge the abilities of your opponent and that will cause you to lose."

"So… So that's it then… that's what I've been doing wrong…" furious with his own lack of clarity and understanding, Gohan let out a roar of pure rage as his aura flared wildly.

"There's no such thing as a fight that you can't lose, if we lose this fight then that means that our future will end up just like the one of your other selves. That is a fact that you have to accept and come to terms with it, then and only then will you be able to prevail."

"Right, I understand Piccolo."

"You can do this Gohan, I have faith that you'll overcome these obstacles and in time you're going to surpass every single one of us. I believe in you, but now you have to believe in yourself."

"Piccolo… thank you, I promise I won't let you down."

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Meanwhile, on planet Cold Planet 12…

Two figures sat in a cell, one having purple skin and horns and the other having a humanoid appearance with red hair, both of them heavily injured as well "Well this didn't work as well as I had hoped."

"Recoome admits that attempting to appeal to King Cold for sanctuary seemed like a better idea in Recoome's head." yeah that's right, it was Recoome and Ginyu, both of them still alive after the events of Planet Namek.

"Well considering what happened on Namek what else could we do, even if we ran they'd track us down like a pack of stray dogs."

"Are the rumors true captain, about a Saiyan killing Frieza and Cold?"

"Who knows, but even if they are we won't live to see the next ruler take the throne. At least this way the Ginyu Force will be reunited in the afterlife."

"There is no Ginyu Force without our companions."

"Agreed, we just have to accept our fates with pride and dignity." it was at this moment that the door to their cell opened.

And who should be standing on the other side but Cooler himself, looking down at them with an unreadable expression "So it would seem that my information was correct, the two of you did survive Planet Namek."

"Are you here to kill both of us for being Frieza's lap dogs?"

"Quite the opposite actually, I'm here to recruit the two of you. As I'm sure both of you have heard by now, my father and Frieza are both dead."

"Do you plan to seize power?"

"I plan to stabilize the empire and become the ruler that the universe needs, a natural born leader with an iron will to match an iron fist, one who's willing to do the right thing to become a just leader. You could have places at my side, if you do so then I may very well be able to reunite the two of you with your fallen companions." this prompted Ginyu and Recoome to share an unsure look.

"...We're listening."

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The days continued to pass.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Tarble's blue aura flared wildly and the ground beneath him began to crack, but the golden shade never appeared, and he dropped to his knees from exhaustion.

Goku let out a sigh and shook his head "No that's still not it, all you're doing is burning off excess energy. Listen to me Tarble, the key to becoming a Super Saiyan is about being able to tap into anger, one of those things that happens in the heat of the moment. You just have to really let yourself snap."

"No disrespect sensei but I can't just get angry on command like that. That was more of the thing of my brother and father."

"Oh believe me I know, I took a gigantic monkey foot to the face a few times back when he and I fought." Goku pondered his next possible course of action for a few minutes before an idea struck him "How about this, try to imagine me or someone else you care about getting killed by someone like Frieza or his father. That might get you angry enough."

"Well maybe but, sensei I've never actually seen Frieza or his father in person before. Do you think it would be easier if I just visualize Turles or something."

"Well I didn't wanna push you to do something that you weren't ready for."

"I have to do this sensei, and so I will." Tarble closed his eyes and almost instantly the images began to come back to him, of Turles and his men rampaging the planet, of the bodies lying across the ground, of his own helplessness, and this was the push that he needed for his aura to flash gold, but that was all that happened, and once the gold flash subsided he dropped to his knees in exhaustion "I… I couldn't do it…"

"No you did a good job on that one, I never said you had to get it on your first try. Just take it easy Tarble, we have plenty of time while we're out here."

"I… I know, but…" and then he passed out from exhaustion.

Goku caught him before he hit the ground and put him on his back ' _Poor guy, the colder climate and the thin air takes a lot of getting used to. Frankly I'm surprised that they didn't take a toll on him sooner, they're a lot for anyone to come to terms with and the fact that he fought it off for as long as he did. I've gotta get him to pace himself if he's gonna get this without getting himself killed, I guess this is where the advice I got from Master Roshi is really gonna come in handy with this kid. He's got way more heart than I did at his age, I'd better put it too good use once he wakes up.'_

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" _Really let yourself snap!"_

" _Really let yourself snap!"_

" _REALLY LET YOURSELF SNAP!"_

"I'M TRYING!" Tarble's eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, only to quickly calm himself down and look around at his surroundings "What… When did I even fall asleep? Sensei, sensei where are you?" he glanced out the window.

Goku was standing on the beach in his Super Saiyan form, his golden aura flaring high as he cupped his hands at his side " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired off a full power Super Kamehameha at the ocean, creating a massive wave that nearly drenched the entire island in seawater.

"Sensei!" Tarble leapt out the window and rushed over towards him "Sensei that was amazing, are you okay?"

"Just a little bit damp, but what are you doing up Tarble? I thought you were still asleep inside Kame House."

"Well not on purpose, I'm sorry if I passed out on you sensei."

"Hey now don't worry about that, you're still adjusting to harsher training conditions like colder climates and thinner air so frankly I'd be surprised if the extreme conditions didn't take a toll on you at some point. They're a lot for anyone to come to terms with, let alone someone who isn't used to fighting. You've gotta be willing to pace yourself, don't do anything you're not ready for if you wanna get anywhere. If you have to rest then that's nothing to be ashamed of."

"No sensei, I've rested enough and it's not going to make me stronger. I'm ready to keep training with you, I have to keep going, I'm not going to quit until I become a Super Saiyan like you and your son do sensei."

"...Well let me tell you this Tarble, I wish I had half as much heart as you've got right now when I was your age. Come on then, let's head back to the arctic and get started again."

"Right!"

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The rain overhead was now being accompanied by a thunder roaring across the skies drowning out any other noises.

Gohan and Piccolo floated overhead, the former's milky white aura flaring wildly as he was panting heavily ' _This is way more intense than I was expecting, and that's exactly what I needed.'_

"I think it's safe to say that we've both warmed up enough." Piccolo wasted no time in removing his weighted cape and turban "Now come at me with everything you've got, but don't transform just yet. Restrain yourself until the moment is just right."

"I understand." with a quick roar, Gohan flared his white aura even higher.

"You're already strong Gohan, that much I'm aware of, but the problem is that you have another weakness and unless you're able to overcome it you won't last for very long against the androids whether you're a Super Saiyan or not and if you do lose then this world won't be very far behind you."

"What weakness is that exactly?"

"Don't think I'm gonna give it away so easily, I'm gonna show it to you."

"Fair enough then." and so the two of them charged at each other, colliding with each other in an explosive fashion, trading even blows with neither of them getting any leeway over the other, at least not until Gohan dealt Piccolo a sharp kick to the face, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

Piccolo rebounded before he hit the ground, blitzed behind Gohan and quickly aimed a knee at the back of his head.

Gohan blocked the knee and aimed a kick at Piccolo's head.

Piccolo leapt over the attack and aimed a Ki beam from two fingers, creating a massive fissure in the ground "I did mention I was taking off the gloves. I call it my Demon Fissure Wave, based it off of the technique Frieza used back on Namek. But it doesn't beat the classics, this technique for example." he used his extending arms to catch Gohan in a chokehold that he couldn't get out of "What's the matter Gohan, come on you can't seriously tell me that's all that you've got! You can't blame me when you black out!"

"I'm… I'm not giving up… Not yet!" he tried to force himself free, but quickly found his vision growing blurry "Piccolo… when did you… how did you get so strong?"

"Did you really think that I was sitting on my hands all this time while your mother had your head smothered in books?" and then he tightened his grip, which finally caused Gohan to lose consciousness, but he quickly revived him with a Ki blast to the chest "Alright Gohan, it's over now. I know you're strong, we all know that you're strong, but now I'm starting to think that you might lack the heart of a true warrior. But if there's a chance to win then you have to be able to close the deal, this is something that I'm hoping to deal with before it gets out of hand. Power usually leads to one thing, arrogance, which I think it's safe to say you experienced first hand time and time again with enemies like the Saiyans and Frieza. People like them were born with that kind of power but at the same time they enjoyed it far too much, instead of using their strength to win their arrogance left them open to being defeated by people like your father or the others. If you let yourself succumb to that then you'll lose no matter how much power you may have."

"Piccolo…"

"You have to be a true warrior, when you face your opponent you have to fight with everything you've got."

"...Alright Piccolo I understand what you're saying, I'm not going to let you down again, not this time." Gohan let out a roar and flared his aura even higher.

"You know damn well that's not what I want to see from you Gohan! Show me the power that you had when you fought against Lord Slug, I want you to show me the fighter that you truly are!"

"You wanna see my full power Piccolo?! Then fine!" and so with a roar that drowned out even the thunder across the skies, Gohan's golden aura flared into life in such a manner that it blew away the storm clouds and revealed the bright blue sky hiding behind them. When the light subsided, it revealed Gohan in his Super Saiyan form "So how about it Piccolo, do you like what you see?"

"Perfect, now we're getting somewhere."

"Well good because I should warn you, I'm not gonna hold back any longer. I'm coming at you with everything I've got."

"I would be insulted if you didn't." Piccolo wasted no time in creating dozens upon dozens of clones of himself.

"Cloning huh, making things interesting."

"That's right!" all of the clones charged forward.

Gohan wasted no time in taking out all of the clones with one hit each, dodging and deflecting every attack being thrown at him, and when he finally found the real one he dealt him a sharp kick to the side, sending him hurtling across the skies "Oh my gosh Piccolo, I'm so sorry I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"Don't be sorry, that's exactly what I was looking for." Piccolo de-materialized all of his clones but chose not to regenerate his arm "If you can fight like this against the androids then I say they don't stand a chance."

"Piccolo… thank you." he whipped around and blasted the arm that was about to blast him from behind "Trying to prove another point?"

"I wanted to see if you could close the deal, I guess I was worried over nothing, this time at least."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"It's the same thing that happened when you fought against Lord Slug, when you first awakened your Super Saiyan form you charged him in a blind rage but at the same time it caused you to drop your guard which allowed him to get the advantage so me and the others had to step in and help you. That sort of thing isn't entirely your fault, your father often makes that same identical mistake, but make sure that you don't forget to stay focused and drop your arrogance, and be sure to keep up your guard until the enemy is defeated."

"Right, I understand Piccolo."

"Good, now let's go again."

"I'm ready when you are."

"Good, now then…"

"Dodge?"

"DODGE!"

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"I'LL WRECK YOUR WHOLE WORLD!" Tarble bolted out of his bed, only to quickly calm himself down when he saw Goku sitting by his bed "I passed out again didn't I? I'm really sorry sensei, I know I'm holding you and Raditz back from your own training. I promise I'll try harder next time."

"Hey come on Tarble take it easy." Goku patted him on the head "There's no need for you to be so hard on yourself, going Super Saiyan takes a lot of time and energy. No need for you to worry though, I'm sure you'll get there soon enough."

"O-Okay."

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Nightfall came, and training had calmed down for at least the moment.

Gohan had started a fire and was now roasting a slab of meat he had cut from the tail of a certain familiar dinosaur "You know looking back I'm starting to feel bad for that dinosaur. You know I really have to thank you Piccolo, training with you is exactly what I need."

"Don't get soft on my just yet." Piccolo warned him "Your training has barely even gotten started."

"Wait what?"

"Listen to me Gohan, I know for a fact that what you tapped into is only a mere fraction of the power that you have locked inside of you. We were able to break through one wall and now it's time for us to find the next. You can't tell me that you're not curious, that you don't wanna know how strong you can truly become. You can't just settle for being better when you could be the best of the best." he held out his hand to Gohan "We've only been at it for about three months, we still have more than two full years before the androids reveal themselves. I say we take that time and put it to good use, you wanna be stronger than you've ever been don't you?"

"Stronger than I've ever been?" Gohan gripped Piccolo's hand tightly "I have to admit that's pretty exciting to me, I say let's do it. And you know since we're gonna be training together maybe we could come up with some combo moves too, how does that sound?"

"Combo moves huh? Alright I'm curious, let's see what we can come up with."

"All I needed to hear."

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Training continued for days on end back in the arctic.

Goku sent Tarble flying across the glacier with a single kick and aimed a follow up knife hand attack at his face, but he pulled it back at the last second "Alright Tarble I think that's enough for now, let's take a little breather."

Tarble stared at Goku for a moment "No, not yet." he forced himself back to his feet and dropped back into his combat stance.

"Hey take it easy, no need to push yourself over your limit."

"If I don't then I won't get anywhere!" Tarble charged at him at full speed.

Goku dodged, blocked and deflected every attack being thrown at him by Tarble "Are you sure you wanna keep going? I'm not gonna push you for anything you're not ready for."

"You know Raditz did mention something about how he thought that I wouldn't be able to make much progress training under you."

"Well that's just mean."

"I thought so too, but now I think I understand why he meant that. He wasn't being malicious or a jerk, he was trying to tell me something and now I understand what that is. You're way too nice!" he fired off a Ki blast and a barrage of punches and kicks, none of which landed or did any damage "He said that you didn't have that edge, that you would be too gentle with me, and he was right!" he aimed another Ki blast "He was right all along, you've been taking it easy on me ever since we started training!"

Goku caught the Ki blast and threw it back at him.

"Listen to me sensei, I need you to come at me with everything you've got!"

"Tarble…"

"I need you to go all out with me with no hesitation, it doesn't matter if it might kill me because I need you to push me to the very limit! And if I can't take it then we'll know for sure, we'll know that I was never meant to become a Super Saiyan or be anything other than some pathetic weakling not worthy of calling himself a Saiyan!"

"...Alright Tarble, if that's what you want then I'll give it to you." Goku promptly flashed into Super Saiyan, the sheer force blowing Tarble off his feet, and he burst upwards into the air and cupped his hands at his side.

"I'm ready for this sensei, I have to go all or nothing." Tarble wasted no time in pulling himself back to his feet "This is what I want sensei, if I can't push myself to rise to the challenge then I know I'll never have what it takes to become a Super Saiyan, let alone surpass you!"

"Just remember, there's no going back from this. **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Goku then proceeded to fire off a full power Super Kamehameha down towards him.

Tarble braced himself and caught the blast with his hands, but he was quickly being pushed backwards ' _I have to be strong… all of them are counting on me… I can't fail… I can't let all of them down…'_ and then the horrible realization hit him ' _Like when Frieza destroyed my planet and my people, and I never even knew about it for years… or like when Turles and his Tree of Might destroyed Tech Tech and killed everyone… including Gure… My people needed me to protect them, but I was always too weak and too scared to do anything… They're dead because I was too weak, because I was the one who let them down… I was too weak!'_ the blast finally engulfed him, but at the same time his aura and hair turned a pure shade of gold, his eyes turning a bluish green, and with a massive increase in power he sent the blast hurtling into the air, disappearing into the upper atmosphere with a blinding explosion.

Goku powered down and returned to the ground to find Tarble as a Super Saiyan, his golden aura flaring almost uncontrollably "There now do you see Tarble, I could tell that you always had this in you. You did good Tarble but now I need you to calm your mind, to focus and bring your Ki under control."

Tarble let out a loud snarl as he tried to bring himself under control, and eventually he managed to do so and powered back down to his base form, sweat dripping down his face despite the cold climate.

"Nice work Tarble, that was a great job you did back there."

"Thank you… sensei… but it's… really hard… I couldn't… control it…"

"Hey stop beating yourself up, these things take a lot of time and energy. All you really need now is some practice with it."

"Maybe… not all of that…" and then he passed out.

"Poor guy, he's really overexerting himself." Goku heard a low growl and looked down at his stomach, and he let out a chuckle "And speaking of controlling things I think it's about time for us to head back and get some lunch." he pulled Tarble onto his back and took off back in the direction of Mount Paozu.

The only sound coming from Tarble at the moment was some light snoring, which earned a small smile from Goku.

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Training was growing more and more intense by the day on another end.

Yamcha, Krillin and Upa were training high up in the snow covered mountains near North City, the former trying to build up the strength of the latter two "Alright you two get ready, we're bringing in the big guns now. **Kaioken!"** he quickly powered up his Kaioken, causing the cliffside they were on to crack, and he wasted no time in easily fending off various attacks from both Upa and Krilln, sending both of them crashing to the ground with two loud thuds "Not too bad you guys but you've both got a long way to go, but seeing as you're both face down in the dirt with no desire to get up can we just call it a day? I've got something that I've gotta get done for Bulma." he received two simultaneous groans and gave a fond smile ' _Well sis I'm doing what I know you would want, I'm moving forward in life and making sure that I'm happy, as well as making sure that your son grows up to be strong in body, mind and spirit.'_

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Bulma was lounging in a chair outside of Capsule Corp reading a certain magazine ' _You've been one hell of a naughty boy haven't you?'_ she glanced over to a certain ship sitting a short distance away and she scowled ' _I just don't get it, how the hell could anyone, let alone a little kid even if it is Kai, just instantly start training at 350x gravity like it's nothing?'_

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Sure enough, Kai's training was at 350x the gravity of Earth, and under that pressure he almost got incinerated by his own Ki blast, but he managed to counter it with another, though he was blown back into a wall by the strain he was feeling as well as the collision "No… I'm not done… not yet… I can do this… I have to do this… Super Saiyan be damned… I'LL BECOME THE STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!" with a fury filled roar his aura turned forest green and exploded in size and potency, the force of which blowing the roof of the training room sky high in a blinding explosion.

It didn't take long for Bulma, Yamcha and Nail to rush towards the scene "Oh god oh god don't be dead, please don't be dead!"

"I was afraid of something like this happening." Yamcha muttered "To train that hard for that long is reckless especially for a kid."

"But he can't be… Can he?"

"You tell me (insert massive stream of curse words here)." Kai took the moment to pull himself out of the rubble, battered and beaten but still alive.

"You… You're alive!"

"Of course I am, what the fuck do you take me for?"

"Oh, well in that case, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CLOSE YOU WERE TO BLOWING UP MY HOME?!"

"Hey if you're gonna shriek at me like a goddamn harpy then how about you wait until it's not your time of the month…" and then he fell back.

Yamcha quickly caught him before he hit the ground "Alright take it easy little buddy, that's enough for now."

"Get… your hands… off me… I have to… to keep training… until I'm stronger than… than even a Super Saiyan…"

"Hey you can cut the macho Hercules act, you're not gonna be training much until you get a little bit of rest."

"A few cuts and scrapes… they're nothing… I'm not giving up… not until I'm the strongest of them all…"

"I know you're gonna get there someday, but it's not gonna do you any good if you rip yourself apart as you do. You have to rest and recover for a little while okay?"

"I'm not taking orders… not from anybody…" and then he lost consciousness and hit the ground with a loud thud.

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It didn't take long for Yamcha to prop Kai up in a bed "It's honestly kind of a miracle he walked away from something like that without being, well dead. Honestly this kid is even more resilient than the Saiyans are, and that's saying something."

"The boy does have an iron will." Nail noted "It's a wonder how he can push himself to the same degree as even the Saiyans."

"He probably gets that from his mother, my sister. He'll surpass even her someday, that much I know for a fact."

"Come, perhaps we should leave him alone and let him rest."

"Yeah good idea, we can just go out and spare in the yard." they prepared to leave, but he glanced back one last time.

That was when Kai started talking in his sleep "Super Saiyans… can go to hell… I'll get so… so much stronger… I'll blow all of them away… I'll do it for you mom… and then I'll… I'll surpass you too…"

' _Kai…'_

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Hours passed.

Kai's eyes snapped open and he found himself being confronted by images of Goku, Gohan and the future version of Gohan, all of them powering up to Super Saiyan, and in response he flared his own aura, only for him to easily be overpowered and blown away "But why, why can't I catch up to them? Why am I falling so far behind them?! WHY THE HELL CAN'T I KEEP UP WITH THEM?! TELL ME DAMMIT!"

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Kai's eyes shot wide open again and he bolted upright in his bed, but he cringed at his wounds and slowly laid back down "Okay so maybe I did go a little bit overboard."

"I'm sure Miss Briefs would readily agree with that." Nail noted from where he was sitting in a chair nearby "I take it the Namek-Ken was helping you in your training?"

"If by that you mean it almost got me killed then yeah, it worked like a fucking charm." his tone was laced with sarcasm.

"Sarcasm aside be sure to keep in mind how the Namek-Ken works, it's a combination of energy control and willpower but if you push it too high before you're ready you could cause severe damage to yourself, so at your level you shouldn't go any higher than you would with that Kaioken technique or else it will be too much strain on your body and your willpower alone won't be enough to nullify that strain."

"I get it Big Green, I'm a lot of things but I'm not suicidal."

"Your little stunt earlier tells a different story."

"Fuck off."

"Not an option, we still have 2 years and 20 months before the Androids appear but we have much progress to make before then. Right now I believe the best course of action to be to test your progress so far to see how far you have to go, and I believe we both know the best person to help us with that."

"Just grab me a Senzu Bean and I'll be good to go."

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Meanwhile, in another part of the world…

Gohan was devouring one slab of dinosaur meat after another "I don't know what it is but the meat of a dinosaur always tastes so good, maybe it's the way it's cooked."

"I feel sorry for the dinosaurs." Piccolo noted dryly "So we've been working on these combo moves of yours for awhile now, should we try testing them?"

"Well I did think about that but there's something else I was considering, you think you could teach me a few more techniques of yours like the Special Beam Cannon?"

"Trust me kid, you're nowhere near ready for that one yet. I'm not even ready for that one just yet. But with that being said there are a few new techniques I've been working on in secret lately."

"Oh really, that sounds pretty interesting-" Gohan glanced back and grinned "I was wondering when you would show up Kai."

Sure enough, Kai floated down in front of him, with Nail right by his side "Alright Gohan, I think it's time for the two of us to go at it."

"Looks like you've really whipped yourself into shape."

"I busted my ass getting stronger, you and me and the two Jolly Green Jackasses are gonna stay out of it. I got this power and now I need to test it for real. You and me, one on one, just like in the days after Planet Namek. We're doing this and we're doing it right now."

"Well if you're sure…" Gohan threw aside the dino meat and pulled himself to his feet in anticipation of the fight ahead.

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Nail and Piccolo wasted no time in backing up a considerable distance to let Gohan and Kai go all out in their fight "Looks to me like the two of them are planning to go the distance in this fight."

"Neither of them have been ones for holding back when it really counts." Piccolo told him "I expect that this fight is going to be pretty interesting, at least before Gohan comes out on top in the end. Don't get me wrong, Kai has a lot of potential, but it's not like he can compete with a Super Saiyan at his level."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, I know for a fact that Kai has been working on a trump card for dealing with Super Saiyan level opponents."

"Does it work?"

"We're about to find out."

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Gohan wasted no time in flaring his milky white aura "Alright Kai what are you waiting for, if we're gonna do this then just power up already."

"As if you had to ask." Kai's own aura flared into life, and then it flared even higher as it turned a shade of green, the sheer force shaking the ground like an earthquake.

' _Looks like he's got quite the technique going for him, he might actually force me to go Super Saiyan against him. Not that he wouldn't want me to, he'd hate it if I held back on him in a serious fight._ So is this it Kai, is this you at full power at the moment?"

"More or less yeah, I can push it higher through sheer willpower if I want to but you're gonna have to earn that. It's a technique that I learned from Nail called the Namek-Ken and it's gonna help me to reach my goal, to surpass even the likes of a Super Saiyan and become the strongest warrior this universe has ever seen. You've got a path you're going down now, but I'm gonna pursue my goal by going down my own path."

"These androids are meant to be the strongest beings we've ever faced, my future self said that he lost everything to them, including you and Piccolo. Such a thought actually kind of scares me because I can't imagine going through life without any of you by my side, especially my best friend, both for my sake and for the sake of making your dream come true, of you being the greatest warrior we'll ever see!" and so he charged forward, meeting Kai in an explosive collision and elbowing him in the face.

Kai dodged the next attack and began firing off a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed, resulting in the two of them trading even blows until their fists collided with a blinding flash, and once they broke off Kai fired a quick Nail Gun.

Gohan quickly dodged the Nail Gun and fired off a barrage of Ki blasts at full speed and strength.

Kai dodged, blocked and deflected every Ki blast being thrown at him with ease "Is that all you've got Ponytail?!"

"Why don't you see for yourself Silver Tongue!" Gohan blitzed behind Kai and dealt him a sharp kick to the face, sending him crashing into a nearby plateau on the ground, and then he prepared to follow up with an Explosive Demon Wave.

Kai rebounded just in time to fire his own Explosive Demon Wave as he forced his Namek-Ken to go even higher, overpowering Gohan's blast as a result.

Gohan blitzed out of the path of the blast, blitzed down towards Kai and kicked him in the chest while he was still preoccupied with the blast, and then he began forcing Kai on the defensive with a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Growing sick of taking the attacks, Kai dealt Gohan a heavy fist to the chest and followed up with a Masenko to the face, sending him hurltling backwards.

Gohan rebounded almost instantly as the two of them both took to the skies, their auras blending together in the form of a double helix.

Kai too the chance to deal Gohan a furious barrrage of attacks, repeatedly kneeing Gohan in the spine "I don't want you holding back on me in this fight!" they started repeatedly punching each other in the face and torso, ending with them grappling in a power struggle "Don't you fucking dare hold out on me, I told you to take this seriously!" he gripped Gohan by the arm and threw him high into the air, and then he charged in to finish it, pumping his Namek-Ken even higher at the same time "I KNOW THAT YOU'RE STILL HOLDING OUT ON ME YOU SON OF A BITCH, I SAID TO COME AT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!"

"You want me everything?! Well fine, you asked for it!" with a mighty roar, Gohan finally powered up to his Super Saiyan form.

"I SAID TO GIVE ME EVERYTHING, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I'M GIVING YOU RIGHT NOW!"

"AND EVERYTHING IS WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET!" Gohan charged down at Kai at full speed, resulting in a blinding clash as he slugged Kai in the gut.

Kai slugged Gohan in the gut and dealt him a fist to the face "COME ON GOHAN, GIVE ME ALL OF YOUR STRENGTH RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!"

"FINE!" Gohan flared his golden aura as high as he could, his body beginning to crack with bio electricity as a result "Alright Kai, bring it on! Let's end this!"

"I PLAN TO!" pushing his Namek-Ken to the absolute limit, Kai charged at Gohan as high and as fast as he could, resulting in a blinding white light that lit up the sky across the entire wasteland, as well as shaking the surface of the entire planet.

When everything subsided a few moments later, Gohan's Super Saiyan form had disappeared, as had Kai's Namek-Ken aura. They both whipped around and aimed one last fist at each other, but they stopped just before they made contact, and instead they both finally lost consciousness and began falling towards the ground at high speeds.

"Gohan! Kai! Hang on!" Piccolo and Nail wasted no time in catching both of them before they hit the ground and gently set them down, and the former looked down at both of his students with a small fond smile "You've both gone far. You've grown strong. You've both made me very proud. And you'll keep going even further, I know you will."

"They'll both surpass us soon enough." Nail noted with a fond smile of his own "Their potential appears to be almost limitless."

"Yeah, I know that if anyone can beat these Androids it will be these two."

"Or Goku."

"Don't ruin the moment."

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After that battle took place, the days continued to pass and training grew more and more intense as each one did.

Yamcha, now wearing an engagement ring on his finger, dodged a blow from Krillin, but at the cost of receiving a gash across the cheek, and he gave a smirk "Looks like you're getting better, you didn't even have to use the Kaioken for that one."

"You haven't seen anything yet!" Krillin charged at him again, resulting in the two of them trading even blows.

"Well let me know when you decide to get serious!"

"How about I do instead!" Upa charged at Yamcha at full speed and managed to nick him across the other cheek, right before getting sent crashing to the ground with a kick to the face "Hey what gives you guys, I thought this was supposed to be training not a slaughter of the Shining variety!"

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Meanwhile, on another front…

Raditz was driving down the road, yes I said driving ' _Why the hell did I let Kakarot's woman talk me into this? I don't even live with them!'_

"HELL TO THE YEAH!" Goku bolted past him in his own car, blowing through various obstacles in his path "Eat my dust big bro!"

"Was that a challenge?! Well guess what little brother, if it's a race you want then it's a race you're gonna get!" he sped up "What do you have to say to that?!"

"I say… **I'm on a highway to HFIL! On a highway to HFIL!"**

(I couldn't resist)

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Training grew more intense on other fronts as well.

Kai, once again covered in bandages and working outu at 475x the gravity of Earth, was rotating in mid air endlessly "Round and round and round I go, when I stop it means I'm about to hurl like I just watched Teen Titans Go."

And then Bulma showed up on the screen " _Are you fucking insane?!"_

"Maybe, and you're upside down. And now you're not."

" _You know I think it would be easier to count the number of your ribs and other bones that aren't broken!"_

"Working through the pain."

" _And how exactly do you plan to work through the pain when your body collapses?"_

"Bitch what the hell are you talking about, I don't collapse-" and then he collapsed to the ground with a thud, the weight of the increased gravity crushing him.

" _Oh look at that, the arrogant little bastard face down on the ground. Alert the proess to this unexpected miracle."_

"How about you do the world a favor and shut your trap before I rip out your larynx and shove it up your (bleep)!"

" _Oh no looks like someone is getting all fluffy, what are you gonna pull a Frieza and try and blow up the planet? Keep in mind that I have Goku on speed dial."_

"You must be as stupid as he is if you think that idiot knows how to work a phone!"

" _Hey don't you call me stupid you little bastard!"_

"Alright then how about bitch!"

" _Arrogant dick!"_

"Spoiled sow!"

" _Fuck you!"_

"Fuck you!"

" _Fuck you!"_

"FUCK YOU!"

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And so time continued to pass, even though it only felt like a matter of days, the three years of training passed all of them in the blink of an eye.

Chichi met Goku, Gohan, Tarble and Piccolo outside of the house in order to see them off before they left "Please just promise me the two of you will be careful, and are you sure that you won't want the lunches that I packed you?"

"We won't need or get a chance for them, but we do appreciate the though." Goku pulled Chichi into a quick gentle hug "We'll be back, I promise. Alright guys, let's get going." and so he blasted off into the sky.

"Right!" Gohan, Tarble and Piccolo wasted no time in taking off after him in the direction of South City.

' _Gohan, your future self said that the world he came from has been turned into a living hell by these androids, that they're far too powerful for any of us to prepare for. Well I think we're about to determine that for ourselves.'_

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 **In the blink of an eye, the three years of training have come and gone, and the day of reckoning is now upon them. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of our heroes, but the question still remains. Will all of their training be enough to save the Earth from the threat looming over the horizon? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And thus we see what it's like for the Z fighters as they journey through the calm before the storm. Before I go any further I would just like to say that this chapter is celebrating a milestone for me. The release date for this chapter marks my second anniversary on , hopefully the second of many.**

 **This chapter focuses on four main focus arcs, those being Goku training Tarble to become a Super Saiyan, Gohan training with Piccolo, Kai both training on his own and training with Yamcha and Nail in order to keep up with the Saiyans, and lastly, though not nearly as prominent as the others (mostly meant to foreshadow some plans I have for the future), Cooler recruiting two returning characters through some political issues, thus solving a small plothole that I left open during the Namek saga because I had writer's block back then. Two of these arcs intertwine during the final clash between Gohan and Kai, the former going Super Saiyan and the latter using his newly acquired technique I call the Namek-Ken, which is derived from willpower as well as Ki control, and as proven by his and Gohan's showdown in this chapter, it's capable of keeping up with a Super Saiyan.**

 **As for the human characters and Raditz, well the humans are pretty much doing the same training as canon, only amped up since they're stronger than before, and I believe that Raditz would just be off doing his own thing for the sake of a plot point I have in mind next chapter.**

 **Unlike other chapters, I chose not to include a power levels list because I manly thought it would be too confusing since this is specifically a training chapter, not a story based chapter like the rest of these in the story.**


	19. Androids Appear, Goku's Enemy Within

**KagariAsuha:** Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I honestly wasn't sure if anyone would catch onto that. I'm giving Gohan that character development early on to avoid the (shudders in comical fashion) green tracksuit. But before reaching that point, I have plans for him and Kai in the Buu Saga.

 **Guest:** My main intention is to split the focus evenly between Gohan and Kai. Throughout all of DBZ, at least until the Majin Buu Saga, Gohan never had any friends his own age, which is part of the reason why I created Kai in the first place.

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** I'm glad to see you enjoyed this chapter. Yes, I wanted to expand on the mentor student relationship I set up between Goku and Tarble, and some Gohan and Piccolo action never hurts, especially during Z. Kai's desire to become stronger, well honestly I want to believe that with enough passion and ambition, even an Earthling could push themselves to become as strong as a Super Saiyan, which is what I tried to prove in the final battle between him and Gohan. As for the TFS references, those almost never get old. And in regards to Yamcha and the engagement ring, I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that.

 **Klililillillil:** I'm glad to hear that you like this story so much, and thank you for saying so. I love including the TFS jokes wherever I can in a way that makes sense. If you could though, would you mind spreading the word about this story?

 **Guest:** In regards to using Kuriza, I actually do believe that putting him in the ROF arc or during the Broly movie would make a lot of sense. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll be sure to take it into consideration.

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3 years of training had come and gone in preparation for the inevitable conflict with the Android menace, and the fated day had come at last.

Goku and the others made their way across the seas, only for him to grow concerned as he noticed Gohan beginning to overtake them "Hey Gohan you might wanna slow it down a little bit, we've got plenty of time so there's no point in using up all your strength just getting there right?"

"Right." Gohan hung back a little bit until he was side by side with Goku "So be real with me for a second dad, I have to see your opinion on this. About these Androids that my future self warned us about, do you think we have what it takes to beat them?"

"Well it's tough to say since we haven't seen them yet, but I think it's safe to say that we'll know soon enough."

"I'm glad you can stay calm in these situations, I want to be able to have your optimism over this but somehow I can't shake this feeling that we're in over our heads."

"Look Gohan if these things give you too much trouble then don't put yourself at risk trying to act like a hero, we don't need a repeat of what Frieza did to you on Namek."

"I know, I just hope that I don't have to." Gohan glanced up and noticed something "Hey guys check it out, I can see Krillin up there."

"Yeah you're right, hey hang back for a second while I talk to him." Goku quickly flew up in order to meet Krillin side by side "Hey!"

"Hey man, what's up." Krillin gave a shallow chuckle and glanced back "Gohan's barely grown since the last time I saw him."

"You know it's funny, I think that every time I see you."

"...Cheap shot man, cheap shot."

"Hey why do you sound so bummed out? I thought you'd be happy to see me and everyone else after three years, what's the matter with you man?"

"Hey sensei look, I can see Krillin and Raditz up ahead of us." Tarble pointed ahead to where he saw Krillin and Raditz flying a short distance ahead of them.

"Oh yeah you're right, hey guys!"

Krillin glanced over to see Gohan flying up towards "Hey Gohan what's up, you know it's kind of weird but you've barely grown since the last time I saw you huh?"

"You know it's funny, I think that every time I see you." Goku flew up on his other side and shot him the classic Son grin.

"Yeah, very funny."

"Hey come on, what's with the gloomy look? I thought you would be happy to see us, what are you bummed out or something?"

"Don't bother trying to cheer him up Kakarot, he's not exactly upbeat about the thought of squaring off with an enemy that's supposed to kill him." Raditz pointed out.

"But he and the others have the Kaioken to fall back on."

"It's not the same as having Super Saiyan to save his skin."

"But it's still effective, don't complain man."

"Who said I'm complaining?"

"We're about 9 miles past South City right? I think that's the island up ahead!" Gohan pointed to the island up ahead of them as they all closed in on it.

"So this is the place." Goku noted "A pretty big island with a big population to match, you've gotta wonder what these people even do here."

"From what I've gathered, apparently they've legaliced prostitution here." Raditz told him "At least even those in poverty have a way to make a living."

"Still though, the island is pretty big with a dense population." Goku commented.

Gohan nodded "Which means that there's a lot of places these Androids could be hiding, I think we'll have to find some sort of way to lure them away from the city once they show themselves so the people living in the city down there don't end up getting caught in the crossfire."

"Good call. I can sense a few strong Ki signatures coming from the mountain on the far side of the island, if I had to guess I would say that's Yamcha and the others. We'd better hurry up and meet with them."

"Right, let's go." and so they flew towards the mountain.

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Yamcha (keeping his regular hairstyle in this fic) gave a smirk "See what did I tell you guys here they are, the cavalry of people way stronger than Frieza. And then there's Krillin too, hey guys what's up?"

"Hey you guys long time no see!" Gohan dropped down to the ground first, with Goku and the others right behind him and got a good look at the crowd: Yamcha, Tien, Upa and Nail all waiting for them.

"Looks like Goku's habit of being fashionably late is rubbing off on you."

"Hey he was the one who went triple serving on the bacon this morning." he glanced over and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head "What the- Bulma?"

Sure enough, Bulma stood before them with a broad smile but with a certain unexpected cargo with her in the form of a baby girl in her arms "Gohan, oh my god I can't believe how much you've grown since the last time I saw you."

"Hey Bulma, great to see you. Not to be rude or anything, but are you sure it's a good idea for you to be here?"

"I'm not participating I'm just observing, so once I get a look at the Androids which I actually intend to do we'll be on our way."

"Okay, but…"

"You're more curious by the baby in my arms than my reason for being here right?"

"Well the first thing I guess that means is that you and Yamcha got married, so congratulations to you two."

"Yeah it was a thing about a year after we all split up so you guys could train, we just wanted a small private thing though. As for the precious cargo here, her name is Bulla by the way, she happened about 10 months ago after I had my semi weekly spat with Kai and I needed Yamcha to help me let off a LOT of steam."

"So babies come from sparring?" he received various odd looks "What?"

"You mean Goku never told you about-"

"Oh I know all about that, I just wanted to gauge your reactions." this caused almost everyone present to comically fall over "What, with Kai not here someone has to fill the void of insanity that he usually fills. Where is Kai anyway, I haven't heard from him in days."

"I don't know, I don't keep tabs on that psychotic little runt. I bet it's not gonna be long before he shows up, last I saw he was training for this day so there's no way he'd miss it."

"Yeah but it's not like him to be late, at least not unless he's so overly confident he'll win that he would try and make a grand entrance right when one of us is about to die. Yeah, now that I think about it, it's probably going to be awhile before he gets here."

"He'll get here." Goku assured him "But for that matter it's been awhile since I've seen Raditz either, but I'm sure they'll be here before long."

"I had to leave Chiaotzu behind myself." Tien told them "I'm sorry to say it but I just don't think that he would be up for facing an opponent of this caliber."

"I think you made the right call, hey by the way what time is it now?"

Bulma checked her watch "It's about half past 9:00, so they oughta be here in another half hour or so."

"Well that's good, I say that while the coast is still clear you and the baby need to get as far away from here as you can."

"Look Goku I told you before, I'll leave after I get a good look at the Androids."

Gohan on the other hand, he made his way over to where Piccolo, Tien and Nail were looking down at the city below "So we have half an hour before they come. Tell me Piccolo, do you think we're ready for this?"

"I think there's only one way to find out." Piccolo told him "We've done all of the training we can to prepare for this day, whether or not it proves to be enough will be decided when the Androids actually do show themselves."

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The minutes continued to pass, and there was still no sign of the Androids.

Gohan looked up from where he was meditating when he noticed Piccolo's aura flaring ever so slightly "What's the matter?"

"I can sense someone heading in our direction." Piccolo told him "I'm not sensing any evil intentions though."

"Yeah you're right, and it doesn't seem that strong."

"You think it's Kai?" asked Upa "He could be suppressing his Ki signature."

"No we would recognize him, and besides he may not be evil but his Ki signature does have traces of insanity to them."

That was when a flying car soared onto the scene with a certain overweight samurai in the pilot's seat "It's about time I found you guys."

Goku and the others lit up when they saw him "Yajirobe you came!"

"Just in the nick of time by the looks of it."

"Does that mean you came to join us in the fight against the Androids?"

"Yeah no, not even if you became fucking Einstein, unlike you guys I like doing this little thing called staying alive." Yajirobe handed him a small brown bag "I just brought some beans for you guys because Korin made me, so enjoy them because I know I don't."

"Nice thanks a ton, this is really going to help."

"Yeah yeah whatever, now the Bean Daddy is heading back home."

"Bean Daddy?"

"It's what I like to call my burrito shop, or at least I would if Korin would let me have one already!" and then he promptly blasted off into the skies, intent on getting as far away from the island and the inevitable Androids as possible.

"...I'm really scared to ask what sort of relationship the two of them have."

"So much for being punctual." Tien glanced down at the city "It's 10:00 right on the dot and I'm still not picking up even the faintest sight of them."

"That does seem kind of strange." Yamcha noted "But let's not be too hard on Gohan's future self or anything, I mean he didn't say they'd be here at the stroke of 10 and it's only about a quarter after. Let's just be patient."

"I'm not suggesting we charge in head first or anything of that sort, I'm simply saying that it doesn't feel right for there to not even be even the slightest sign of their presence."

"Okay I'll give you that one. It's not like guys like these would be able to just hide, if they touch down anywhere then we would notice right away." that was when an explosion in the distance caught their attention.

"What the hell was that?"

"I think it was Yajirobe, looking back I don't think we've ever wished him back with the Dragon Balls before."

"Look up there!" Piccolo barked "Something up in the sky, he was attacked from above!" that got everyone to notice two figures in the sky in the distance, only for them to disappear down towards the city "They landed somewhere in the city!"

"Did you see where?" asked Upa "Did you manage to get a look at who they were?"

"They were too far away, I couldn't make out anything about them. Something doesn't seem right about them either, even when I could see them I couldn't sense anything from either of them."

"Wait a second." that was when Gohan thought of something "The Androids are both machines aren't they?"

"Yeah, why?"

"If that's the case then we shouldn't be able to sense them, we only know how to sense life energy."

"Dammit, you're right. These things are under our radar, that means we'll have to track them down the old fashioned way."

"Right, everyone pick a section of the city to search." Goku glanced over to Bulma and tossed her the bag of Senzu Beans "Bulma it's for the best if you and the baby stay here and hold onto the beans, we can't risk them getting destroyed when we find the Androids. Nobody try and take them on alone, if you get a fix on them be sure to tell the rest of us first." he shot a glance over towards Upa "In the meantime Upa I think you should head over and check on Yajirobe, I think he bailed out before his car exploded."

"Right, I understand." Upa promptly blasted off.

"Alright you guys, let's go!" and so Goku and the others blasted off down towards the city in search of the Androids.

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With one of our Saiyans…

Raditz landed on top of a water tower and looked down at the streets below ' _Come on, they have to be here somewhere. Dammit this is bad, you would think that my nephew from the future would be smart enough to show us a picture or something. Now come on Raditz, if I was an Android where would I be? Well actually I guess I would be right here, I mean being an Android wouldn't change where I am, just what I am. I mean if you think about it…'_

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Gohan landed in some random street, scaring this one guy with unnaturally pink eyes right off his hoverboard "Darn it, I have to find the Androids before they hurt anyone." he looked back at the guy with pink eyes "Excuse me, have you seen any Androids?"

"I don't know, are you an Android?" asked the guy.

"No."

"Then no. But I did see this flying kid, he landed right in front of me man. He looked a lot like you actually."

"...Oh boy."

"Are you holding?"

"What does that even mean?"

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Piccolo looked down at the city from one of the rooftops ' _Dammit this is ridiculous, a couple of pieces of scrap metal bent on annihilation should stick out like a sore thumb, or me in a crowd full of these morons.'_

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Unknown to any of our heroes, the two Androids in question, a fat one with white skin and an old man with white hair (who shall be referred to as 19 and 20 respectively) landed in the city and started calmly walking through the city in search of victims.

The first people they came across were two guys who took notice of Yajirobe's car getting blown out of the sky "I'm telling you it crashed into the ocean, shit like that is what's wrong with this country!" he glanced back at 19 and 20 "Hey inconspicuous old man and mime, you guys saw that didn't you? A sky car blew up out of nowhere, it dropped like a rock a few miles out into the bay!" he received no reply from either of them, other than an unnerving sideways glance "Uh, you guys listening?"

19 slowly made his way towards him.

"Hey dial it back a little bit Marcel Marceau, if that's what you're looking for then it's gonna have to be 100 Zeni an hour, 200 if you want it to get weird."

19 promptly headbutted that guy hard, and then he slugged the other guy across the face, sending him crashing into a building.

That was when a guy in a car had made the mistake of honking at 20 while he was standing in the middle of the road "Hey what the fuck you old jackass, get the hell out of the road! Yeah that's right sideshow, I'm talking to you! If you want to beat the crap out of prostitutes then do it on your own damn time! Get your ass moving, don't make me get out of this car!"

Without uttering so much as a single word, 20 walked towards the car, stuck his hand through the hood and promptly ripped out the engine before dropping it with a very loud thud.

"Oh… Oh god, what the hell are you?"

Still deathly silent, 20 walked over to the man, grabbed him by the neck and pulled him clear through the roof of the car and squeezed him until his neck snapped like a twig, earning a scream of terror from a nearby woman witnessed the ordeal.

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The sound of screaming was more than enough to draw the attention of Yamcha from where he was searching nearby ' _That was close, that means I've found them!'_

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20 dropped the lifeless corpse of the old man and glanced over in a certain direction "I detect an exceptionally strong power signature moving within range, provide a scan for confirmation immediately."

"Affirmative." 19 promptly did a scan "Analysis has now been confirmed, the source is currently closing in on our position."

"Excellent, and it exceeds average human capabilities?"

"Affirmative. First hypothesis, the source is Son Goku." they floated into the air in order to observe him.

Yamcha sped onto the scene but promptly hid behind a building as he took notice of the corpses left behind by the Androids ' _Corpses, minor destruction of property, looks like I'm definitely on the right track. The only question is, where the hell are they no?'_ he glanced over to see a couple of bystanders peaking their heads out a nearby window "Hey did either of you get a look at the ones that did all of this?"

"Sorry man, but you would know them if you saw them." the guy told him.

"That doesn't help, do you at least know where they are now?"

"No way, once second they were here and the next they vanished into thin air."

' _So they can hit hard, move fast and they clearly have a taste for blood. I can't take any chances with guys like these, I'd better summon the others. But then again, what good would it be to call the others if the enemy isn't even here now?'_

What Yamcha didn't notice was that 19 and 20 were observing him from mid air "Initial hypothesis has been rejected, the source is not Son Goku. The statistics align at 92% with the database model for Yamcha."

"Unfortunate." 20 noted "But nonetheless, his energy can be appropriated." they floated back down to the ground.

Yamcha glanced back to see them standing a few feet away "Hey did the two of you manage to see anything? I'm trying to track down the ones responsible for this." he noticed them studying him in silence and promptly studied them for a few seconds ' _No Ki signatures for me to sense out, they're wearing matching outfits and they have the Red Ribbon symbol.'_

"You've already found them."

"I figured as much. **Kaioken!"** Yamcha dodged a sudden lunge by 20 and dealt him a sharp kick to the face, knocking his hat clean off, and then he dodged another lunge by 19 as his crimson aura continued flaring and kicked him in the face, sending him skidding backwards across the street as Yamcha retreated back a short distance ' _This is bad, I just hope the others can lock onto my Ki signature before this can get any worse._ **Spirit Ball!"** he promptly launched a Spirit Ball as fast as he could.

20 wasted no time in absorbing it into the node in his palm "Your energy will be appropriated and be of great benefit to us." he blitzed forward and stuck his hand through Yamcha's chest, causing him to cough up blood, then proceeded to grab Yamcha by the wrist and started draining his Ki reserves, the commotion in the street also causing a truck carrying a massive tanker full of gasoline to swerve out of the way and crash into a nearby gas station, causing it to explode.

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Raditz was still searching for the Androids in his section of the city while enjoying some time along with his thoughts ' _I mean when you think about it, an Android is just a human with wires instead of veins and oil instead of blood. I wonder if they dream of electric sheep, some techno lamb actually sounds pretty good right about now.'_

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Yamcha continued getting his Ki reserves drained by 20, his mind racing ' _Is he… Is he draining my Ki?'_ he aimed a kick at 20's head, only for it to be caught with ease and for his knee to get shattered, causing him to cough up blood as his vision grew blurry ' _I've only… got enough left… for one shot at this…_ **Kaioken!"** he aimed an uppercut kick at 20's jaw, knocking him back a short distance and allowing Yamcha to get blown back a short distance, looking considerably worse for wear ' _Whatever trick they're using to drain my Ki it did the job, that was about all I had in me after he took so much.'_

20 promptly went over and put his hat back on, then started to advance towards Yamcha in order to continue draining his Ki reserves, when something else caught his attention "I detect multiple exceptionally high power readings approaching our location."

' _Please let it be the others…'_

"Yamcha hang on!" that was when Gohan quickly dropped onto the scene, with Goku and the others following soon after "Are you okay?"

"I'll live, but listen…"

"Don't bother, save your strength." Goku told him "Krillin take him and get going, I left the bag of Senzu Beans with Bulma and she's back up on the ridge. Make sure Yamcha gets one right away."

"But…"

"Don't bother man, just be glad you survived against these things." Krillin slung Yamcha's arm over his shoulder "You lasted a hell of a lot longer than I would've." and so they promptly flew off back towards the mountain.

Piccolo studied 19 and 20 intently "So these are the fearsome Androids? They're not quite the monsters I expected them to be."

20 turned his gaze onto Piccolo "How strange, you have identified the two of us as Androids and yet I have yet to give any sort of indication. What's more, you appear to all have gathered here in anticipation of our arrival. Explain this to me, who informed you of our plans?"

"There's only one way you're getting an answer to that question, and it's if you ask with your fists!" Raditz let out a snarl.

"As you wish."

Goku and the others promptly dropped into combat stances, but then he glanced back at the fire raging behind then "Hold on a second, there are too many innocent people here! We'd better take it outside the limits of the city, does that sound fair to you guys?"

"You propose to relocate our confrontation. Why is that? A problem of too many bystanders is easily correctable. Observe." so as his eyes flashed red, 20 started using his Bionic Punisher eye beam attack to unleash a barrage of explosions across the city, leaving a good majority of it in burning ruins.

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Yamcha swallowed a Senzu Bean, bringing him back to full strength just in time to see the fiery chaos coming down upon the city "What the hell is going on down there?"

"I can't believe what I'm seeing." Upa muttered "They annihilated at least half the city in a matter of seconds.

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"STOP IT!" in his rage, Gohan burst forward and slugged 20 in the face full force, knocking his hat off and sending him skidding back a short distance "How could you kill all of those people for no reason?"

20 calmly reached down and put his hat back on "It was my understanding that you and your comrades wished for the streets to be free of onlookers, did you not? Evidently you find our solution less than satisfactory."

"You little…" Goku suppressed a snarl as he clenched his fists tighter "Follow me so I can turn you into a pile of scrap metal!"

"Your victory will not be the outcome of this confrontation, but if you insist. Very well then, we shall follow you. Select the place of your inevitable demise Son Goku." that was enough to surprise the others.

"What the- How the hell do you guys know my name?"

"We know far more than that. The boy over there is your son Son Gohan, the green one is known as Piccolo, the one with the spiked hair is the Saiyan known as Raditz, and the triclops is the onek known as Tien Shinhan. However, I have no data on the other Namekian or the young Saiyan in your company."

"There will be time for questions later, we all came here for a fight so that's what I'm going to be giving you. Now come on!" Goku promptly blasted off into the skies, with Gohan, Tarble and the others, as well as 19 and 20, following in hot pursuit.

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Yamcha looked up to see Goku and the others blasting off away from the island "Looks like the Androids are on Goku's tail and the others are right behind them."

"Dammit, this is bad." Krillin muttered "I sure hope he knows what he's doing."

"He hasn't even seen the worst of what those guys can do, he doesn't know how they have the ability to absorb energy from people."

"Hold on, what?! Did I just hear you right, these guys can siphon your energy?"

"Yeah you've got that right, I don't know how they pulled it off but I attacked one of them with a Spirit Ball and he just absorbed it into some kind of node in his hand, and then when he grabbed ahold of me I could feel my life force draining!"

"Well to be fair you were losing a lot of blood."

"It was coming out of my mouth!"

"Oh. Gross."

"Oh for the love of- I'm telling you that they can absorb Ki from people!"

"But that's insane." Bulma muttered "I didn't know there was a kind of technology that could pull that off, Dr Gero would really have to be a mad genius if his designs are really as advanced as that."

"No time to worry about it now, we have to warn Goku and the others before they end up finding out the hard way." Yamcha flared his aura, only to be stopped by Bulma grabbing him by the wrist.

"You're out of your gourd if you think I'm letting you go back there, those things tossed you around like a rag doll and literally fisted you and you're lucky to even be alive!"

"Bulma be realistic for a second, I need to go just as much as Krillin and Upa do. Goku and the others have no idea what they're up against, even with the Kaioken I'm just practice for those bastards. I have to go."

"Yamcha, you don't have to be the hero."

"Like I give a damn about being the hero, the only thing I care about is making sure that my family doesn't get themselves killed out there." Yamcha gave her a thumbs up and a reassuring nod, and he promptly blasted off into the skies.

' _Yamcha…'_

"Come on, let's go!" Krillin and Upa wasted no time in blasting off after him.

' _You'd better come back alive or I swear I'm never going to forgive you.'_

"Well there goes a jackass." Yajirobe let out a scoff.

"So how are you holding up right now?"

"My car just got blown up. Well it was Korin's car to be more specific, the Pussy Wagon ain't no more now."

"Well then are you going to fly after them?"

"No."

"Is it because you're fat?"

"Yeah."

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Meanwhile, with the others…

Goku and the others continued leading 19 and 20 as far away from the island as they could ' _Well from the looks of it they're starting to grow impatient.'_

"Observe the landscape below us." 20 got his attention "I see no good reason for travelling any further. Enough of this pointless stalling, you are wasting time."

' _So they finally ran out of patience.'_ Goku stopped in mid air, gripping his chest slightly, causing everyone to screech to a halt in mid air.

"This location will be adequate for our purposes." 19 and 20 promptly lowered themselves to the ground, with the others following almost immediately.

Gohan looked around at the landscape chosen for the battlefield "Looks like a pretty flat terrain, but at the same time it's surrounded by rocky hills. I wonder why they chose here."

"If I had to guess I would say that they plan on hiding in the rocky terrain if they need to and attack from there." Piccolo commented "Speaking in strategic terms, it's actually not too bad of an idea."

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Yamcha and the others looked around the archipelago in search of Goku and the others, only to not have much luck "Dammit this isn't good, they're keeping their Ki signatures suppressed until the fighting starts. We won't have much luck finding them this way, at least not until one of them actually does something."

"Dammit!" Krillin's aura flared in his frustration "Goku where the hell are you?!"

"That's not going to help Krillin."

"It's better than nothing!"

"No it's not, it's really not."

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Goku's aura subsided considerably as he eyed the Androids, though he was clearly panting very heavily "Alright… before we get into things here… I have a few questions for you guys."

Gohan spared a glance over at Goku ' _Something doesn't seem right with him, dad shouldn't be so out of breath already. We haven't done anything other than flying so far.'_

"Tell me… how the two of you… know about us…"

20 shot a cold glare of disdain in Goku's direction "Very well, if that is your wish then I shall inform you, though I have considerable doubts that you will take any comfort from hearing the story Son Goku. You see, using a fleet of miniature surveillance drones we have kept a close watch on your exploits for some time. Your battles against the likes of Tien Shinhan in the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, your battle with the Demon King Piccolo, the battle with his reincarnation Piccolo Jr in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, the battles against your fellows of your own Saiyan race. To put it so simply that even you can understand it, we have catalogued your progress as a warrior over the years. We've taken note of every milestone you've undertaken. You've been studied with an eye towards how best to defeat you in the heat of battle, on behalf of the Red Ribbon Army."

"So… you have a grudge…"

"Your actions almost single handedly led to their ultimate disgrace and disbandment, and as a result the great Dr Gero had to face untold humiliations."

"And what's that to you?" Raditz shot him a suspicious glare "The way you're talking about him makes it sound like you actually are the good doctor."

"Such a concept is absolutely absurd, I am a superior form of artificial life created by a mind whose level of genius is incalculable. Dr Gero himself is no longer among us."

"Alright, so what about the battle I had against Frieza?" asked Goku "Did you go out of your way to spy on that one too?"

"There was very little point, the sum total of information extracted from your prior battles provided us with a superb data model, and therefore any increases in strength at this juncture would be sufficiently offset by your age. To all intensive purposes, your limits have been made clear to us."

"Is that right? Well sorry about this, but if all you know about me is what you got from before I went to Namek then you're in for a real shock."

"What's that?"

"Take my word for it." Raditz told him "Believe me when I tell you that your data model has a long way to go before it could be calibrated for the likes of a Super Saiyan."

"Super Saiyan you say?"

"I do say. Hey Kakarot, you want to take this one or can I?"

"Sorry about this bro, I think I'll take this one myself." Goku let out a quick roar as his body bulked up slightly, his eyes flashing teal and his hair flashing gold, and in an instant he suddenly flashed into Super Saiyan, his golden aura exploding outwards, unleashing a massive shockwave across the battlefield.

' _Go ahead and make them pay for what they've done brother, but you'd better do it fast. I have a bad feeling about something.'_

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"Come on guys, this is the way!" following Goku's Ki signature, Yamcha and the others soared towards the battlefield at full speed.

"Wow, this is insane." Krillin muttered "I feel like I'm picking up on some seriously insane levels of power there."

"That would be Goku you're sensing, he's already turned Super Saiyan and that means he's getting serious."

"Yeah but it's weird that it's just him, I guess the Androids don't have any Ki signatures we could sense."

"Which means that Gohan's theory was right on the money."

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Goku's golden aura subsided slightly, causing the shockwaves to die down "You see, this is what a Super Saiyan is capable of."

Raditz was unfazed by the shockwaves, and he looked on with pure pride in his eyes ' _You've come a long way brother, I knew you were powerful but now that I've seen it in action with my own eyes… I can only imagine how proud father would be if he were to see you.'_

"Raditz listen to me, I want you to make sure you and the others stay out of this. These bastards have already made it clear that I'm the one they want, so I'm the one they're going to get."

20 studied Goku's Super Saiyan form intently "A most intriguing discrepancy, this dormant power he is displaying."

"New data has been acquired." 19 noted "Present technique being displayed is considerably discrete from Kaioken."

"This departs to a rather considerable extent from the data we've compiled previously. But with that being said, it is not remotely a discouragement. His level of strength is still remaining within manageable parameters, and as such the threat he poses to you is negligible."

"Affirmative." 19 promptly stepped forward.

"Well fine by me, if that's the case then go ahead and show me what you've got and let's get this over with." Goku's aura flared even higher as he charged forward at full speed, but then he disappeared from sight.

Knowing that Goku was behind him, 19 whipped around and aimed a kick at Goku's head at full speed.

Goku blocked the kick with his forearm, dodging and blocking every attack 19 was throwing at him with ease.

19 retreated back a considerable distance towards a plateau and unleashed a quick Ki blast at near point blank range, destroying the top of the plateau in the process and forcing Goku to shield himself from the debris, and then he attempted to hit Goku with a follow up Ki blast while he was distracted.

Goku dodged the attempted sneak attack and blitzed towards 19 as he returned to the ground, dodging an attempted punch and dealing him an elbow straight to the back, the force sending him flying into another nearby plateau.

Tarble looked on in awe "Yes, that's the way sensei! You have him on the ropes!" he failed to notice the others staying ominously silent.

' _He should be coming out any second now.'_

"You shall meet your extermination!" 19 promptly burst out from beneath the rubble and shot towards Goku at full speed.

Goku stopped his advancement with one hand and dealt him an uppercut kick to the jaw, the force sending him flying into the air, and then he blitzed up into the air to join him, dodging and blocking every attack being thrown at him, eventually managing to find an opening to counter attack with a vicious combo attack.

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Tarble could only look on in disbelief "I never thought it was actually possible, I knew that sensei had grown stronger over the last few years of training but now it seems like he's almost invincible!"

Gohan shared a look with Piccolo and the others "I don't know about that… _Something just doesn't seem right…'_

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Goku continued his brutal assault against 19, dealing him heavy barrages of punches and kicks while dodging and blocking every attack being thrown at him in the process ' _What the hell is going on with me? It's like my body won't move as fast as I want it to…'_ he dealt 19 a sharp uppercut to the jaw and a kick to the gut, and then he followed up with a brutal smash attack straight to the face, sending him hurtling backwards.

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20 frowned at what he was seeing in the battle ' _Son Goku is capable of generating a far greater level of power than the data model predicted. Such a thought is inconceivable, if the battle continues at this rate then 19's energy will be depleted before he has the chance to appropriate any from Son Goku.'_

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"Guys we're here!" Yamcha and the others dropped down onto the scene, only to see Goku still going at it in mid air with 19 "Sorry we're late, what did we miss?"

"Well to put it in simple terms, Kakarot is in the middle of handing the Pillsbury Dough-Bot its generous white ass." Raditz told him flatly.

"Wait, they're already fighting? Dammit, this is really bad."

"It's alright, there's no need for you to worry." Tarble assured him "Sensei already has this one in the bag."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"What the heck are you talking about?" asked Krillin "I mean he's mopping up the floor with this clown, I bet that whole thing about energy siphoning thing was a figment of your imagination."

"No, that's definitely not it."

"Just look at him up there-"

"No, Yamcha's right." Gohan cut in "Piccolo and the others can see it to, I don't know what it is but it looks like his technique is really rushed for some reason. The fight only started a few minutes ago and dad is wasting a lot of his power, and his technique is really sloppy."

"What the heck are you talking about? Goku is incredible up there! Goku isn't hurt and the Android is totally overwhelmed, how is that sloppy?"

"He means sloppy by the standards of a Super Saiyan." Nail told him "All of us are fully aware that if Goku was fighting at his maximum capacity then the Android would have been destroyed a long time ago."

"Well did they manage to drain him beforehand?" asked Yamcha "From what I can tell both of these Androids to drain the energy of their opponents, at least that would explain it."

"They can drain energy?"

"I ran into those freaks first in the streets, I fired a Spirit Ball at the old guy but he just absorbed it into some node in his hand, and then he slapped a hand over my mouth and I could feel my power taking a nosedive before I even knew what hit me."

"TAKE THIS!" Goku finished his mid air assault by dealing 19 a devastating kick straight to the face, sending him crashing to the ground.

"But at the same time that does look promising, do any of you guys think that was enough to finish the job on the thing?" Yamcha received no replies as 19 promptly pulled himself back to his feet "Yeah I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but still you would think he would have some kind of reaction."

"But keep in mind that he is an Android." Tien pointed out "He doesn't have any sort of pain receptors in him."

"That makes sense."

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Goku was panting heavily, his Super Saiyan aura beginning to flicker in an out of existence from the exhaustion he was feeling ' _I don't have much left in me, if I'm going to end this then I'll have to finish him in one shot.'_ he cupped his hands at his side, a blue Ki sphere building in between his palms " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he promptly fired a quick Kamehameha down towards the ground at full speed.

19 wasted no time in absorbing the Kamehameha into the node in his palm within mere seconds of making contact, much to the horror of everyone present "And now your energy is in my possession!"

' _He… He absorbed it… How the hell… How did he do that?'_

"Kakarot listen to me!" Raditz barked "Don't try to hit him with any more energy blasts, they can absorb any energy you use through the nodes in the palms of their hands! Only use physical attacks on them, and whatever you do don't let them grab you!"

"You… You've gotta be kidding me… It's like… He's soaking up my Ki… like some… some kind of sponge…" Goku let out a bitter chuckle.

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Yamcha felt beeds of sweat dripping down his head from what he was seeing "Okay I can't be the only one who thinks he's not looking that hot right now, how much of his energy did they already take from him?"

"But that's just it, I don't think they've even taken anything from him." Gohan told him "We've all been watching the fight up until now, and they haven't even touched him once.

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20 looked on at the scene with a smirk of triumphant confidence ' _This is excellent, 19's levels of strength have increased in direct proportion to the amount of energy Goku seems to have expended during the battle. Now is your chance 19, take the opportunity and do it!'_

" is now fully online." 19 suddenly blitzed into the air and kneed Goku in the gut full force, backhanded him across the face and dealt him a brutal smash attack, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

Goku barely managed to stop himself before he hit the ground "No… you don't…" he quickly fired off another Ki blast.

"Wait dad no don't!" but Gohan's cries were too late ' _Dad I don't get it, what the heck are you doing?'_

"You… You bastard…" by now Goku had blood coming from his mouth, and slowly lowered himself back to the ground, panting heavily and gripping his chest in agony.

' _Okay something is definitely wrong, but he hasn't had any of his Ki stolen by either of the Androids so what's going on?'_ that was when he noticed Goku gripping his chest in pain and the horrifying realization dawned on him "They haven't drained any of his energy, there's some kind of problem with his heart! Look!"

"Wait hold on a second." Piccolo's head snapped towards Gohan "Are you saying it's that heart virus the version of you from the future warned us about?"

"Yeah, that has to be the reason."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Krillin protested "How the hell could your dad possibly be sick right now? Think about it, he took that miracle cure for that heart virus a long time ago didn't he? We know these Androids can steal energy, that's all there is to it."

"No, stealing the energy from one Kamehameha is nowhere near enough to leave dad as exhausted as this."

Goku promptly fell to one knee from the sheer exhaustion and pain he was feeling ' _What… What the hell is going on? Why can't… Why can't I… catch my breath…? It's like my body is turning on me…'_

"Hey Goku heads up, take one of these!" Krillin promptly threw a Senzu Bean to him "That should help!"

"Thanks Krillin… this should help…" Goku wasted no time in downing the Senzu Bean "I guess I just needed… a little pickmeup…"

20's eyes narrowed in Goku's direction, and then he shot a glance over at Yamcha ' _That's one of those remarkable beans that's capable of restoring one's health to the fullest extent in even the worst of cases, I see the myths surrounding their potency are far from exaggerated, taking the evidence into consideration.'_

"Come on, let's go for round two!" Goku promptly charged at 19, only to find his confidence to be horribly misplaced as he was promptly sent crashing to the ground, still writhing in agony from the pain he was feeling.

"This is bad." Gohan muttered "The Senzu Bean didn't work, and his heart isn't strong enough to shake the infection."

"But that doesn't make sense." Nail pointed out "His heart shouldn't be an issue when he took the cure that your future self provided."

"Well the symptoms that my future self warned us about didn't show up, he never got sick so he never bothered to take it. Dad said that there was no point in bothering with the cure if he didn't think there was anything wrong with him."

"Dammit… I can't…" Goku tried to persevere, only to stay on the receiving end of a brutal barrage of attacks from 19 that sent him flying back a great distance, and things only got worse as he was forced to power down from his Super Saiyan form.

"...And he just knocked the Super Saiyan out of my dad, which only makes this situation far worse than it already was."

19 promptly stomped down on Goku's chest and arms, causing him to scream in pain, and then he grabbed Goku by the neck and started squeezing as he began draining Goku of any remaining Ki reserves he may have had left.

"I can't just stand here while they're trying to such my dad dry like a sponge, I'm going in after him!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and promptly charged forward.

20 suddenly blitzed in front of him and blocked his way "Stay where you are boy, this is the only warning I intend to give you. If you or any of your companions attempt to interfere then you shall do so only at your own peril. Would you care to try?"

"If it means stopping you from killing my dad then I say game on!" Gohan aimed a kick at 20's head, only to end up receiving an eye laser blast through the chest, causing him to fall out of Super Saiyan and hit the ground with a loud thud, supposedly out cold.

"You were warned, and you choose very poorly boy." 20 turned to where the others looked either furious, terrified, or both "That was a bold move on the part of the child there, but I would not say that the attempt was wise."

"Dammit, this is bad." Tien muttered "This guy is way too fast for us, but if we can't do something right now then Goku is as good as dead- Wait, what the hell?"

"Mine mine mine mine mine…" a faint repitition could be heard in the distance.

"Okay does anyone else hear that?"

"Mine mine mine mine mine…"

"Yeah and it's getting closer." Piccolo muttered "And it sounds an awful lot like…"

"Mine mine mine mine mine!" that was when a flash of red appeared on the scene and suddenly dealt 19 a solid kick to the face, knocking him away from Goku and sending him flying across the battlefield. The red flash then screeched to a halt, revealing none other than Kai in its place in all of his glory "Mine. And for the record there's only one person in the world who can handle sucking him dry, and the Pillsbury Doughbot over there isn't it."

"Better late than never I guess." Gohan suddenly pulled himself back to his feet and let out a sigh of what sounded like exasperation "And the prodigal psychopath returns."

"Says the guy that took a dive for the metaphorical cameras."

"I had it all worked out in my head but I didn't have time to share it with the others, I tried to create an opening to get past the Androids and save dad, but then you showed up while quoting the most annoying characters in all of Finding Nemo."

"Hey the seagulls are known for pissing off the majority of characters for the sake of comedic value, and that makes them more likeable than every single character in Frozen, not that it's really that hard. Also, before I forget…" he looked over at Yamcha "I know about you getting your ass handed to you back in the city. Way to give the other kind of fisting a shot, I give you points for variety. Also I would've bailed after that, I wouldn't have any stamina left after I got a handjob."

At this, Yamcha let out a sigh "Yep it's official, he's back."

"And he's about to wreck some serious shit, but first things first." Kai promptly went over to where Goku was lying in agony and kicked him in the shin "Okay, clearly you're either suicidal or just that stupid. Even you should've been able to figure out that something was fucking with you from the inside but you just couldn't help pushing yourself until you were basically a waste of space writing in agony like a Kardashian. Did you even think about how that going Super Saiyan would only make the heart virus work faster? Okay I'm making a pool, people who think you're just retarded vs people who think you're suicidal." he promptly kicked Goku across the battlefield over towards the others "Somebody catch the idiot."

"I've got him!" Gohan quickly caught Goku and gently lowered him to the ground "Please dad, we need you to hang in there for all of us."

"I say someone take the potentially suicidal moron back home and cram the heart medicine that the Back to the Future reject gave him down his throat, and take a picture of it so I can post it on Facebook."

"Good idea, I'll be sure to get dad out of here and make sure he gets the medicine."

"No that's okay, I'll take him home." Upa gently hoisted Goku over his shoulder "I wouldn't be of any use here, at least this way I'll be able to contribute and do something useful."

"If you say so but be careful, since he's being made like this by a virus then I think it would be for the best if you were to take some of that medicine for yourself, just to be on the safe side."

"Yes that's a good call. You don't have to worry everyone, I promise I'll make sure that he gets better one way or another. Goku once saved my father a long time ago, it's about time for me to return the favor. Just be sure you take care of these Androids before we return." and so Upa then proceeded to fly away from the battlefield with Goku hoisted over his shoulder.

' _Please don't die on us dad, the world still needs you, and so do we.'_

20 was quick to stop 19 from pursuing them "As you were 19, there's no point in giving chase at the moment. We will simply save the best course for last, his canny little companions will be able to wet our appetites for the feast. As we still have the likes of Raditz and Piccolo with us, I'm more than confident things will stay interesting."

Krillin glanced over at the others "You know looking back, I don't think falling back sounds like to bad of an idea right about now. I don't mean to sound like I'm freaking out or anything, but if what Gohan's future self told us about Goku's heart condition turned out to be true then I bet what he said about us getting taken out by these Androids is probably gonna end up happening too. If anything has tipped the scales here then I definitely don't think it's been tipped in our favor."

"But that doesn't matter, these guys are ruthless and they're out for blood." Gohan told him "The things they did back in the city will happen everywhere, if we walk away now then they'll just start torching the entire planet."

"You don't have to worry, we will stop them once your dad is back on his feet."

"Krillin think for a second, there's no good reason to assume that the future is decided down to the smallest detail. My future self was right about the heart virus getting dad, but it was supposed to happen six months ago. Him going back in time in the first place would most likely lead to reprecussions on at least some level."

"Yeah well, so far none of those reprecussion have made these creeps any less terrifying in my eyes."

19 turned to 20 and promptly bowed "#20, requesting permission to destroy Kai."

"Such a greedy swine." 20 let out a scoff "You gorge yourself like a king, and now that your energy is twice as much as it was before you still want seconds?"

"Affirmative."

"...So be it, but in exchange I alone will have the remaining eight for myself."

"Understood." 19 turned back to Kai with a menacing gaze (at least what he believed to be a menacing gaze) and dropped into a combat stance.

"Oh please, that's just fucking hysterical." Kai barked out a laugh "You really think you can take me down with the automa-ton of fun? I only needed to watch you guys for less than a minute and I can already tell that all anyone needs to you is avoid the nodes on your palms. Sorry about that sexbot, but no handjobs for you."

"Insufficient data to draw conclusion, your analysis is premature. You see, my knowledge of your skills in combat is exhausted."

"Well that's an ironic bitch slap across the face, I'm pretty sure you crammed that exact same line down Goku's throat before he went Super Saiyan. The look you two had on your faces didn't exactly scream of confidence, if anything it was more worthy of being the basis for god only knows how many memes. There's no way you can just predict or calculate true power even when it's right in front of you. You might look like a real cutting edge piece of tech but I can't help but ask, can you feel fear?"

"Such a notion is inconclusive at best."

"Why don't we go ahead and fix that." Kai dropped into a stance and gritted his teeth as his muscles started bulging, his aura slowly flickering in and out of existence, the ground beginning to shatter beneath his feet, and with a furious roar his aura exploded outwards as a massive white light shone across the battlefield.

Gohan and the others had to brace themselves "Get ready you guys, you're about to see just what happens when Kai actually decides to get serious in a fight!"

When the light subsided, it revealed Kai standing where he had been before, his body surounded by a deep green colored aura "I've said it before in front of an alien lizard and I'll say it again in front of a bunch of Transformer rejects. Fuck power levels, fuck Super Saiyans, and fuck all of you. I don't need to become a Super Saiyan in order to reach a level of power that will leave a little black spot in your pants. On one hand, you could just say that I got to this level through three years of push ups, sit ups and plenty of juice. On the other hand, you don't have a fucking clue how single mindedly I decidated myself to becoming stronger than anything any of you have ever seen before. I trained myself until my bones shattered under the pressure of up to 500x the gravity of this planet, where even moving to scratch myself required every ounce of willpower I had. The only thing stopping my body from getting ripped apart was my burning resolve to be the best of the best, and then I discovered that all of that training along with a new technique I learned was enough to face off with a Super Saiyan and fight him to a draw. But that wasn't enough, not for me at least. After I faced off with Gohan I decided to continue my training in space, where no one would be able to distract me, and only Nail was there to provide any moral support. A lightning storm erupted on this one planet we were training on, and I welcomed it with open arms. Meteors started crashing down onto the planet, and I started blasting through one after another so that they wouldn't destroy the ship I was using. I figured I would have everything under control no problem, but considering the fact that I had spent days training at 500 times the gravity of Earth it took everything I had in me and more, but it still wasn't enough. My limits were painfully clear to me. But then something inside of me just snapped, I didn't care anymore. I didn't want to be the best anymore. I didn't care if I lived or died, I didn't give a shit about anyone or anything. And that was when it happened. I started truly owning the self hatred that realization brought, the willpower required to push the Namek-Ken to its absolute limit erupted into life. I had never felt anything it before, and it turned me into what stands before you. Pure. Unadulterated. Badass."

"As if." Nail let out a scoff "From any other perspective, it's simply pure, unadulterated ego at its worst."

"I heard that Big Green!"

"Is that okay?"

"As a matter of fact, you can go fuck yourself."

"Enough of this delusional nonsense." 20 let out a scoff "It doesn't matter what sort of power you may or may not have awakened, you still grossly overestimate your own abilities. Make him suffer the same fate as Son Goku."

"Understood." 19 wasted no time and fired a set of Bionic Punisher eye blasts at Kai, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, Kai was standing there without so much as a scratch on him "Oh shit, did I leave the stove on?"

19 charged forward at full speed and let a fist fly, slugging Kai square in the jaw and forcing him to take a single step back.

Kai simply wiped the blood from his lip and his smirk widened "Well isn't that a fucking shame, it looks to me like you just hit your self destruct sequence. I'm assuming that Androids don't have any pain receptors, so that really works in your favor. Now what do you say we start with the countdown. Five!" he slammed his foot straight into 19's chest HARD, followed by a fierce elbow to the face and a kick to the jaw, sending him tumbling backwards "Yeah you just saw my foot, that means that you've fucked up big time. Plus I just happen to be a size 19, so that's just too bad for you."

19 burst back to his feet and attempted to deal Kai a headbut.  
"Four!" Kai ducked underneath the headbutt and kicked 19 square in the chest, sending him soaring high into the air.

19 let out a shriek as he stopped himself in mid air.

"So where's that supposed black spot on your pants?" Kai blitzed in front of 19 and dodged the furious barrage of punches that followed with ease "Well you're durable if nothing else, I'll give you credit for that much at least. Three!" Kai dodged another Bionic Punisher and dealt 19 a brutal smash attack, sending him hurtling to the ground with a massive crash.

When the dust settled, 19 was lying motionless in a crater.

Kai returned to the ground and looked down at 19 "You know I'm sure there was some sort of advantage to building a fat robot, but unless you like to get freaky like that I have no idea what the fuck that could be."

"Proximity breached!" 19 suddenly bolted upright and grabbed Kai by the wrists "I have you in my grasp now, and I won't let go until every last drop of your energy has been drained and you've been left a shriveled up prune of a corpse! You can fight as much as you like, you will never be able to escape from me!"

"Is that a fact? Well I guess I'm not going anywhere for awhile, I might as well get a workout in while I can." Kai promptly leapt up and pressed his feet down on 19's face, pushing harder and harder with each passing second "Yeah that's right doughbot, I'm gonna do some squats all over your face."

"Initiating… energy drain… you cannot… escape…"

"So that's how these things work, you really do absorb energy through the nodes in the palms of your hands and add it into your own reserves in order to increase your power output. You want my Ki reserves, how about this. You can take as much of my Ki as you want, and in exchange I'll take your hands! Two!" with a burst of power Kai pulled himself free of 19's grip, taking his hands with him in the process "So now you don't have the means of absorbing Ki anymore, so before I put down the clown what do you say we put it to bed? Tell me something Android, do you feel fear?"

19 stumbled back in fear "No… get away…"

"Not the reaction I would expect from an Android, I guess that confirms my hypothesis. Now let's draw this experiment to a close."

"No please, get away from me, leave me alone!" 19 scrambled his way out of the crater and started running away in terror.

"And a little bit of extra emphsis never hurt anyone, or at least it never hurt me." Kai promptly blasted high into the air.

"Stop this at once!" 20 let out a snarl.

"You wait your turn old man, once your sexbot is turned into a pile of shrapnel you'll be following his lead. One. **Scarlet Bomber!"** Kai promptly summoned a crimson colored ball of Ki and hurled it towards 19 at full speed, engulfing him in the explosion that followed, the shockwaves resulting from said explosion blowing all the way across the battlefield.

When the smoke cleared, all that was left of 19 was his disembodied head and a few charred pieces of metal.

"Oh yeah it's official, I'm touching myself tonight."

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Meanwhile, with our two non-combatants…

Yajriobe looked down at where Bulla was fast asleep in his arms ' _Oh thank god, the kid is finally out. Now I can here myself think.'_

"Hey take a look up ahead, what is that?" Bulma pointed to where the massive column of smoke was visible in the distance, plain as day.

"Oh shit."

"Of course, where there's smoke there has to be fire and explosions, which I'm betting means Androids in this case! Hold on tight, we're going in!"

"You know most people would start heading in the opposite direction!"

"Yeah well I'm not most people."

"Screw this, I'm taking over!" this led to them starting a fight over the controls while flying towards the battlefield, which only got worse when Bulla started crying.

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The battlefield had turned eerily quiet as a result of 19's destruction.

Kai powered down his Namek-Ken aura and promptly returned to the ground "Well alright then, now that we have Chuckles the Assclown out of the picture I think it's about time for me to start tending to the elderly."

20's scowl deepened as he shot a dark glare at Kai "It does seem probably that our data model was considerably premature, however such a thing is simply a minor setback and nothing more than that. You still have no chance of victory."

"You just keep telling yourself that. Still though my Ki is a little bit on the lowside thanks to the workings of your sexbot over there, if you were going to try and jump me then now would be the best time to do it if you've got the geer-sticles underneath those baggy trowsers of yours."

' _Why is the boy inviting me to attack him, what sort of tactic is this?'_

"Oh I get it so you're bluffing, less than a minute ago you were going on about how I didn't have a chance in hell of beating you and now you're just standing there like a pathetic coward."

"Cease with your attempts to delude yourself! You can mock and conjole me to your savage little heart's content, however much power you may be capable of generating we Androids are more than capable of exceeding that level and moreso!"

"Fine then, go ahead and convert me into a believer."

20 said nothing, he just gritted his teeth and promptly flew off into the rocky landscape near the battlefield.

"And just like that he proves that I'm right once again."

"Don't just waste time, go after him!" Raditz barked.

"Keep your thong on Sonic the Hedgehog I'll go in a minute, but first one of you guys go ahead and toss me a Senzu Bean. I wasn't bluffing when I said I was low on Ki."

"Right, and take another one just to be safe!" Gohan promptly tossed him two Senzu Beans he pulled out of the bag.

"At least one of you knows how not to waste time." Kai swallowed one of the Senzu Beans and promptly stuck the other one inside his gi, then powered his Namek-Ken technique back up to its fullest "Okay now that's better. You assclowns wait here, I'm gonna go tend to the elderly and turn the old guy into a glory hole in an airport bathroom. The one in Minniapolis, you know the one."

"I know what he's referencing, he and I went to go see that movie a few months ago. Just don't let my mom know I saw an R-rated movie."

"Duly noted." Piccolo told him dryly "In all seriousness though, Kai sacrificed a significant amount of Ki to win that fight but he knew that he had to draw the Android in close. He removed the nodes on its palms so he could follow up with a powerful Ki blast and be done with him once and for all. If the other one had taken the bait and responded to his goading then Kai would've lost the battle without a doubt but he played the situation to perfection and forced him to make a tactical retreat, psychotic as that runt may be he really is a genius when it comes to the art of battle."

"Well to be fair you already knew that, I mean you trained both of us. He already had the brains, now he has the power to rival a Super Saiyan. But with that being said, I don't think it's a good idea to leave it to him alone."

"His power and intellegence are surpassed only by his overconfidence." Nail pointed out "And even if that wasn't an issue I doubt many of us would be willing to stand by and do nothing when this world's future is at stake."

"I know exactly what you mean, I'm not letting my best friend go out there by himself. I'm going with you, Super Saiyan or not we still have to at least give it our all."

"Enough, you've already made your point." Piccolo shut him up "All of us will have to work together in order to track the Android, but in regards to fighting him none of you should take any chances. He'll be hiding somewhere among the rocks in order to ambush us and steal our Ki for himself, and he won't be giving off any sort of Ki signature for us to use to track him down, which gives him the advantage. If you find him then let either at least one of the others know, don't try to fight him in your own. Everyone be sure to stay vigilent."

"Understood, now let's go!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and blasted off towards the rocky terrain, with the others all following suit.

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 **With Goku now out of commission and Android 19 reduced to nothing more than scraps of metal courtesy of Kai, Android 20 has taken flight into the hills, his intended destination unknown to any of our heroes. Is this hasty retreat merely a ploy for the sake of dividing and conquering, or does he have some sort of deeper strategy at work? One thing remains certain, our heroes will have to act quickly if they hope to put a stop to the schemes of this evil Android and spare the Earth from the hellish future that Gohan's future counterpart had warned them of three years prior. The hunt is on, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generations!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we've at last started with the real action of Act II. Let me just start by apologizing for taking as long as I did to get back to this story. Over the summer I started doing a fic for the anime Fairy Tail, and combine that with the fact that I started my sophomore year of college, and it's been months since I even touched any of the files for this story. But I put that story on hiatus for the time being, so now I'll be focusing on this story at least for a few weeks.**

 **For those who didn't notice the little hint I dropped last chapter, Yamcha and Bulma have officially tied the knot, and now the two of them have a daughter by the name of Bulla, as they did in the What if Nappa Turned Good scenario created by MasakoX on YouTube, and the fic Rewrite the Stars by xSonallyGirl129x. It's really good, I think you guys should check it out.**

 **One change I enjoyed writing out was how in this version, Yamcha was at least able to put up a fight against the Androids thanks to the Kaioken, even if he did still end up losing.**

 **As much as I wanted to show off Raditz going Super Saiyan in this chapter, I want to give some spotlight to the others characters, mainly Kai in this case. So unfortunately, Raditz won't have his moment in the spotlight just yet. Next chapter however, that's still open for possibilities.**

 **Adding onto that point, who do you guys want to see beat the ever loving crap out of Android 20 in the next chapter? Let me know in the reviews you guys leave, because honestly I can't decide who to have do it at the moment.**

 **Also, just for the sake of being clear, a majority of Kai's lines are a mix of quotes from TFS and Deadpool, and maybe a little bit of Rick and Morty thrown in there just for fun.**

 **Power levels:**

Goku: 9.8 million

Super Saiyan Goku: 245 million (falling drastically due to the Heart Virus)

Gohan: 9 million

Super Saiyan Gohan: 225 million

Raditz: 9.2 million

Weighted Piccolo: 140 million

Unweighted Piccolo: 182 million

Kai: 11 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 20x): 220 million

Tarble: 6.2 million

Yamcha: 5 million

Yamcha (Kaioken): 10 million

Tien: 4.8 million

Krillin: 2.4 million

Upa: 3 million

Nail: 165 million

Android 19: 45 million

Android 19 (energy absorbed): 90 million

Dr Gero: 50 million


	20. A Hellish Future, History of Gohan

**Guest:** I have one or two ideas in mind, he'll actually be getting it later in this arc. You'll see what it is soon enough. If you have any suggestions as to when I can have him receive it, or if you have any other ideas for power ups for him, I'm open to suggestions.

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** Oh right, I forgot that you like to comment late like a boss. Thank you for being so patient, and I'm glad you understand my reasons. I'm actually in my sophomore year of college, so it's only going to get harder from here, but I'm sure I can manage somehow. I'm glad that you like how I introduced Bulla, and while I had to introduce the Androids' ability to absorb energy from people, I at least had Yamcha put up a fight in this version, so I'm glad you liked that. The action scenes in Dragon Ball are always fun to write out, and Kai is always fun to write out in this fic, especially since his lines are usually a mix of quotes from TFS, Rick and Morty and Deadpool. Yes, I'm fairly certain the "mineminemine" is a finding Nemo reference. Yes, we will be seeing Future Gohan again, in this chapter actually. I haven't actually thought about the inclusion of Future Bulla up to this point, but I'm open to suggestions as to how I can have that play out. Overall, I'm glad you enjoy the story and I hope I continue to meet your expectations in the future.

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This is the story of a darker world… A world where the mightiest had fallen, and now only two were left to defend the world from the monsters that were destroying it piece by piece.

But eventually, one of these two lost his life in battle against these monsters, and only one warrior was left alive, forced to face the hellish nightmares of this world on his own.

Fueled by grief and rage over the loss of those he loved, this warrior struggles to find a way to save his world and the survivors.

This is his story… the story of a different Son Gohan, forced to deal with the hell his world has brought down upon him.

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' _Dad hang in there, please just hang on!'_ Gohan raced across the green landscape of Mount Paozu, his mind racing ' _It's been about two years since dad came back to Earth and killed Frieza and his father. Everything seemed like it was right with the world. Yamcha and Bulma got married about a year ago, dad and the others just keep training, Kai and I are just hanging out, having fun, it seemed like everything was the way it was supposed to be. But now dad came down with some new heart virus that's been killing people all over the world, dad is a Super Saiyan and even he can't overpower it! We only have one option left, Senzu Beans from Korin should be able to do the trick! I'm coming as fast as I can dad, please just hang on until I get there! I can't bear to lose you like this, not again.'_

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The others had gathered outside Goku's house when they heard of his condition.

Kai sat by the riverside away from everyone, his teeth gritting furiously ' _They can feel it, they don't want to admit it but they can feel it too. Goku's Ki signature is dropping by the second, he'll be dead before nightfall. He got some kind of weird Heart Virus a few days ago, nothing they've tried so far has had any effect. Gohan went to get some Senzu Beans from Korin, but judging by how it's going so far those probably won't have any effect, and even if they did, he might not get here in time.'_ he glanced over and let out a sigh ' _Well I was wrong about one thing._ Took you long enough."

Sure enough, Gohan burst onto the scene with a brown bag in hand, but he didn't slow down and barely even spared them a glance as he burst into the house at full speed.

' _Great, the one thing I didn't want him to have to deal with is about to come to pass.'_

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"Guys I'm here, I made it!" Gohan burst into the room so fast he literally ripped the door right off its hinges "Please tell me I made it! Please…"

Chichi slowly looked up from Goku's unconscious form and turned to face Gohan, revealing the tears streaming down her face "Gohan, I… I'm so sorry honey…"

"You mean he's… I was too late…" with his vision growing blurry, Gohan promptly fell to his knees, his fists clenched so tightly they started bleeding, and he slammed his fist into the ground full force in frustration.

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A wave of horror rushed over most of the others waiting outside.

Krillin eventually found his voice just enough to confirm their worst fears "It's over… He's gone… Goku's really gone…"

Raditz just stared into the river at his own reflection, his grief slowly showing itself through his expression "Kakarot… no…"

Having fallen victim to a radical new virus taking the world by storm, Son Goku had passed from the Earth, leaving his friends and family to mourn over the loss of their greatest warrior.

Unfortunately, what none of them knew was that this tragic event was a mere foreshadowing of the horrific tragedies that were still to come.

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Six months passed since Goku's death, and despite the difficulties of that time, those left were slowly but surely beginning to move on. That is, until _they_ appeared.

In the year 767, on the 12th of May at 10:00 am, on an island 9 miles off of South City, Androids 17 and 18 made themselves known to the world with a massive attack, leaving no survivors.

Coming to avenge the fallen were the remaining warriors, but even they would prove helpless against this pair.

Piccolo was the first of them to try, and the first of them to die, his death claiming Kami as a result, and without them the Dragon Balls were wiped from existence.

Raditz and Tarble were the next to fall.

One by one, the rest of them fell, starting with Nail, followed by Krillin, Tien, Upa and Yamcha all meeting brutal deaths at the hands of the Androids.

When their attack was done and the battle was over, Gohan and Kai were the only ones who had survived to fight another day, and without the Dragon Balls to help them, that was the way it was going to stay.

This was the beginning of a new era for the people of the Earth, an era of darkness.

The fate of the Earth was left… with little hope.

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Over the months that followed, the Androids would continue to destroy one small town after another and work their way up, before they would finally start destroying some of the bigger cities.

Gohan sat in his room, staring up at the ceiling while his thoughts drifted like the wind ' _Is this what life is supposed to be like, to lose everything so unexpectedly.'_ he heard a knocking sound on his door "It's open."

The door opened, and Kai (now wearing an eyepatch over where one of his eyes was supposed to be) made his way into the room "Hey."

"Hey."

"I think you and I need to do some talking, you up for a game of chess?"

"Whatever." so Gohan just slunked off of his bed and onto the floor, and the two started engaging in a game of chess, moving one piece at a time, but he stayed mostly silent.

"Your game is way more off than it used to be, there's no way in hell you're going to win like that."

"Whatever Kai, I'm not in the mood to talk."

"The Androids are so overpowered as fuck it's just ridiculous, they could take out Frieza without even breaking a sweat."

"Probably."

"So do you have a plan?"

Gohan stayed silent.

"I figured as much, after all if two Super Saiayns and two Namekians on that level couldn't even scratch the Androids then what chance would we have?"

"We wouldn't."

"Piccolo and the others, they were both great warriors and good people."

"I know."

"Their people skills sucked though, reminds me of someone else."

"Yeah, whatever." Gohan just calmly made his next move on the chess board.

"Do you have any idea what the hell you're doing?"

"You play however you want, I'll play however I want."

"I'm not talking about the chess board you idiot."

Gohan said nothing.

"Well at least I know you wouldn't do anything stupid or reckless. Lucky me, now that I've lost my uncle you're really all that I have. The last thing I need is to lose my best friend. You've done pretty well for yourself up to this point, I'm proud to have you as my friend."

Gohan just buried his head in his knees.

"You're as sharp as they come and you have a metric fuckton of untapped potential, you're the kind of person the people of the world can depend on in the future. But now they're dead, Goku and all of the others, and without Piccolo and Kami around that means that the Dragon Balls are gone forever, and without knowing where the hell the Namekians ended up, there's no chance in hell of bringing the others back."

"Dammit!" Gohan blasted a nearby wall as his frustration reached its boiling point "Just what the hell are you getting at here?"

"I'm saying what you need to hear."

"Will you just do the world a favor and stop talking already, everything you're saying is making me sick! Say whatever the hell you want, it doesn't change the fact that I'm nothing but a useless coward and a weakling who can't do anything!"

"That's not true and you know it."

"What the hell do you want from me Kai?"

"You want to know what I want?" Kai pulled himself to his feet and looked Gohan dead in the eye "I want you to let it out."

Gohan lost his angry glare.

"All of the anger, the sadness and the pain you're feeling, everything that's building up inside of you like a fucking timebomb. You have to learn to let it go, if you don't then you'll just end up destroying yourself."

Gohan said nothing, he just gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"That's when you can finally start healing, and just remember that no matter what happens I'll be here for you to pick up the pieces." Kai calmly made his way out of the room and shut the door just as he heard Gohan start crying uncontrollably, and he found Chichi waiting for him "You were listening the entire time weren't you?"

Chichi ignored that accusation and let out a sigh "Is it done?"

"Let him cry his eyes dry and when he's done, give or take a few days for him, tell him to meet me at the bottom of the mountain in a week. That's when we start training to rip apart those pieces of scrap metal once and for all."

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7 years passed.

" _Ladies and gentlemen it's like the apocalypse all over again, Pepper City is under siege by the monstrous Androids! It's absolute madness, we're watching the recently restored park district going up in a ball of fire the likes of which the world has never seen!"_

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Meanwhile, with the Androids…

"Oh man, you wouldn't believe this haul!" 18 stuffed some clothes into a nearby pickup truck that they had stolen a while back "You see this is why I love the inner city shops, they always have the best brands."

"Good to know, now down to business." 17 promptly fired a simple Ki blast, blowing the store to kingdom come and killing everyone inside.

"Hey what the hell was that about dude, why did you blow it up? They were giving me free clothes."

"Hey it's not like they gave me anything."

"Hey I'm perfectly secure."

"Is that why you dye your hair?"

"Hey don't hate."

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In her frustration, Bulma promptly shut off the radio "I can't listen to this crap anymore, at this rate I would even take country music back. Damn those two, at this rate the entire planet might as well have gone up in smoke. Everyone living in fear, wondering when they're going to strike next, it's just not any way to live. There has to be a way to stop them."

"There is." Kai stepped into the room wearing his typical crimson gi "Pepper City is a 20 minute flight from here, 2 minutes if I use the Namek-Ken. Stay here and don't go outside, at this rate there's at least a 50/50 chance of scrounging up a few survivors."

"Or die like Yamcha."

"At least this way I go out like a warrior, so why the hell do you have that gigantic Namek sized metal poll up your ass?"

"Because you're 17, I'm 34 and I'm all alone."

"And you've been 34 for about a decade."

"You're not going, I'm not letting you get yourself killed."

"That's the thing about me you'll never understand, I'm not giving you the choice. Besides, there's about a 100% chance Gohan is on his way there as we speak." and so he promptly blasted off through the open window.

' _Kai you little shit, you'd better come back alive or so help me, I know Yamcha would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you.'_

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Meanwhile, in Pepper City…

By this point, 17 was driving a car through the wreckage of the city, or what was left of it, and had started running over the survivors like they were speed bumps "Hey 18 how's it looking, you are keeping score right?"

"Why would I be doing that?" asked 18.

"You told me that you would."

"No, your exact words were, and I quote, "Check this shit out" and then you jumped in a car and started running over people like they were speed bumps."

"Oh come on, is this about that shop earlier?"

"You're honestly just like a little kid."

"And you're acting like it's your time of the month. Fine whatever, let's just get out of here now that you've put me in a bad mood."

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At the same time, Gohan was flying towards the location of Pepper City at full speed, his mind racing ' _I don't know if I'll be able to do anything at all, but even still I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't at least try.'_ after a few more minutes of flying he finally arrived on the scene, only to find rubble and smoking ruins where the city once stood ' _Dammit… I was too late again… They're all gone… all of them…'_ he slowly lowered himself to the ground and began wandering the ruins of the city, grimacing further at the sight of the mutilated corpses the Androids had left behind, but he stopped when he noticed one hand twitching, and he knelt down and pulled an eight year old boy out of the rubble, albeit with one of his legs as well as one of his arms missing "Hey, can you hear me?"

The boy slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Gohan with tears streaming down his face "My parents… are they…?"

"I'm sorry, you're the only one I found."

The boy wasted no time in burying his face in Gohan's chest as he sobbed "Why… Why are they doing this? Why do they keep attacking us? We never did anything to them!"

"I know… I wish I could answer that…" Gohan pulled the boy into a tight hug in an attempt to comfort him, hiding his own tears in the process ' _These children shouldn't have to live through a hell like this.'_

That was when Kai dropped down onto the scene, his Namek-Ken aura slowly subsiding as he hit the ground "Another one orphaned by the tin cans huh? That makes 7 this week alone, they're getting more frequent."

"...I need to get this kid to a hospital, you go ahead and search for any other survivors. We'll meet back at Capsule Corp at sundown." and so he blasted off into the skies.

Kai promptly spent some time wandering the ruins of the city, searching for any Ki signatures to determine if there were any other survivors, not that it would take him very long.

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Sunset came over West City, or what was left of it.

Kai made his way into the remains of Capsule Corp and found Gohan sitting on the couch clenching his fists in rage "I'm pretty sure you already knew this, but I didn't find any other survivors."

"I had to be sure, just to be safe." Gohan looked up at Kai with tears streaming down his face endlessly "This isn't the way life is supposed to be, people shouldn't have to live in constant fear and children shouldn't have to lose their entire families in a span of a few minutes! Why can't things just go back to the way they were before all of this?!"

"Yeah, as if it was such an improvement." Kai let out a loud snort "Gohan seriously, think for a second. When we were toddlers your uncle showed up, his ex-co-worker kidnapped you, and then Piccolo killed you and your dad. Then Piccolo kidnapped both of us, the Saiyans showed up a year later and killed a bunch of people, including Piccolo. Then we went to Namek, a bunch more people died, we came back, your dad died again, then our teacher, our uncles and all of our friends died, and now everyone else has been dying for the past 7 years, and yet somehow we've survived all along."

"But it was better!"

"No, it really wasn't."

"Well we can't just sit around doing nothing while people are out there suffering, we have to get out there and fight! We're the only warriors left on the planet, we're best friends so you know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"...You know something Gohan, I'm starting to realize just how pitiful you really are, such an emotional wreck, just like how I was when my mom died. Look our mentors are gone and now we have to step up, you remember the pact we made don't you?"

"Don't settle for being better when we could be the best."

"You haven't lost sight of that have you?"

"No, no of course not." they clasped hands "I won't let you or anyone else down."

"I know you won't."

"Hey Kai I'm home!" another voice sounded.

"And here comes the cougar in her 40's."

Sure enough, Bulma made her way in with a bag of groceries "Well at least I can say that you're still alive, the last thing I need is a ghost haunting me at night."

"Or you could change your online dating profile from single aunt to just single, one of those gets more hints."

"Good to know, and it looks like we have ourselves a surprise guest. It's been awhile since the last time I saw you Gohan, how have you been?"

"Fine, thank you." Gohan gave a simple nod.

"One of you goes to fight the Androids and then both of you popped up, why am I not surprised by that?"

"Because we're the only ones left who _can_ fight the Androids."

"That was rhetorical. So anyway Gohan, are you staying the night? We have plenty of room here but we don't have any extra beds, so we're going to have to share."

"...I think I'll pass."

"Well I had to try, anyway who's hungry?"

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About an hour passed, and the three of them sat down to dinner.

Bulma promptly served the two of them "You know I hope you can stick around for a while this time Gohan, we hardly ever get to even talk to each other anymore. I miss the good old days, the way I see it travelling to Namek was definitely our all time best adventure."

"Yeah, those were the days." Gohan gave a small smile as he dug into the food.

"And you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get produce these days, luckily we have our own greenhouses. Don't ask me where I get the protein from though."

"I never do, and as long as it's in my stomach and it's not made from people I don't care where it's from."

"And just like that, it's like deja vu, like father like son."

"Oh yeah, you think so?"

"Oh without a shadow of a doubt, the way you eat and the way you're so powerful and so gentle at the same time. Plus there's the way you look, especially in that gi."

"Yeah, I guess I've always dreamed of being as strong as my dad. I figured it would be a great tribute to him to wear his old colors."

"Well I know for a fact that he would be super proud of the brave strong young man you've turned into over the years."

"I can only hope so."

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Training between Kai and Gohan intensified over the next few weeks.

Kai wasted no time in flaring his white aura "Alright Gohan what the hell are you waiting for, if we're gonna do this then just power up already."

"As if you had to ask." Gohan's own milky white aura flared into life, followed by him flashing into Super Saiyan.

' _Looks like someone's got his fighting spirit back, here I thought he was just going with the motions over the past few years. The question is, does he have the grit to push me to use the Namek-Ken on him?_ So this is it, this is what your full power is like at the moment?"

"More or less yeah, I lost sight of what it means to use this power for a while after I lost my father, and then Piccolo and the others. But you reminded me of the vow that we made all those years ago, don't settle for being better when we could be the best. You already figured out your own path and you've been going down it at full speed, and now I'm going to follow you down that path."

"These Androids are the strongest beings we've ever faced, we've lost a lot to them and we can never get most of it back. But we still have each other, and we can push each other to get as strong as possible until we're powerful enough to defeat them. If you want to keep our vow alive then let's see if you have the strength and grit you need to prove it!" and with his green aura flaring into life, Kai charged forward at full speed, meeting Gohan in an explosive collision and slamming his elbow into Gohan's face.

Gohan dodged the next attack and began firing off a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed, resulting in the two of them trading even blows until their fists collided with a blinding flash, and once they broke off he quickly fired a Masenko.

Kai wasted no time as he dodged the Masenko and fired off a barrage of Ki blasts at full speed and full power.

Gohan dodged, blocked and deflected every Ki blast being thrown at him with ease "Is that all you've got Silver Tongue?!"

"Why don't you see for yourself Spike!" Kai blitzed behind Gohan and dealt him a sharp kick to the face, sending him crashing into a nearby plateau on the ground, and then he prepared to follow up with a Nail Gun.

Gohan rebounded just in time to fire an Explosive Demon Wave as he channeled as much Ki as he could into the attack, overpowering Kai's attack as a result.

Kai blitzed out of the way of the blast, blitzed down towards Gohan and kicked him in the chest while he was still preoccupied with the blast, and then he began forcing Gohan on the defensive with a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Growing sick of taking the attacks, Gohan dealt Kai a heavy fist to the chest and followed up with a Masenko to the face, sending him hurtling backwards.

Kai rebounded almost instantly as the two of them took to the skies, their auras blending together in the form of a double helix.

Gohan took the chance to deal Kai a furious barrage of attacks, repeatedly kneeing him in the spine as hard as he could "I don't want you holding back on me in this fight!" they started repeatedly punching each other in the face and torso, ending with them grappling in a power struggle "Don't you dare hold out on me, I told you to take this seriously!" he gripped Kai by the arm and threw him high into the air, and then he charged in to finish it, his golden aura flaring even higher at the same time "I know that you're still holding out on me, I told you to come at me with everything that you've got!"

"I wanted to see if you could handle it, and since you've clearly still got the grit now you're gonna see what real power is like!" with a mighty roar, Kai's green Namek-Ken aura flared into life.

"I told you to give me everything, because that's what I'm giving you!"

"And now everything is what you're going to get!" Kai charged down at Gohan at full speed, resulting in a blinding clash as he slugged Gohan in the gut.

Gohan slugged Kai in the gut and delat him a fist to the face "Come on Kai, give me all of your strength right here and right now!"

"Fine!" Kai powered up his Namek-Ken even further, his body pulsing and his muscles bulging visibly "Alright bring it on Gohan, let's end this!"

"I plan to!" pushing his Super Saiyan power to the absolute limit, Gohan charged at Kai as high and as fast as he could, resulting in a blinding white light that lit up the sky across the entire wasteland, as well as shaking the surface of the entire planet as a result. When everything had subsided a few moments later, Gohan's Super Saiyan form had disappeared, the same with Kai's Namek-Ken aura. Gohan whipped around and aimed one last fist at Kai, but he stopped just before it connected, and instead he finally lost consciousness and began falling towards the ground.

Kai caught Gohan before he could finish falling and gently lowered him to the ground "Looks like you definitely did get your spirit back, and now we're gonna use it to push you a hell of a lot further."

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A few hours passed, and the two of them soon recovered from their little bout.

Kai handed Gohan a towel as they sat down on a rocky coastline "You know if you think my training method is tough you should've seen what my mother put herself through."

"I'll take your word for it." Gohan breathed a sigh "You really do look up to her don't you, but what about your dad? You never mentioned him before."

"Don't know where that deadbeet is, don't care. Never knew him, don't want to know him. As far as I'm concerned, Yamcha is the only dad I ever had."

"I see. You know you talk a lot about how great a martial artist your mom was, but you don't talk a lot about her personality, and I didn't get to know her that well when I died before. What was she like?"

"She was a warm and caring woman, power and gentle at the same time. In a lot of ways she was like a chick version of Goku, but the difference was that she didn't have a cantaloupe where her brain was supposed to be."

Gohan let out a slight chuckle ' _Training is well and good and all, and I'm glad Kai and I can still talk like there's nothing wrong in the world. But still, I can't shake this feeling that there's something coming. Something really bad.'_ he had no idea how right he was.

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The next day came, and the Androids would launch another attack, this time on the amusement park known as Super World, and about half of the population there would be killed, with the other half fleeing for their lives while the Androids tried to enjoy themselves on the various rides throughout the amusement park.

Unfortunately for them, and even moreso for everyone else in the world, it didn't take very long for 17 and 18 to get bored with it "You know it's kind of sad, when you can fly across the planet in a matter of hours these rides really don't seem that fun."

"Is that a fact?" that was when Kai and Gohan dropped down onto the scene, both raring and ready to fight "Well here's an offer for you, if you're already bored then why don't you try taking a ride on my fist?"

"...Wow, so are you gonna want a minute to rephrase that there dude?"

"I know damn well what I said, and frankly I'd rather take that minute to rip you apart one piece at a time."

"Okay now see, that's better."

"It'll be even better than that once I know that you're both rotting in hell. Anyway Gohan feel free to sit back and spectate while I go crimson fury all over them, unless they try to gang up on me, in which case feel free to jump in."

"You know, despite all of our training I can't help but feel like we're woefully unprepared for this." Gohan pointed out.

"And that's exactly what we prepared for."

"No, it's really not."

"They stopped being amusing about three years ago." 18 commented dryly "What do you say we finish these annoying little shits off this time?"

"Works for me." 17 promptly stepped forward and unleashed a Ki blast on the ground, creating a makeshift smokescreen as he burst forward.

"What the hell do you take me for you goddamn Voltron reject?" Kai sidestepped 17's attack with ease and powered up his Namek-Ken aura to level 20 as he started blocking and countering all of 17's punches and kicks, eventually managing to deal 17 a solid kick to the face, sending him crashing through the structure of one of the roller coasters, and then he fired a quick Masenko as fast as he could.

17 dodged the blast, blitzed behind Kai and dealt him a solid kick to the face before he was able to react, sending him crashing through a nearby funhouse.

" **Nail Gun!"** Kai fired a Nail Gun at 17 from within the rubble.

17 deflected the Nail Gun and prepared to charge in.

Kai blitzed in front of 17 and the two of them started trading even blows, before Kai dealt 17 a solid kick to the face, and then he prepared to fire an Explosive Demon Wave.

"Yeah I'm thinking that's enough of that." 18 blitzed in front of Kai and dealt him a brutal kick to the gut, followed by a fist to the face that sent him flying through several buildings, wounding him from the impact and from the broken glass.

17 pulled himself out of the rubble and wiped the blood from his lip "Where the hell did all of that come from?"

"Looks like he's pissy today, you think it's his time of the month?"

"Ha, it's funny because you're of chick. Alright, let's snuff out that fire in his gut."

"Works for me." and so the two of them charged at Kai at full speed and in perfect sync.

Kai suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a brutal beatdown ' _Dammit, it's like I walked into the wrong neighborhood on Pokemon Go.'_

"So you ready to die yet?"

"He's not dying today, not by your hands!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and charged at them at full speed.

18 promptly hit Gohan with a quick Infinity Bullet blast, sending him flying backwards a short distance and engulfing him in an explosion.

" **Masenko!"** Gohan took advantage of the smoke to hit 18 dead on with a quick Masenko, engulfing her in an explosion in return.

18 and Gohan continued their clash until they took it atop a nearby ferris wheel "Okay seriously, who the hell lets a bunch of teenagers end up in a battle like this? Not gonna lie, that's super irresponsible." she wasn't wrong.

"I'm not afraid of you monster, I can take care of you by myself!" he however was, but he didn't know that just yet, and so he charged at 18 and unleashed a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed.

18 dodged and blocked every attack with ease, and eventually she dealt Gohan a solid fist to the face.

Gohan took the opportunity to hit her with a Masenko at point blank range, burning her but only slightly, and the only real damage it did was piss her off.

"And just like that I'm done screwing around with you kid." she dealt him a solid blow to the gut and grabbed him by the front of his gi "So now what do you think?"

"I think… you hit like… like a girl…"

"...Well you're not wrong." so 18 promptly hit Gohan full force with an Infinity Bullet at point blank range, sending him spiralling to the ground, leaving him in an unconscious bloody heap on the ground.

"Dammit, Gohan!" breaking off from his and 17's one on one, Kai dealt 18 a solid blow to the face that sent her flying away, and he took the opportunity to grab Gohan from within the rubble and come up with a plan "We're not gonna win at this rate."

"You got that right!" 17 dealt Kai a Photon Wave to the back, sending him tumbling backwards a great distance.

Kai pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood, keeping his hold on Gohan ' _At this rate there's no way I'd be able to win if I have to fight both of them at once and keep them from blasting Gohan to kingdom come, I'll have to make a tactical retreat.'_ so he promptly started running and jumping across the lands of Super World.

"Oh no you don't you little shit!" 17 and 18 wasted no time in firing a massive barrage of Ki blasts across the park, torching it and blowing it to bits in a matter of moments.

As the place went up in a barrage of miniature explosions, Kai held Gohan tightly as he hid behind a piece of rubble ' _Come on, please tell me you guys can't sense Ki like we can. It's a major gamble to risk my life on, but it's the only thing I've got at this point.'_

17 and 18 looked around, but they couldn't find Kai or Gohan amongst the rubble "Well that's a load of shit, you think they got away from us again?"

"The hell if I know." 18 gave a shrug "Keep in mind that we can't sense life energy, Gero can go fuck himself in hell for that."

"Seriously, what the hell was the point of not giving us that ability? It seems like an intentional design flaw if you ask me."

"Well what can you do about that, so anyway do we go scorched Earth?"

"Hell yeah we go scorched Earth." and so they fired a few simultaneous Ki blasts into the air at random.

' _Oh crapbaskets.'_ Kai tightened his hold on Gohan's unconscious form as the blasts came raining down from above, engulfing the area in a blinding light and a fiery explosion.

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It took only a few minutes for the lights and the explosion to subsided, but considerably longer than that for the smoke to clear and the dust to settle, but by that point the Androids were both long gone.

Kai slowly opened his eyes, covered in blood and wounds, but he was still alive ' _Well I'm not dead, so maybe that's good- Oh shit…'_ his thoughts were cut short and his blood ran cold at what he saw lying a few feet in front of him.

Gohan was lying unconscious a few feet away from him, he was still alive, but his left leg had been blown off by the blast, and it was lying a short distance away.

' _Okay so I'm in serious pain and Gohan is missing one of his legs, and if Goku were here chances are he would just try to eat the thing. Too bad neither of us are Namekians, that would probably come in really handy right about now. Well good thing we've got the next best thing in the form of my secret stash of Senzu Beans!'_ he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown bag, revealing only one Senzu Bean inside ' _Correction, Senzu Bean, as in singular. Okay, that's more than a little inconvenient. Well on one hand, I don't have Saiyan biology and I won't get a Zenkai. On the other hand, I still have both of my legs. Yeah, everything hurts like a mother fucker, but hey, what are you going to do?'_ so using what little strength he had left he slowly crawled his way over to Gohan "Hey… don't beat yourself up over this… when you wake up okay… You kicked ass out there… But I need you to swallow this, okay? If either one of us has to live… let it be you…" using the last of his strength, he managed to stuff the Senzu Bean right into Gohan's mouth right before the last of his strength faded, and he lost consciousness.

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Nightfall came.

Bulma was hard at work on her computer on some very important business "Let's see here, I'm looking for a male in mid to late 30's with black spiky hair, not too tall and loves to work out a lot."

"Hey Bulma?"

"I'm not doing an online dating profile!" Bulma quickly switched it to a file with some high tech schematics on it and whipped around "Gohan what did I tell you about- Oh my god, what the hell happened to the two of you?!"

As it turns out, Gohan was slowly floating his way into the room due to missing one his legs, carrying the greviously wounded form of Kai on his back "To put it bluntly, we got beat up worse than high school would ever be able to do to us."

"Understatement of the fucking decade, one of you is half dead and the other is missing a leg for crying out loud! Get over to the beds, and hurry!"

"Right, I know." and this would lead to several painful hours of Bulma treating Kai's injuries and dealing with the stump that used to be Gohan's left leg.

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Hours passed, and the sun was beginning to rise over the ruins that used to be West City.

Bulma examined the bandaged stump where Gohan's left leg once resided "I have been working on an idea in case something like this happened, granted it was because I thought it was going to happen to Kai, but… Anyway just give me some time, I'll get it done eventually."

"I think I understand, thank you Bulma, really…" Gohan let out a sigh "Truth be told I didn't really feel much pain from losing it, I doubt me being conscious would've made a difference in that regard."

"Maybe, maybe not. So tell me something kid, have you learned anything today?"

"That the only good Android is a dead Android?"

"...You've been spending way too much time around Kai over the years."

"What can I say, he's my best friend." their conversation was cut short by several loud groans of agony, and they looked over at Kai to see him struggling to move "He's awake already?"

"The doctors said that he would be out for a week at least."

"Where… Where are they…?" Kai gritted his teeth as he forced himself to sti up "Where the helll are… those damn Androids…?"

Gohan just watched him struggle and let out a sad sigh ' _The Androids are monsters that take pleasure in killing people and destroying, we've been lucky up until now but our luck isn't going to last forever. We have to step up our training big time, or else we're going to be done for, and if we die then so does everyone else on the planet. If Super Saiyan isn't enough to get the job done, then I'll just have to find a way to go beyond that.'_

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A year passed, and as the destruction across the world continued, and as it did training intensified considerably.

Gohan threw a few pebbles off a cliffside in frustration "I can't believe myself, how much of a joke can I be?"

"Hey dial it back a few notches, it's a pipe dream anyway." Kai just leaned back and downed a soda in his hand "I mean finding a level beyond Super Saiyan is only a theory anyway, it's just something you came up with on a whim."

"What am I doing wrong though? You're my best friend Kai, we're supposed to be blunt and tell each other these things without any regard for how we feel. Why can't I do it?"

"Just think about it, Goku went Super Saiyan against Frieza because you got blown up, and you went Super Saiyan against Slug because you were pissed off about the thought of letting everyone down. Maybe the same principle applies, you just need to find the right motivation to go past the limit. Besides remember what I always say, limitations are merely a state of mind for any warrior. You just need something to push you over that edge."

"Well in those cases it was mostly the pain of loss, but I lost my dad, my uncle and Piccolo and everyone else all in the span of a few months, and that wasn't enough to push me over the metaphorical edge."

"Well power mostly comes from rage, that was more grief than anything else. For me I just think about how I couldn't do anything to help my mom when she died when I was really little, or whatever the case was with my dad for bailing on her, and then I let all of that residual anger build up inside of me until it either explodes, or I channel it into my training."

"So just let it build up inside until it explodes?"

"Pretty much yeah." and then an explosion lit up the sky from within the city sitting in the distance "Like that but from a more metaphorical standpoint."

"Crap it's the Androids again!" they bolted to their feet "Dammit, the people down there never even had a chance!"

"Way ahead of you." Kai promptly flashed into his Namek-Ken, his green aura surging wildly around his body "Take my advice and hang back this time Gohan, we both know you're in no condition to fight."

"Kai you can't be serious, if you fight those two on your own you're going to get yourself killed for sure!"

"I'm a lot more vulnerable when I have to look out for you."

"Leg or no leg I'm a lot stronger this time around, there's no way I'm letting you go alone into a fight like that when I know I can stop you!"

' _...Chances are he's going to hate me for this._ Alright Gohan fair point, let's go down there and wreck some shit the way only we can."

"Great, just let me power up to Super Saiyan and-" Gohan was cut off by a silent chop to the back of the neck, knocking him out cold and sending him crashing to the ground with a loud thud.

"Sorry about this Gohan, but after what happened to you last time there's no way I'm going to risk letting you get involved in this, at least when I know I can stop it. Let's face it, we both knew that this was going to be my battle until either they or I died, and you're not quite ready for that just yet. Let's face it, at the rate we're going they're gonna keep chipping away at us until nothing is left. The least I can do for you as your best friend is lighten your load, and if I don't come back… well then at least I'll get to see my mom again. Take care of yourself from here on out, this is goodbye… my friend." and with that, Kai blasted off towards the city with his green aura blazing.

Only one of the three in the following battle would come out alive…

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The scene in the city was about what people had come to expect from the likes of the Androids up to this point.

17 and 18 were now just blasting random shit and causing Man of Steel levels of property damage and civilian casualties, until 17 dropped a sudden bombshell "You know what, I'm actually bored."

"Well we could always find another city to destroy." 18 pointed out.

"No not that, I mean I'm great of this whole Great Destroyer shtick. Destroying this, killing people, probably making people hate Man of Steel even more…" he killed some random dude with a stray Ki blast "It just loses its luster after awhile."

"Yeah I know what you mean, after you wipe an entire genre of music off the face of the Earth what else is left?" she killed a dude climbing out of the rubble with a random Ki blast.

"You know what I always wanted to do, even before all of this? I've always wanted to be a park ranger."

"You want to range a park?"

"Hell yeah I do. Living outdoors, communicating with nature, shooting poachers, yeah I think I'm gonna do that-"

"DODGE!" that was when Kai dropped onto the scene and kicked 17 square in the face in an instant before he could react, sending him flying and crashing through a building.

"What the hell, you goddamn cheap son of a bitch!" 17 crashed through the destroyed building and pulled himself out of the rubble, his clothes now considerably torn.

18 burst out laughing at the sight "Hey just slapped your shit!"

"Okay you know what, that's it. Now I'm killing every human, every last one. And then I'm gonna range the shit out of that park."

"Yeah you just keep telling yourself that, and I'll fight a bunch of Sailor Moon cosplayers in a tournament to save the entire universe."

"Quite the imagination you've got."

"That could go for either of you if you think you're gonna leave this place alive." Kai dropped into a combat stance "It doesn't matter if you do kill me, even if I die in this fight I swear I'll drag you both straight down to hell with me. Even if my story ends here you've got a hole other book to get through."

"I think we'll see about that!" 17 and 18 both charged at Kai from opposite directions, and the battle began.

" **Down Burst!"** Kai slammed a Ki blast into the ground and created a smokescreen as he burst upwards into the air at full speed.

17 and 18 soared upwards right alongside him and fired a combined barrage of Full Power Energy Balls at Kai.

" **Double Masenko!"** Kai fired two Masenko blasts, one from each hand, cancelling out the Full Power Energy Balls, and through the light he blocked a punch from both 17 and 18, and he promptly dealt 17 a sharp kick to the head, sending him crashing to the ground.

"You little shit!" 18 dealt Kai a brutal kick to the head while he was preoccupied with 17, which sent him crashing to the ground.

Kai burst out from beneath the rubble and retreated just in time to avoid a combined barrage of attacks from both of them " **Nail Gun!""** he fired a quick full power Nail Gun at the Androids as fast as he was able to.

17 and 18 unleashed a combination Full Power Energy Wave to counter the Nail Gun, which resulted in a beam struggle, but their blast was quickly overpowered and they were sent flying backwards as a result.

Kai charged in to finish it.

" **Photon Flash!"** 17 quickly slammed Kai with a Photon Flash, hitting him square in the face and sending him flying backwards and into the air as a storm began raging overhead, rain pouring down over the battlefield.

' _Dammit, they're going all out this time and my Namek-Ken isn't going to hold up for too much longer. At this rate I only have one option, if I put it off for too much longer then I might not be able to find the opening I need. First I need to start converting the necessary amount of energy I need for this to work, and with any luck I'll at least take one of them with me.'_

17 pulled himself and 18 out of the rubble "You know it's actually pretty fitting, this kind of storm will make the perfect backdrop for when you die."

"Like I said before, if I go down then I'm taking you both with me." Kai started fending off a barrage of simultaneous attacks from both of them, taking a few hits from each of them but mostly being able to fend them off, but eventually he broke away from them and started flying away through the ruins of the city.

"You're not getting away!" 17 and 18 both slammed him into the ruins of a building and prepared to unleash their ultimate attack: their Accel Dance, in which they slammed Kai down towards the ground and unleashed a rapid barrage of Ki blasts.

' _Dammit, I'll only have one shot at this!'_ Kai fired a quick Masenko at point blank range in an attempt to use it to cancel out as many of the oncoming Ki blasts as he could, which worked to an extent, but he was still engulfed in the explosion that followed. When the smoke cleared a few moments later, Kai was still alive, but his body was badly burnt and his Namek-Ken aura had completely vanished ' _Dammit… I guess I really don't have any other choice now. Note to self, thank Chiaotzu for teaching me this when I see him on the other side.'_

"Looks like someone is a little trooper." with her overconfidence getting the better of her, 18 dropped down in front of Kai and kicked him to the ground, then prepared to fly away, but stopped when she noticed Kai grab her by the ankle, followed by suddenly pulling her into a full nelson "What the hell are you doing?"

"Like I said… I go down… you come with me… _Sorry Gohan, this is it for me. I'm doing what I have to do today, but the world will still have you once the dust settles. Live long and do what makes you happy. I'm proud to be able to call you my friend. Goodbye.'_ his body started glowing with energy.

"What the hell are you doing, let go of her!" 17 burst towards Kai and started pounding away at him, punching and kicking him repeatedly, with 18 also struggling to get out of his grip at the same time.

Kai gritted his teeth from the pain, but otherwise he kept his grip tight ' _Keep going, just a little further…'_

"Get the hell off me you arrogant little shit!" 18 slammed Kai's face into the ground, only for his body to start glowing even brighter.

' _Yep, this is it for me. Goodbye Gohan, live a long life and be happy.'_ and with that final thought ringing through his mind, Kai's body promptly detonated like a star, a massive explosion covering the entire city, or what was left of it, in an instant.

When the smoke cleared, 17 pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out some blood and debris, but when he regained his awareness he found, to his horror, only a few strands of hair and a statue where Kai had once stood "18… No, no no no no no! This can't be happening, come on this isn't funny! 18!" he searched frantically but had little luck aside from a few pieces of charred hair and clothing. Upon taking a few minutes to let his rage boil inside of him, 17 then charged off in search of another city, only one thought on his mind ' _They will die slowly, every last one of them.'_

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Meanwhile, outside of the city…

Gohan slowly opened his eyes and shook off the grogginess as his senses came back "Kai, what the heck was that for?" he pulled himself to his feet and looked down towards the smoking ruins where the city used to be, and he was almost instantly filled with dread "Dammit Kai you can't be serious, why the hell would you go alone?!"

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The rain once again began pouring down over what was left of the city.

Gohan was slowly and cautiously flying overhead in search of any sign of Kai, and eventually he managed to catch sign of Kai's body sitting in the same crater where it once stood "Kai, oh man you had me worried there-" he paused when the realization finally set in, and he felt his blood run cold "No, no no no… Come on man, this prank isn't funny…" but try as he might he couldn't deny it, and so he slowly dropped to the ground and started cautiously walking forward one step at a time "Kai… Why did you have to go alone? Why didn't you just let me come with you? It's just not fair… You could've just let me come with you, and you'd still be… Oh god no…" he fell to his knees in front of Kai's body What the hell did they do to you Kai? What did you do to yourself? You were my best friend… You were like a brother to me… You were all I had left… This just isn't fair… I already lost my friends… my family… my mentor… so without you here… I'm all alone…" he fell to his knees and began letting his tears run down his face as they mixed with the rainwater, then he curled up and let out several blood-curdling screams of grief, rage and hopelessness, which then turned into nothing but pure, grief-filled sobs.

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The months continued to pass, even with only one Android left, the rampage of destruction only grew even more chaotic.

Gohan sat on the bed in his room in Capsule Corp, staring up at the ceiling with a blank and emotionless expression on his face, until he heard a knock on his door "What?"

Bulma slowly made her way in "I wasn't sure if you were interested, but I made dinner if you want any."

"I'm not hungry."

"I didn't think you would be." Bulma sat down on the edge of the bed and let out a sigh "I know how you feel, I know we didn't always see eye to eye, but I miss him just as much as you do. I miss all of them."

"...Everywhere I go I still see his face, all of their faces, it's like my own mind is just outright mocking me. The whole world is asking who's gonna stop the other Android, it's like they're asking who's gonna be the next Goku. But that's just not me Bulma, I'm not my dad I'm not Kai or Piccolo, or any of them…"his voice broke into strangled sobs as he was pulled into a comforting hug by Bulma.

"Yeah that's true, you're not Goku or Piccolo, or Kai or any of them, and you're never going to be them. Nobody can live up to those guys, not even them. Kai was probably the furthest you could possibly even dream of being. Let's face it, when Kai wasn't training until his bones cracked he was a mess. He was all over the place, he second guessed a lot of the stuff he did, and he always made it look like he didn't give a shit. But there was one thing he almost always showed that he cared about, and that was his friendship with you."

"Bulma…"

"I honestly don't believe that Kai would've done what he did if he didn't know you were going to be here after he was gone. Now you listen to me Gohan, the world is still in a hell of a lot of trouble, you're all alone, you're still not strong enough to beat the last Android. So tell me, what are you going to do?"

"...Don't settle for being better when you could be the best."

"What?"

"That's what Kai always said to me, it's what we built our friendship on." Gohan wiped away his tears and tried to force a smile "Kai, Piccolo and my dad, none of them would want me to just sit around moping for the rest of my life. They would want me to keep going forward with a smile on my face and a fire in my heart, they'd want me to grow stronger and take out the last Android, and then they'd want me to follow my own path and do what makes me happy. Yeah it hurts a lot right now, and this is really hard and frustrating, but I can't and won't just sit around crying like some little kid. After all, if I don't rise up to take on the Androids, then who will?"

Bulma let out a chuckle "Yeah that's the kind of smile that Goku always had, I know he would be proud of you for moving past this. So what are you going to do?"

"I'll train harder than ever before, beyond Super Saiyan or not, and I'm going to find that Android and kick his ass."

"I meant right now, you're still down a leg."

"...Oh yeah, so-"

"I know I know, I actually finished it last night."

"I'll take it. And Bulma? Thanks."

"Sure thing kid. Now come with me, once we get that thing attached I have a secret project I've been preparing that I could use your help on."

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The weeks continued to go by.

Gohan (now with a cypernetic leg attached to his body) made his way into Bulma's workshop carrying a box over his shoulders "Alright here's it is Bulma, I've got the next round of the suppies for the legally safe knockoff of the TARDIS from Doctor Who."

"Ha ha, very funny." Bulma rolled her eyes "I know it still seems like it's crazy, but keep in mind that people thought my dad was crazy and he became the greatest inventor in the world."

"Yeah but you know the difference, he wasn't trying to pull a Doctor Who and Avengers Endgame rehash."

"He didn't have that good of a crasp of time anyhow, whenever he was working days passed by like minutes to him. Where's your pioneering spirit anyway, don't you want to help Goku and the others beat the Androids?"

"You're saying that like you're 100% positive that this is going to work, unless you can get that thing humming like the actual TARDIS I have no intention of getting my hopes up. If I have to go track down 17 by myself then I'll do it, as I am right now chances are I would easily be able to oneshot Frieza."

"The same could easily be said for the likes of Kai, Raditz, Tarble and any of them, but I think it should be obvious by now that that's not enough. If you want to get yourself killed by that Android then fine, I can take the antidote to your father myself, but if you think throwing your life away for no good reason is going to make any of them happy then you'll be in for a rude awakening on the other side!"

"Don't think you can just use Kai's name like that, he was my best friend and I won't let you use his name against me like that-"

" _Attention!"_ a voice got their attention from the radio " _We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the latest update on Android activities, Bridgetown is currently under attack, the southbound interstate is the only route of the city that hasn't been destroyed as of yet! I repeat, Brigdetown is under attack!"_ and then the broadcast was cut off.

"That's not too far from here."

Bulma's gaze hardened "Gohan don't tell me you're thinking about going."

"I think you already know the answer to that."

"I know how you feel, but if you just let me finish with the Time Machine."

"Bulma we don't have time for that!"

"That's what the machine is for!"

"It doesn't matter, I'm not turning my back on those people!" and with that, Gohan bolted out of the room as fast as he could.

"Gohan wait, there's still another way! _Dammit Goku, why did your son have to be as stubborn as you?'_

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Clad in a replica of Goku's classic gi, Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and blasted off into the skies at full speed ' _Alright this is it Android, it's just you and me. Not one death by your hands will go unaccounted for, and I'll make sure Kai's sacrifice wasn't in vain!'_

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17 looked around at the city, or what was left of it, and gave a smirk of satisfaction "That's another one down, I guess I'm out of people to kill here. I might as well move onto the next city then." he prepared to blast off into the skies in search of another city, when a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"I've got a better idea." that was when Gohan dropped down behind him, his eyes blazing with golden fury "Why don't you give it a shot with me?"

"Wait a second, did you just ask me to kill you?"

"No you bastard, I'm saying that I'm here to kill you."

"Wait hold on a second, do I even know you?"

"Yes, my best friend and almost everyone I care about died because of you!"

"Oh yeah that's right, I don't give a shit." 17 blitzed in front of Gohan and dealt him a solid fist to the face, sending him crashing into the remains of a nearby building.

" **Masenko!"** from within the wreckage, Gohan fired a Masenko through the smoke.

17 blitzed past the Masenko and caught Gohan's fist "You think that's gonna be enough you little shit?" he sent Gohan flying with a fist to the face.

Gohan quickly skidded to a stop, then blitzed towards 17 and started firing off a rapid barrage of punches and kicks.

17 dodged and blocked every attack being thrown at him with ease "Well what do you know, it looks like someone finally hit puberty." he dealt Gohan a sharp kick to the gut, sending him skidding backwards, then blitzed in front of Gohan and dealt him a Photon Flash to the chest at point blank range, sending him flying backwards, followed by a barrage of Ki blasts, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

Gohan blitzed through the explosion and dealt 17 a sharp kick to the face, sending him skidding backwards, and then he followed up with an Explosive Demon Wave, engulfing 17 in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, 17 was standing in the resulting crater, his clothes slightly burnt but otherwise he was unharmed "Well what the hell do you know, looks like someone got a little power boost since the last time we went at it. Not like it's gonna do you much good, but still I give you points for effort."

With his teeth grinding furiously, Gohan unleashed a rapid barrage of Ki blasts at 17, engulfing him in the ensuing explosion.

Just like before, 17 wasn't even harmed by the blasts "So are you done yet?"

' _This is insane, just what the hell am I up against?'_

"So are you gonna keep going or can I just finish this already?"

"Dammit, why the hell won't you just die!" Gohan fired another barrage of Ki blasts at 17 in a blind rage, engulfing 17 in yet another explosion, before he returned to the ground and fell to one knee in exhaustion ' _Dammit I don't have much power left, looking back that might not have been the best idea.'_

"Well doesn't this seem familiar?" 17's voice echoed hauntingly throughout the remains of the city "Looks like a certain someone "Yeah I see a few resemblences now that I think about it, but unlike those guys you're still kicking and you actually make the blonde work. I'll be sure to fix that, just give me a few minutes." that was when he burst out from a ruined building and appeared behind Gohan with a sinister smirk.

' _Oh crapbaskets-'_ Gohan's thought were cut off by a backhanded fist to the face, sending him crashing into the building, and then a kick to the face, sending him flying backwards.

Gohan ran through the building and hid behind a wall, his mind racing ' _Please don't let him find me…'_

"Where is he?" 17 popped up behind Gohan, startling him "You ever think about how shadows and mirrors work kid?"

"...I don't get it."

"You don't need to." 17 promptly hit Gohan with a Photon Flash to the face, sending him flying through a wall and crashing into a ruined garden area. He landed in front of Gohan and cupped his face "Hey come on now Sunshine, give me a little sign if you're not dead yet."

Gohan let out a violent hacking cough "Dammit…"

"You see, that's a good boy."

"Why…? I don't understand… tell me… Why are you doing this…?"

"...You really want to know? Fine. The question isn't why kid, it's why not. At least, that's what it used to be. Then that little bastard went and took my sister from me. I can't take it out on him, so now I'm doing the next best thing: I'm making sure every single miserable piece of shit on this planet feels the pain and the loss of what he took from me. And then I'll make them pay for it, and they'll pay for it in their blood and screams of agony. I mean, who the hell is going to stop me? Not the great hero Son Goku that everyone always went on about, not those guys eight years ago, not that angry little shit that took my sister from me, and sure as hell not you."

"You… You won't… get away… with this…" Gohan staggered back to his feet and feebly tried firing off a few weak punches, some of them hitting but not doing anything "All of… those people… All of my friends… my family… I won't… let you… get away with this… Not while I'm… still alive…"

"You know it's kind of weird, this is a strange mix of hysterical and annoying. And now I'm bored with this." 17 threw Gohan back a short distance, then kicked him into the air, sending him crashing into the ruins of a nearby building, elbowed him in the spine, kneed him in the gut and slugged him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground and knocking him out of his Super Saiyan form.

"Wait a second, yeah I thought you looked familiar. You were that kid that showed up every now and then with the Zoro reject who never carried a sword around!" he promptly stomped down on top of Gohan's head, causing him to cry out in pain "Aww, who's a little survivor? You are, yes you are! Give me a minute, I'll be sure to fix that." he promptly fired a Phton Flash at Gohan at point blank range, engulfing him in the massive explosion that followed.

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An unknown amount of time later…

Gohan slowly regained consciousness, but cringed at the light shining over his face ' _Where am I… Am I dead?'_

"I know what you're thinking kid, and no you're not dead."

Gohan slowly opened his eyes and found Bulma looking over him from his bedside "Bulma… is that you…?"

"Yeah it's me Gohan, everything is going to be okay. After all, someone has to stay alive to take care of you."

"Yeah, I guess…" Gohan cringed from the pain of his wounds "I'm sorry Bulma… looks like you were right, just like always… I shouldn't have tried to take on the Android… He was way too strong… As I am right now, I don't have a chance in hell of beating him…"

"Maybe you don't, but you're still alive, and right now that's the most important thing."

"...You know what Bulma, I think I'm ready to take a trip in the Time Machine if it's ready."

"For crying out loud Gohan, you don't even know if you have any arms and legs left under that blanket but you're saying you're ready to pilot the Time Machine? We have to take this sort of thing one step at a time, right now you need to concentrate on healing for a few days and then we'll worry about sending you back in time to give the antidote to Goku."

"To my father…" Gohan let out a sigh "He was always my role model, but do you think even he would be strong enough to make a difference?"

"You should already know the answer to that, of course he can make a difference. But it's about a lot more than just how strong he is, Goku has this incredible feeling about him. When you have him around, you just know that everything is going to be okay, and it always is."

"Yeah, I guess a decade of living in the apocalypes can make someone lose sight of that sort of thing. But still, I'll get to see Kai and Piccolo and everyone else again."

"Honestly, that's part of what I'm afraid of."

"Oh come on Bulma, you can't seriously tell me you're still afraid of Piccolo."

"I never said I was afraid of him."

"You tried to ditch him to die when Namek was about to explode. Kai told me."

"...That mouthy little bastard." there was a pause, and they both shared a good laugh about that little exchange, something they both clearly needed.

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Another few weeks went by for Gohan to rest and recover, and then the day came for him to finally travel back in time.

Bulma finished spray painting the word HOPE onto the side of the time machine, then turned towards Gohan with a small fond smile "I can only imagine how proud Goku must be of you for doing this, you look exactly like he did when he was 18, it's like you're the spitting image of him from back then."

"I can only hope I'm making him proud." Gohan looked down at the bottle in his hand "So I guess this is the antidote for the Heart Virus?"

"Yeah, do me a favor and don't drop it or anything okay?"

"Yeah I know, I have to be sure to stay out of trouble while I'm over there, but in the meantime you be sure to stay out of trouble over here while I'm gone okay?"

"I can only promise to try, you know me after all."

"Yeah I do know you, and that's exactly what I'm worried about." Gohan let out a chuckle as he hopped into the cockpit of the time machine.

"I'm serious when I say this Son Gohan, you'd better come back alive."

"Yeah I know Bulma, I know. Believe me when I say that the next time you see me, there will be at least one world free of the Android menace!" and with that, the time machine started up, hovered into the air, and then disappeared in a manner similar to the TARDIS.

' _Gohan, Goku, the world is counting on the two of you, so be sure you don't let us down or I'll never let you hear the end of it.'_

 **A/N:**

 **And with this heartbreaking chapter, we finally get to see the heartbreaking future from which Future Gohan had come, having been forced to endure the loss of almost everyone he loved, from his father to his mentor, to his best friend.**

 **Let's face it, the History of Trunks was a masterpiece of a DBZ movie, but one thing I would prefer to see more of was how Gohan dealt with the loss of his father and all of his friends over the years before his death. That's mainly what his character arc is about, dealing with the pain of loss he's forced to endure, and how Kai, his best friend and one of the few people he has left, is going to help him through it, even in death.**

 **If Gohan seems out of character in this chapter, then think about all of this from his perspective. His father died from a heart virus and he can't bring him back, then his mentor and almost all of his friends died while he was helpless to do anything about it. And then seven years later, he loses his best friend to these monsters, one of the few people he had left in the world. How could anyone not break from dealing with the pain of that much loss?**

 **Power levels:**

Future Gohan: 3.2 million

Future Gohan (post 1 year training): 3.6 million

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 160 million

Super Saiyan Future Gohan (post 1 year training): 180 million

Future Kai: 8.5 million

Future Kai (post 1 year training): 9 million

Future Kai (Namek-Ken 20x): 170 million

Future Kai (post 1 year training Namek-Ken 20x): 180 million

Future Kai (self destruct attack): 450 million

Future Android 17: 380 million

Future Android 18: 370 million


	21. Twisted Future, Androids Awaken

**xSonallyGirl129x:** Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Truth be told, I actually took some inspiration from the Lost Hope chapters of your Rewrite the Stars fic, so that I could add some more heart into that chapter. Plus I wanted to flesh out on Future Gohan's character development to show how losing almost everyone he loved affected him so badly, and I wanted to show how he lost his leg. Overall, I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you continue to enjoy the chapters that are still to come.

 **Guest:** I do plan to go onto Super with this fic, regardless of the rather… mixed reception it has amongst the fanbase. As for the Zamasu arc, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, but I like the way you think. If you have any other ideas, don't be afraid to pitch them. I'm curious to see what else you come up with.

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While the battle and the chase scene were raging on, Upa had brought Goku back to his home on Mount Paozu and given him the Heart Medicine, and now he and Chichi were watching over him in concern "Please Goku, we need to to stay with us. If you can't get back out there and beat the Androids then none of us will stand a chance."

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Kai was flying through the rocky landscape in search of Android 20, his Namek-Ken powered aura flaring wildly around his body ' _Wait a second, so just because he's a machine I can't sense him to track him down? That doesn't even make any sense. You know what screw it, Ki sensing is just a bunch of bullshit.'_ he landed on a cliff in the middle of the landscape "Hey what's the matter old man, why are you hiding? Are you just scared because I blew up your friend? I would go so far as to call it your sexbot, but as you're currently demonstrating, you don't have any balls underneath those ridiculously baggy pants of yours! _Dammit, this rocky terrain is littered with all sorts of places he can hide in.'_

What he didn't realize was that Android 20 was hiding only a short distance away ' _Yes, the boy is desperate to find me. All I have to do is wait him out.'_

"Oh wow, I sure do feel winded after using that blast to blow up your robosexual life partner back there. It sure would suck if you jumped me and absorbed all of my Ki and I was powerless to stop you. Oh no, some dust in my eyes! This is the worst!"

' _Any minute now…'_

"...GET THE FUCK OUT HERE!" Kai soared into the air and prepared to fire a large one handed Ki blast.

What he didn't realize was that Yamcha was right below him "Hey Kai thanks for waiting for us, anyway we finally caught up with you and- What the hell do you think you're doing?! We're down here!"

"Just fly up dammit!" Kai promptly fired an Explosive Demon Wave down towards the rocky terrain below.

"Yes, now's my chance!" seizing the opportunity, Android 20 sped out from his hiding place and held out his hands, absorbing the Explosive Demon Wave as soon as it had made contact with his body "And now your energy belongs to me!"

"Believe whatever you want He Who Lacks Gearsticles, that's exactly what I was planning on the whole time. I knew you couldn't resist draining as much of my energy as you could, so all I had to do was flush you out and finish the job. And now you're all mine you old son of a-"

"You won't get another chance boy!" Android 20 promptly blitzed away through the rocky landscape.

"Hey get back here, I wasn't done!" Kai promptly blitzed after him, only to quickly find that he had lost him again "Okay you know what, this tactical shit gets old really fast. Now do the sensible thing and get the fuck out here and fight me blindly like a man! Or a mandroid, or whatever the fuck you are!" he failed to notice Android 20 hiding on top of the rock plateau directly above him ' _Yes you may rival the power of a Super Saiyan Kai, but you're still nothing more than an arrogant little brat aren't you? He's become so accustomed to tracking Ki signatures that he's lost sight of his eye for movements, I can observe every single step he makes while I remain invisible until there is a prime opportunity to strike.'_ and he promptly blitzed away from the scene.

"Olly olly oxen bitch!"

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Android 20 landed on top of a plateau a fair distance away in an attempt to recoup and come up with a new strategy ' _I must admit all things considered, I never calculated for this level of power from any of Son Goku's companions, let alone a boy of his age. What do I do next? Taking his reputation for vigilance into consideration, the most logical move would be for me to return to the laboratory. Such a step is one that I would've preferred to avoid, but this situation has forced my hand.'_ he glanced behind a rock and saw Tarble out looking for him a short distance away ' _I see, so that one is here to.'_ he looked around and saw Tien, Yamcha, Nail and Raditz all looking for him in different directions ' _Oh why the hell are they even here?! No I can make this work, these fools are practically lining up to give me their power. This is actually proving to be quite a fortunate turn of events, once I drain all of their energy and add it to my own I will be more than powerful enough to defeat the remaining fools without batting an eye! The question is, who do I start with?'_

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Yamcha whipped around at the sound of rocks crumbling, only to find a few woodland creatures running away ' _This is ridiculous, since I can't sense out the other Android I'm getting set off by a bunch of prairie dogs. I can't let it get to me though, he has to be around here somewhere. Not like it's going to make a difference even if I do find him, unless I max out my Kaioken I don't have a chance in hell of beating that android. At this rate I would've been better off staying back at the island with Bulma and Bulla, at least then I can make sure Bulma doesn't do anything too stupid or reckless.'_

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Android 20 looked around at the potential targets ' _Well now I suppose it's time to make a decision, whose energy should I absorb first.'_ he looked around and his devious smirk only widened as he set his sights on Nail ' _Excellent, another of Piccolo's species with a power level on a similar level. His energy alone should be extremely sufficent in meeting my goals. This is excellent, those impudent fools don't stand a chance.'_

Nail was still searching for Android 20, completely unaware of the danger closing in on him from behind ' _This is bad, for all we know he may have already escaped. If that is the case then perhaps it would be for the best for me to join up with the others-'_ his thoughts were rudely cut short by Android 20 grabbing him from behind and slapping a hand over his mouth, both draining his Ki and preventing him from calling out to anyone for help.

"Hello there my green friend, there's no use in struggling. No one can see us, I know the location of every last one of your companions. Now I believe that you have something that will be of great use to me."

Nail reached up and grabbed Android 20's hand, but quickly found that he was lacking the strength to pry it off of him ' _Dammit… the only I chance I have is to use my telepathy and hope that one of them reaches me in time! Piccolo, Piccolo if you can hear me then I need you to come to me as fast as you can!'_

" _Does that mean the Android got you? Where are you right now?"_

' _Just lock onto my Ki signature and hurry, at the rate he's draining me I don't have much time left!'_

Android 20 let out a malicious cackle "Yes I've almost completely drained every ounce of energy from your body, it's only a few more seconds before you meet the blissfulness that is death!"

"We'll see about that!" that was when Piccolo dropped down onto the scene and instantly smashed Android 20 square in the head, sending him crashing to the ground and knocking his hat off into a nearby ravine.

Nail lowered himself to the ground and breathed a sigh of relief "Thank you Piccolo… you arrived just in the nick of time…"

"I didn't expect you to let your guard down like that."

Android 20 quickly took back to the air "It shouldn't be possible, how could he have found us so quickly?"

"Well what the hell do you know?" that was when Kai and the others showed up on the scene ready to fight "Look who finally took the time to install a pair."

' _Dammit it's still too soon, I'm not yet powerful enough to defeat all of them. I have to stall for time and try to take as much energy as I can from the others._ Well I must admit that this is rather awkward, perhaps we could have some dialogue and work this out-"

"How about no."

"Oh. Well bullocks."

Nail pulled himself back to his feet "Krillin, I don't suppose you would mind handing me one of those Senzu Beans?"

"Right you are, here!" Krillin promptly tossed him one.

Nail caught the bean and swallowed it, and as he did his body bulked up slightly "I suppose you can call me the can opener, because I'm about to bust open your metal ass."

"Yeah here's the thing Nail, take my advice and leave the one liners to me." Kai told him, his tone flat "Besides the old man is mine, I called dibs and I quoted Deadpool."

"Really this is me doing you a service, I always believed that you wouldn't want to sully your hands on such a weak opponent."

"...You know the funny thing is that I know you're playing me, but you're right. I say he's all yours."

"Glad to see you're being so understanding."

"Oh please." Android 20 let out a scoff "You can pit me against this fool as many times as you like, I've already consumed enough energy from him to match him three times over! All this will do is hand me another opportunity to steal his energy, and the second I do…"

"That second will never come." Nail blitzed in front of Android 20 and dealt him a brutal knee to the jaw, sending him crashing into the cliffside behind him.

20 pulled himself out of the cliffside, his mind racing with fury ' _This can't be happening, I prepared for every possibility. I just let my guard down, that's all._ You won't be getting me a second time!" he charged towards Nail at full speed.

Nail dodged the attack with ease and dealt 20 an elbow square in the brain case where his skull would be, sending him crashing to the rocky terrain below.

20 pulled himself out of the rubble, still in denial "That- That shouldn't be possible! I can't think of a single reason I shouldn't be able to defeat this one, I was far more powerful even before I added his strength onto my own! Even allowing for error in my calculations, he shouldn't be able to swat me aside so easily!"

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While the incredibly one-sided battle was underway, Future Gohan from the year 777 had returned and was overlooking the chaotic mess that had been left behind on the island ' _Well from the looks of it I would say that I'm too late, I can't see Father or Kai or any of Dr Gero's horrible androids anywhere, and the island is a mess. What happened here? I would try to go back further in the time machine but I barely have enough fuel in it to get back to my time as it is, that would be too big of a risk. Besides the machine isn't very precise, there still isn't any guarantee I would land in the right place.'_ he glanced over in the direction of the battle ' _I can sense multiple Ki signatures gathered in one place, and from the looks of it they're in the middle of a fight. That must mean that they just chose a different location!'_ he wasted no time in blasting off in that direction.

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Yajirobe still wasn't keen on being dragged along by Bulma "There's a long as fuck list of bad ideas and this one is at the top, you get that don't you?"

"I absolutely refuse to just sit around and not be part of the action anymore." Bulma told him firmly "Do you know that even though I went to Namek I never even saw Frieza while I was there, not even once?"

"I'm pretty sure no one ever complained about not meeting Hitler, I mean some people do but they're fucked up."

"This isn't up for debate!"

"You do know your kid is in the plane right?"

"Oh lay off that, she doesn't know what's going on."

"That's not the point I'm trying to make! Also she keeps trying to feed off me."

"Don't worry about that, she'll give it up once she realizes that it's a dry well."

"Yeah about that, have you ever seen what an all Senzu Bean diet can do to a man?"

"...Come again?"

"Korin likes it."

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Nail dodged an attempted lunge from Android 20, kneed him in the gut and dealt him a knife hand attack to the back of the head, sending him crashing into a large plateau ' _I'm beginning to think we overtrained for this, not that I would ever let Kai say it. But in all seriousness, I suppose the three years of training did more for me than I had anticipated. I don't wish to be arrogant but I believe my power level is close to that of Raditz and the others when they're in their Super Saiyan forms.'_

"Why you little-!" Android 20 burst out from beneath the rubble and charged at Nail in a blind rage.

Nail blocked his attack and slugged him in the gut "You should watch your back." he blitzed behind 20 and dealt him a kick to the spine, sending him hurtling through several rock plateaus as a result.

20 burst out from the rubble and reached out a hand towards Nail as they were both enveloped in a massive dust cloud.

When the dust settled, it revealed that Nail had easily caught 20's hand before it was able to reach him "Considering how this battle is panning out, it's only fair that I inform you of a factor that you were clearly missing. All of us have learned how to amplify our basic Ki in short intense bursts, it allows us to add extra emphasis to our attacks." without missing a beat he promptly used a knife hand attack to cut Android 20's hand clean off "You see, even if you had succeeded in stealing all of my energy, the difference made by it would still be little to none, mainly due to the fact that you clearly have no knowledge on how to use it properly. _This battle is progressing heavily in our favor, which should be considered a good thing. But something doesn't seem right, why do I feel like there's something we're missing?'_

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Meanwhile, with Future Gohan…

Future Gohan had made his way to the sight of the initial battle, but all he found was the remains of Android 19, much to his horror "Oh my god, Chiaotzu is dead! And he really let himself go in this time. And he's an android. And that's not Chiaotzu. Oh crap baskets." he knelt down to get a closer look at 19 "I've never seen anything like this before, I thought I had prepared everyone but even I don't know what they're up against now. This isn't right, this wasn't how things were supposed to turn out." he glanced over in the direction of a spike in Ki levels and a powerful explosion in the distance "Wait a second, the battle must still be going on!" without missing a beat he blasted off towards the battlefield, his mind racing ' _I don't understand, how could this happen? That android wasn't anything like the ones from my time, I know there weren't three of them in my time so how could things have changed so drastically?'_

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Android 20 pulled himself out of the rubble, his rage growing even further "How can this be happening? I know I calculated for every contingency, I left nothing to chance!"

"You clearly missed some possibilities." Nail pointed out "According to my understanding, the battle we're currently fighting was initially supposed to end with the defeat of the others and myself by two Androids created by Dr Gero. However, it would seem that history has changed considerably. Either you aren't quite as powerful as we were led to believe, or perhaps we're all far stronger than your so called calculations could ever have accounted for."

"Yes we did it!" Gohan pumped a fist "We didn't need dad here to change the future after all, we won!"

"Don't get too cocky just yet." Kai told him "Yes I know that's hypocritical considering how much of a cocky douchebag I am, blah blah. Dr Gero might be an evil scientist from a cartoon or whatever but I know he wasn't stupid, he might still have some kind of contingency in case these guys go down."

"Like what, does that mean he has other Androids?"

"We'll deal with the possibility of that later, right now let's just go ahead and send the old man to join his sexbot."

"Yeah good idea- Wait a second." Gohan glanced over to see a figure approaching the scene from the distance "Hey it's him, he came back!"

Sure enough, at that moment Future Gohan blitzed onto the scene and took a slight breath to calm himself "Oh good, you're all still alright."

"And you're late as fuck." Kai pointed out dryly.

"I know and I'm sorry about that, but the time machine isn't as precise as any of us would want it to be and- Wait a second." he glanced down at Android 20 "What the hell is that thing supposed to be?"

"What do you think, that's the android."

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is."

"No it's not!"

"Yes I am." Android 20 cut in.

"You stay out of this!"

' _Great, now there's another one of them? Who is he, where did he come from? I don't have any information about him in the database, how could I have missed this! In any case it's clear that I've made some terrible miscalculations, if the battle continues at this rate then I'm as good as dead. It would seem now that I have only one option remaining, I must return to the laboratory right away.'_

"Don't tell me that this is the Android that you've been fighting!"

"Yeah, and the one who's ass Nail has been kicking for about 20 minutes." Kai told him "So pull that stick out of your ass."

"But that's not the Android that kills you, I've never even seen him before!"

"Hey you said two Androids and we've met too, I blew the other one to hell and Nail beat the shit out of this one."

"Why the fuck didn't you tell us what they looked like then?!"

"I didn't know there were more Androids, I only ever met the two from my time!"

"Well look at that, we've only even seen this guy and the fat sexbot!"

"How was I supposed to know there were more Androids?!"

"You're supposed to be Gohan, you're supposed to have enough brain cells to think these things through god dammit!"

Android 20 lowered himself to the ground, his mind racing ' _Now then, what to do? I have to get to the laboratory but if I fly then they'll almost certainly catch up to me, the only thing I can do in this situation is go on foot and keep hidden amongst the rocks.'_

"So what the fuck made you turn as stupid as Goku?!"

"Hey you guys!" that was when Bulma and Yajirobe flew onto the scene "Sorry we're late but I hope we didn't miss any of the good stuff!"

"The robot without any gearsticles is over there." Kai jerked a thumb over at Android 20 "Are you happy now so you can get lost?"

"Wait… is that Dr Gero?"

"It's way too dangerous for you to be here!" Future Gohan barked at her "You have to get the hell out of here right now!"

"That's it, now's my chance!" Android 20, now revealed by Bulma to be Dr Gero, promptly rounded on all of the others "I was stating a fact when I told you that none of you have any chance of victory, the moment I'm gone Androids 17 and 18 will be here in my place and they will avenge me!" and with a maniacal cackle, he unleashed a massive Photon Wave blast, engulfing the entire area in a blinding explosion while he wasted no time in bolting away from the scene amidst all of the chaos.

Piccolo and the others were forced to shield themselves from the light of the explosion and all of the flying debris, and once they could see again they found that Dr Gero had long since vanished from the scene "The devious little bastard!"

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Bulma opened her eyes and found herself on the ground, significantly shaken up but alive and well, thanks to the actions of Yamcha "Wow, for a second there I thought I was going to end up being a wish- Oh god the baby!"

"It's alright, she's right here and she's fine." as it turns out, Yamcha was only about two feet away, trying to stop Bulla from crying "It's alright sweetie, I swear I won't let anything happen to you."

"Plus it's just an explosion, those happen a lot around mommy and daddy."

"Not something that's going to calm her down."

"It was more for you and me than for her to be honest."

"Fair enough. Hey by the way, wasn't there someone else in the car with you?"

"Hmm?"

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As it turns out, her extra passenger, that being Yajirobe, was lying on his back in a large pile of rubble "Hey note to self Yajirobe, next time Korin tries to have you do anything for this pack of freaks, just take his cane and shove it up his ass with a bottle of ranch dressing." and then a rock fell on his face "I got a rock up my butt."

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Meanwhile, back with the characters who actually do shit…

Kai was pretty much in a comical rage over Dr Gero escaping from the scene "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, he got away AGAIN?! And not a nut or bolt to be found, not that he had any nuts to begin with!"

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And now with a few of the characters who aren't psychotic…

"Bulma!" Gohan and a few of the others quickly rushed towards her "Bulma, Yamcha, are you guys alright?"

"Don't worry guys, we're all fine." Yamcha assured them "Good thing I got to them before the blast hit the car, I don't know what I would do if I lost either of them."

"Hold that thought." Future Gohan promptly blitzed into mid air and stopped Kai from flying away "What the hell is your problem, they were in trouble and you didn't even lift a finger to help them out of that!"

Kai rolled his eyes "You say that like I needed to, Yamcha had it covered."

"That's not the point, what would you do if something happened to them and you could've stopped it but didn't?!"

"Gather the Dragon Balls and just wish them back, it would probably only take a few hours or so."

"...Oh. Huh."

"Yeah."

"Well maybe but still, you're saying that like death doesn't have any consequences."

"At this point it really doesn't, we spent months literally waiting to bring them back. Hell the next time it happens Krillin and the Pokemon get free sundaes."

"...You are seriously deranged."

"You're just figuring that out now?" Kai promptly lowered himself further towards the ground and looked around for Dr Gero, to no avail ' _Any of us would've been able to see it if he had taken to the skies, he's trying to run away on foot and keep hidden among the rocks scurrying away like some sort of pathetic rat. Still that explosion didn't last for too long, so he couldn't have gotten very far just yet.'_

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Dr Gero bolted through the rocky landscape on foot at full speed, his mind racing as fast as his body was ' _Alright, so I made a miscalculation. A couple of miscalculations. I lost an android and one of my hands, and I think my brain case is loose.'_

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Bulma glanced over at the others "So that crazy old guy that tried to blow us to kingdom come was an android? I mean his brain was totally on display."

Raditz nodded "Yeah he was an Android, I mean he could absorb energy and he tried to blow us all to hell, where are you going with this?"

"Well it's just kind of weird, I mean the last I heard Dr Gero always used to be a full blooded human being."

"...Wait what?"

"Well yeah I've seen him in science journals, I can't believe he's an Android now."

"Wait you mean that guy with the brain in a jaw was actually him? I saw his picture in a few of those journals too, I just figured he had such a big ego that he modeled one too look exactly like him."

"Well maybe he just converted himself. But I never knew you were into those science journals I keep lying around."

"I needed something to occupy myself whenever me and Kakarot weren't training or driving cars and singing Highway to HFIL, and besides my father was a scientist who created a technique that Saiyans used to create fake moons so we could turn into Great Apes. But enough about that, we need to tell the others about this." Raditz looked up towards the others "Hey you guys listen to this, Bulma says that old looking Android was really Dr Gero!"

"Hold on, what?!" Future Gohan and the others quickly floated down towards her "But there's no way that could've been Dr Gero, the Androids should've killed him a long time ago!"

"Call it what you will, pictures don't lie and neither do scientists with egos bigger than the hair falling down my back."

"But that doesn't-"

"Use your head Future Spike, you're smarter than that." Kai shut him up "Putting aside the brain sticking out of a jar where his skull should be, if the guy was able to make Androids that could hold their own against Frieza then he can easily pull his brain out and stick his head in the aforementioned jar."

"Hey drop the scowl, you're scaring my daughter." Bulma told him dryly "Look we scientists know how to be a contrary bunch a good chunk of the time, but any one of us can agree on the fact that Dr Gero was a genius."

"Yeah I know that, why do you think I read waterproof copies of those journals whenever I take a shower? Besides, anyone can also agree that he was a bigger asshole than I am. Speaking of which…" Kai promptly rounded on Future Gohan "When the actual fuck did you become such a failure?!"

"Hold on a second, I-" Future Gohan was promptly cut off.

"You said that Goku dies of the heart virus, then 6 months later we deal with two Androids that 69'ed Gero-"

"It's 86-"

"I know what I said! You said two Androids on May 12 at 10 am in South City, and then what happens? You make us waste our time on the wrong fucking Androids!"

"Look the fact is that events are unfolding differently than any of us could ever have been able to anticipate, and my messing with the past is probably what caused it."

"You can thank the Butterfly Effect for that one, did you never even think before you pulled all of this crap?!"

"Of course I-"

"Arguing isn't going to help anyone right now." Piccolo promptly shut them up "Look, the old man mentioned 17 and 18 before he up and vanished, so those two must be the pair from your future aren't they? We can't waste anymore time or be more careless than we already have, we need you to tell us exactly what they look like."

"Right, I understand Piccolo. Okay, so 17 is a young man with black hair that goes down to his shoulders and a scarf tied around his neck. 18 is a young woman with blonde hair going down to her shoulders, if she wasn't evil I'd call her cute."

"Sounds like she's worth masturbating to." Kai noted dryly.

"The you from my timeline tried grinding on her once and she blasted one of your eyes right out of its socket. And then you posted a picture of that on Facebook."

"...I think I like my future self."

"They both wear matching pairs of gold earrings so that should help you to identify them, and the looks in their eyes are as cold as ice."

"Anything else we should know about?" asked Nail "As in do these Androids have the ability to siphon energy from their opponents?"

"If they did then they haven't used it in front of me before, but what they do have is far more dangerous. They have limitless reserves of energy and stamina. Either that or I just wasn't strong enough to actually make them waste any of their power. But that doesn't matter anymore, where is Father right now?"

"Screaming blood into his pillow." was Kai's dry response "Yeah thanks to something fucking with our timeline he didn't come down with it until he was fighting a fat sexbot, so that's a much better way to go." he glanced over at Bulma "Alright Mother of the Year, just tell us you know where Dr Gero set up shop with his lab. Anyone with half a brain cell would have to know where that is."

Bulma frowned in thought for a moment "Last time I checked Dr Gero was reported to have set up a lab somewhere in the mountains outside North City, rumor had it that some empty cave into a secret hideout."

"So he's trying to be Batman."

"So what now?" asked Krillin "How are we going to catch up with him now that we've been standing here talking for like 15 minutes?"

"It depends on whether or not you actually think for a minute, none of us saw the old man fly away now did we?"

Gohan and his future self shared a knowing look "So that means that he's fleeing on foot and using the rocky terrain to camouflage himself from us so he can make it back to his lab!"

"The explosion was still pretty weak so I doubt he could've been able to get very far in the time he had."

"I think I get it, so you're saying that we should still have enough time to beat Dr Gero back to his lab and destroy these Androids before he has a chance to activate them, does that sound about right?" asked Raditz.

"Well that's one way to look at it, and if we don't beat him back then we'll just have to go ahead and stick with Plan B."

"Which is?"

"You're a Saiyan should you already know, we'll punch and blast the ever loving fuck out of them until there's nothing left but blackened metal and charred bones."

"...You frighten me sometimes you know that?"

"It's a gift." Kai flared his aura and prepared to blast off like Team Rocket.

"Kai hold on a second!" Future Gohan grabbed him by the arm "You don't understand just how powerful the Androids really are! Raditz is right, this might be the only chance we have to destroy them before they can be activated."

"You just keep thinking that."

"Look if you have to fight them no matter what then at least wait until Father has fully recovered from the Heart Virus, don't go into this fight by yourself!"

"Why the hell would I bother to wait for him? I'm just as much of a fighter as he is, what just because I'm not a Saiyan I can't do anything? What kind of cheap bullshit writing tactic is that supposed to be?!

"I'm not doubting your abilities, I'm trying to stop you from getting yourself killed!"

"I'm smart enough to know when I'm in over my head, but I'm also smart enough to know when I can wreck some shit without your help, now get the hell out of my way!" and so Kai promptly blasted off into the skies.

"Dammit that idiot, what the hell is he thinking?"

"He might be right though." Gohan muttered "I fought Kai with everything I had once during training, and he was able to go toe to toe with me even when I was a Super Saiyan, and he's only grown stronger since then, so for all we know he might very well be stronger than me or dad right now. Maybe we really can take care of all of this on our own."

"I'm more aware of that than you think, the Kai from my timeline was able to use the Namek-Ken technique too and he was just as powerful as I was back then, maybe even slightly stronger than me. But we both fought the Androids at full power and we still weren't powerful enough to stop them, we were barely able to slow them down. And then a year later Kai ended up facing them alone, and sure he killed one of them but he still died in the process. I don't care what he says about it, I'm not going to let my best friend get himself killed, not again!" and on that grim note, Future Gohan promptly flashed into Super Saiyan and soared off into the distance after Kai.

"Oh man, I can't even imagine the kind of stuff he must have gone through over the years in his timeline."

"With any luck you won't have to." Piccolo told him "That's what this fight is about after all, to make sure you don't turn into him."

"And to make sure dad doesn't die from the Heart Virus, but that happened 6 months later than it was supposed to, so what does that tell us?"

"That clearly the situation is proving to be a lot more complicated than any of us had originally anticipated."

"Sounds about right, but we can't waste anymore time. The rest of us need to hurry up and find that lab before Dr Gero gets back there, we'll be able to save ourselves a lot of time and energy and maybe even a wish on the Dragon Balls if we can destroy 17 and 18 before they can be activated."

"That's the best thing we can do right now."

"I think so too." Gohan glanced over at Bulma "Hey Bulma, do you think you could tell my dad that we're out looking for Dr Gero's lab? Oh, and if he's feeling up to it then he should join us as soon as he can."

"Well yeah sure, but how the heck am I supposed to tell him anything? In case you guys forgot, my car got blown up." Bulma pointed out dryly.

"Oh yeah, right."

"Don't worry about that guys." Yamcha cut in "I'll take Bulma and the baby and get them the hell out of here, you guys go on ahead and see if you can track down the Androids. I'll join you as soon as I can, but with any luck dismantling a couple of offline Androids is something you won't even need me for."

"Right, just be sure to be careful with them."

"Alright, enough talk." Piccolo got everyone's attention "Let's head out guys, we need to track down Dr Gero's lab before he can get back there and activate the other Androids."

"Right!" so Gohan, Piccolo and the others all promptly blasted off.

Yamcha quickly wrapped his arms around Bulma from behind "So how fast is it safe for me to go with you guys?"

"I say go as fast as you want." Bulma told him flatly "But keep in mind that we have a baby on board."

"Yeah, our baby so I know that."

"Hey assclowns, aren't you forgetting something?" that was when Yajirobe pulled himself out of the rubble "I got a rock up my butt, so can you help a brother out?"

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Dr Gero continued blitzing through the rocky terrain on foot ' _This should be far enough, if I take to the air from here then I doubt any of them will be able to spot me.'_ that was when he detected something and hid behind a cliffside just in time to see Kai soaring past him, with Future Gohan right behind him, though he avoided being spotted by either of them ' _Kai and that other unknown warrior, they're still searching for me are they? Honestly, they're relentless. No don't tell me, they're both making a beeline in the direction of my hidden laboratory! No that can't possibly be their destination, it must merely be a coincidence. What else could it be? After all they have no idea where my lab is secretly hidden away, only a handful of scientists throughout the world know it even exists in the first place- Wait a minute, that woman that arrived on the scene earlier! That's Bulma, the heir to the Capsule Corporation! Does her father know about my lab, what if she inquired about me?'_ that was when his sensors went off again and he once again hid, this time avoiding being spotted by Gohan, Piccolo and the others ' _Dammit I was right to worry, their current trajectory will take them straight to my lab! Dammit, the meddling wretched do-gooders mean to destroy 17 and 18 before I have a chance to activate them don't they? They shall all rue the day they interfered!'_ once they were out of sight he promptly took to the skies ' _I am the only one who knows the precise coordinates of my lair, they can search until they're blue in the face but even though I have to take the long route I'll still be able to beat them there with ease.'_ and he promptly soared off in the direction of his lab.

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Kai continued soaring in the direction of North City, but he looked back to see Future Gohan still keeping pace with him with ease "So you're really planning to ride my ass all the way until we get there, then I say keep up if you can!"

"Dammit this is exactly what I'm talking about!" Future Gohan soared after him "You know I can still turn Super Saiyan right?"

"Yeah and I say fuck that and power levels and Saiyans in general!"

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Meanwhile, with the others…

Piccolo, Gohan and the others continued soaring towards North City "Alright Tien, how far away from Norty City are we by now?"

"From here, I would say it's just up ahead." Tien told him.

"I see it up there!" Gohan pointed to the city in the distance "So then where are Kai and my future self?"

"It doesn't matter, we need to find the Androids and take them out before he does anything stupid or reckless." Raditz pointed out "Even in the unlikely situation that he doesn't, we'll still have one hell of a gigantic problem on our hands."

"Kai is a lot of things, snarky and overconfident being at the top of the list, but he's not that bad you know." Gohan told him.

"Yeah yeah I get it, you're biased because he's your only friend that's your age."

"My point is that even he would never go out of his way to let people suffer just for the sake of a fight, he just has a lot of pain in his heart that no kids our age should have to deal with."

"We can discuss Kai's clear emotional instability later, we have other things to worry about at the moment." Nail pointed out "From what we've been told, Dr Gero is hiding his laboratory in a cave in one of these mountains."

"Yeah, just great." Krillin muttered "You would think he could've picked a place that was a hell of a lot warmer.

"So what course of action should we take from here? Considering the vast amount of territory that this mountain range covers, combined with the fact that Dr Gero is able to detect our Ki signatures without giving off any of his own for us to use to locate him."

"We'll have to split up and search." Piccolo told him "If you manage to find anything then be sure to signal the rest of us, don't risk going it alone."

"A signal, but what do you have in mind for that?" asked Gohan.

"Just spike your Ki signature as high as you can, that will be enough for the rest of us to notice pretty fast."

Krillin suddenly found himself inside of a literal block of ice as a cold wind surged right over his body "Oh for crying out loud, how the hell can it be so cold?!"

"Tough it out, you're not the only one feeling the cold." Raditz told him flatly "For crying out loud, humans are so delicate it's ridiculous. I can't help but wonder how they survived for as long as they have."

"Welcome to the club." Piccolo muttered "But let's get back to the task at hand, we need to find these Androids as fast as we can."

"Right, let's get to it then, and don't forget that if we do this then this entire world and everyone in it is as good as dead."

"Wait a second!" Krillin stopped them from flying off.

"Yeah we know it's cold, why else would your nipples be rigid."

"...Ignoring that, I was thinking that we should divide up the rest of the Senzu Beans just to be on the safe side."

"That's actually not a bad idea."

"Okay then." Krillin promptly divided up the Senzu Beans between them "Okay so there's a little over half a dozen left, divide that by the 7 of us that means we each get one."

"Well if everything goes according to plan, we won't even need them. Now let's get moving before the old man makes his move."

"Right!" and so everyone promptly blasted off in different directions.

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What none of them realized was that Dr Gero had been watching them from his hiding place on the ground "It would seem that my theory was accurate, they know about the existence of my lab but I think they'll find that tracking it down is another matter entirely. You wretched fools, I hope you're prepared to be faced with the consequences of your failures." he wasted no time in bolting across the ground at full speed "You can snoop around as much as you want, you'll be dead within a matter of hours." he continued bolting across the landscape, only to stop when his sensors detected Raditz searching for him nearby "So the brother of the hero, his energy will be quite adept."

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"Come on old man, where the hell are you?" Raditz bolted across the grounds of the mountain range, only for his foot to be caught by Dr Gero as he burst out from underground and hurled him into a nearby boulder, then attempted to follow up with a knee to the face.

Raditz caught the knee and dealt him a sharp kick to the torso, sending him flying backwards a short distance "I already know what you're thinking old man and it won't work, I think you'll find that I'm far more capable then you're giving me credit for."

"Be silent you wretched simian!" Dr Gero let out a scoff "With a power level as negligible as yours, you're practically useless to me."

"You just love to hear yourself talk don't you? Well, I hate to break it to you old man but I have a trump card or two up my sleeve as well."

"Enough of your arrogant prattling, I'll go ahead and put you out of your misery." Dr Gero then prepared to attack again, only to stop when he noticed Gohan flying around and searching for him nearby ' _Great, now Goku's son as well? I have enough time to dirty my hands with one of these fools but not two of them._ Congratulations Saiyan, you'll get to live a little bit longer than expected. No need to show me any gratitude, after all I do only mean a little bit." and then he promptly blitzed away across the mountainsides.

' _Should I alert the others? No not yet, I think the best course of action would be for me to follow him until he leads me back to his lab and then I can take him down and destroy the Androids before they're activated.'_ so Raditz promptly blitzed across the landscape after Dr Gero, but he made sure to avoid taking to the skies so as not to alert him.

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Yamcha was slowly but surely flying Bulma, Bulla and Yajirobe back home, but he had some concernes about something "Hey I don't know Bulma, are you sure it's safe to hold our baby daughter like that while we're flying thousands of feet in the air?"

"Well it's not like I have any other options." Bulma pointed out "I mean what else am I supposed to do with her?"

"Give her to Yajirobe?"

"Not a chance, frankly I'm afraid he'll either drop her or eat her out of spite."

"Oh come on, he wouldn't-"

"I am pissed and hungry, she is right to fear me." was Yajriobe's blunt statement.

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It didn't take long for Dr Gero to reach the cave where his lab was hidden ' _There you are, home sweet home and yet ever so humble.'_ he prepared to make his way inside, but stopped when his sensors detected something and looked back to see Raditz closing in on his location, but still a fair distance away ' _So he tried to track me on foot to prevent me from noticing him, and now he's deciding whether or not to summon the others or take me out. Go ahead and do whatever you wish you foolish simian, they'll never make it in time for you to be able to stop me but by all means feel free to hasten their doom along with yours.'_ he quickly punched in the access code for the lab and made his way inside, the door shutting behind him ' _I can't believe the likes of them have forced my hand to the point where I may have to resort to using 17 and 18. Perhaps I should measure my choices, I can't be too careful with-'_

"You're not getting your way old man!" Raditz's voice roared from outside the door, followed by a loud smashing sound and the doors shaking, but not breaking down "Dammit my wrist!"

' _Caution to the wind it is, I'd rather not bring the two of them back online all things considered but with how events are unfolding I don't have a choice in the matter.'_ he pulled out a remote and pressed a button, opening one of the chambers.

From the chamber emerged a young man with shoulder length black hair and a scarf tied around his neck, and he looked around ' _So the old man activated me again?'_

"You're awake. Tell me 17, how do you feel?"

' _And he's holding the remote to do it, not smart old man._ Good morning doctor, thank you for awakening me again."

"My word, did I just hear you thank me?"

"But of course, I owe my existence to you."

' _Excellent, the personality reprogramming worked!'_

' _And the old fool has no idea._ So tell me doctor, do you intend to wake my sister as well?"

"Indeed, I require the assistance of both of you."

"With what?"

"I'll knock this door down like the goddamn Hulk!" and cue Raditz slamming into the door again, followed by some groaning in pain "Dammit my other wrist, what the hell is this door made of?!"

"...I withdraw my question."

"Indeed, desperate times call for desperate measures." Dr Gero activated the next chamber with the remote.

From the chamber emerged a young woman with shoulder length blonde hair. She glanced over at 17, then at Dr Gero as she noticed the remote in his hand "I wish a good morning to you, my dear Dr Gero."

"A displayal of even more cordiality than 17 here."

"No less than is called for in regards to my creator."

' _How very obedient my weapons have become, just as I like them.'_

"I see that you too have become an Android since we were last activated."

"Indeed I have, eternal life was far too great of a prize to not seize. I will admit that your demeanor is quite a relief, in order for your perpetual energy reactors to function properly I had to disable the behavioral limiters I had wired into your firmware, it rendered you, well I suppose I should say contrary. You refused to obey any of my commands, but we do seemed to have cleared that up that little streak of independence."

"I'll go Hulk on this thing's Loki dammit!" Raditz contiuned attempting to bust down the door, only to have little luck "Dammit now my shoulder, seriously what the hell is this thing made of for fuck's sake?!"

"And on that note I say it's time to start earning your keep. As I'm sure that little display has made clear, Son Goku's comrades are heading towards this laboratory as we speak and one of them is currently knocking at our door, or at least trying to. Go and eliminate the lot of them, be sure not to let any of them survive."

17 and 18 nodded "Understood, we shall follow your wishes."

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Raditz continued slamming against the door to the lab as hard as he could, but he could barely make it budge "Dammit, now there goes my other shoulder."

"Looks like we've missed some of the action." that was when Piccolo, Tien, Gohan and the others arrived inside the cave.

"It took you long enough to show yourselves, I've been trying to break down this damn door for about 10 minutes and I've already lost all feeling from my shoulders and down my arms."

"And judging by the fact that you're doing so much damage to yourself without restraint while trying to break in, I'm guessing that means you didn't beat Dr Gero back to the lab."

"No, he ambushed me so I tried to follow him on foot and I saw him go inside."

"Which means that we might already be too late to stop him from activating the other Androids, is that what you're saying?"

"Pretty much yeah."

"Shit!" Piccolo slammed into the door full force "Dammit my wrist!"

"Welcome to the club."

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Dr Gero glanced over at the door as he heard the chaos outside "And judging by that I assume it means that Piccolo and the others have arrived as well, how eager these fools must be to meet their inevitable gruesome demise. See that you don't disappoint them my servants."

"We have no intention of disappointing them." 17 and 18 shared a subtle glance with each other behind Gero's back.

"Now go and teach them the meaning of pain and suffering."

"That we do have every intention of doing, but before that…" 17 promptly snatched the remote from Dr Gero's hand before he was able to react.

"What the- What the hell do you think you're doing 17, give that back this instant!"

"I would if it wasn't for the fact that this remote looks like something you could use to shut us down whenever the hell you want. But I know you would never do something like that, but just to be safe…" he promptly crushed the remote in his hand "Yeah, I don't think we'll be needing that."

"Is this your idea of a joke 17?!"

"Oh I'm done joking with the likes of you, let me just make it clear to you now that there's no way in hell you're ever putting us to sleep again you stupid old bastard."

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Raditz slammed his leg into the door, only for it to go limp "Well it's official, I'm totally out of limbs now."

"Looks like the two of us are late for the party."

Raditz glanced back to see Kai and Future Gohan making their way into the cave "And from the looks of it someone has to be fashionably late."

"Only because of this asshole's constant backchat."

"Because a certain someone flew 200 miles past North City." Future Gohan pointed out, his tone dry and somewhat frustrated.

"Because I was distracted by your futile attempts to dissuade me from fighting the Androids if they've already been activated. Speaking of which stand back, there are times to fuck around and times to take action, and this is a time to blow shit up." he held out a hand and prepared to blow it clear down.

But then a voice from inside got their attention "I am your creator and as such you shall do whatever I tell you to do, do I make myself clear 17?!"

"...I'm guessing you guys heard that, mainly judging by the puddle Krillin is standing in and the wet spot on his pants."

"Oh we heard it." Piccolo took a few steps away from Krillin "That means the Androids are awake."

"Somebody spray some air freshener around the bald little troll with the bladder control issues, I'm doing something about this so stand back."

"No don't do it!" Future Gohan protested "We can't do this without Father, we have to get out of here as fast as we can! If you try and fight them now then there's no chance of you being able to defeat them!"

"Only one way to find out! **Masenko!"** Kai promptly fired a Masenko at the door, blowing it to bits in an instant.

17 and 18 just stood there as the smoke cleared, calm as can be "Hey, how's it going?"

"A young man with black hair going down to his shoulders with a scarf tied around his neck, matches the description of 17. 18 is the blond woman with hair going down to her shoulders, yeah that one's definitely a looker. So tell me something Mirai, yeah that's what I'm calling you now, are these the Androids that you actually came back in time to warn us about?"

Future Gohan nodded "Yes that's them, no mistaking them."

"And there's no mistaking thiis, you're becoming more of a disappointment by the second, aren't you?"

"How did I forget about your love of pissing people off?"

"You tell me."

"...I'll deal with the brain cells you kill around me later, right now we have much bigger problems to deal with. Don't let their lack of intimidating demeanor fool you, we learned that when we dealt with Frieza. I can assure you that these Androids are the greatest threat that the world will ever know."

"Give it a few years."

18 let out a low whistle "Wow, quite the whole hot mess of these guys over here."

"These are the meddling companions of Son Goku I mentioned earlier." Dr Gero let out a low sounding growl "They'll put up quite a fight, they destroyed Android 19 earlier and they almost did the same to me as well."

"You built another Android, seriously?"

"Wait a second, was it that fat clown thing?" asked 17 "I thought that thing was just some stupid joke."

"Well clearly it was, it's dead now."

"Good thing too, that thing was just wrong on so many levels. So anyway old man, I'm guessing that you had 19 convert you into an Android after you shut us down. I'm guessing he was one of those with the energy absorption tech?"

Dr Gero grited his teeth "Yes that's correct."

"Doesn't sound like that makes a lot of sense, why use the older tech on a more recent Android model in the first place? Maybe you found perpetual energy models like us too powerful to keep under your thumb right?"

"Maybe."

"No wonder they beat you so bad, Android or no Android you're still weak."

"Be silent you ungrateful wretches! What I built and why I built it doesn't matter, just destroy the lot of them before they wise up and try to escape."

"How about you do the world a favor and shut your trap, we'll fight when and if we feel like fighting."

"What did you just say?! _Damn these perpetulate Androids, if only the remote to shut them down was still functional.'_

18 calmly crushed the remote underneath her boot as she made her way towards another pod lying in the back of the lab "Android 16 huh, another model with the limitless energy reserves like us, but somehow it seems different. It definitely looks a lot bigger than the two of us, not to mention- Wait a second, did you really build a ginger Android? Okay, there's a soulless machine joke in there somewhere but that's beneath me."

"You get away from that container this instant, I'm warning you! Don't even think about touching that pod!"

Future Gohan was now sweating considerably ' _There's an Android 16 too? I don't understand, how could I have not known about this? What else is different?'_

"And that sounds like three Androids you missed." Kai noted dryly "You wanna try and go for four?"

' _No no no no no, this can't be happening!'_

"Well how about that." 17 and 18 shared a grin "So what do you say we wake him up and get to know our new brother already."

"Don't you dare you foolish ingrates!" Dr Gero rounded on them "Are you trying to get all of us killed and destroy the planet, is that what you want?! It wasn't mere disobedience like with the two of you that forced me to turn 16 off, he was a dangerous failure!"

"So what if he's not properly programmed, how many of us are? "Howdy folks I'm Android 13, look at my trucker hat!" That sound familiar to you old man?"

"I was going through a phase!"

"A phase inspired by that Spongebob special."

"You mean Pest of the West?" asked Gohan.

"That would be the one squirt, oh and 18 do the thing."

"Don't do it!" Dr Gero let out a snarl and lunged at 18 in order to stop her, only to end up being grabbed by 17.

"Why don't you watch where you put your hands on my sister you dirty old man."

"You insubordinant little-"

"Hold up a second." Raditz promptly made his way into the lab "Something doesn't add up, if 16 is as dangerous as you claim him to be, then why did you hold onto him until now? You don't seem to have anything other than him and these two, so you must have dismantled those, but why not this one?"

"I'll have you know that I intended to give this one a complete overhaul, now stay out of this you primate!" Dr Gero turned his attention back to 17 and 18 "Let me make this clear, if the two of you reactivate Android 16 then you will have doomed all of us and this entire planet!"

"We're all doomed are we? I think I'll be the judge of that." 17 stepped towards 16's pod and promptly scanned him "My sensors indicate that I'm stronger than him, that makes you even more of a pathetic coward."

"Yes but you're-"

"Fine then, 18 go for it and fire him up so we can get this show underway."

"That's enough, you just shut your trap already! The two of you are just as bad as 16, maybe even worse! You won't get the chance to activate him you failures, I'm shutting the both of you down for good this time!"

"Incase you forgot old man, I broke your little switch less than 5 minutes ago."

"Fine then I'll just make a new one, you exist only to obey me and if you won't do that then I'll just wipe you from the face of the-"

"Yeah no." Raditz promptly stuck his leg (the one limb of his that wasn't dangling due to being dislocated from his attempts to break down the door) straight through Dr Gero's chest "You were getting on my nerves, Saiyans do have heightened senses you know."

"You… You wretched primate… How dare you… I will stain this world… with your blood… and then that of… Son Goku…"

"Yeah change of plans."

"No arguments here." 17 took the chance to kick Dr Gero's head clean off his body, letting it roll across the room, and then he flew over and promptly crushed his head clean underneath his foot, splattering its remains across the floor. Then he glanced over at Raditz "I'll be honest Sonic the Hedgehog, I didn't expect you to actually side with us."

Raditz gave a shrug "Well a few reasons. First, he wants my brother dead. Second, he was getting on my nerves with his obsessive prattling. Third… I know what it's like to be controlled by a monster."

"...Good to know, taking that into consideration I think if we do end up killing you guys then you'll be the last."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Well find out later, in the meantime we'll be activating the other Android."

"You know I can't let you do that."

"I also know you won't be able to stop me."

"I guess there's only one way to find out." Raditz dropped into a stance, with 17 preparing to do the same.

"Not a chance in hell!" in his rage, Future Gohan promptly flashed into Super Saiyan "There's no way in hell I'm letting you two activate another Android, not as long as I'm still alive to stop you!" and without thinking he unleashed a full power Masenko, engulfing the entire lab and everyone in it in the explosion that followed.

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After Future Gohan's outburst and the explosion that followed, it took a few minutes before everything calmed down.

Gohan let out a few shallow coughs of smoke "To be honest, stuff like that makes me wonder if you're really Kai's future self instead of mine."

"Hey it's more than you guys did!" Future Gohan snapped at his present self "All you guys did is just stand there staring at them!"

"Well to be fair we usually do that a lot, I just assumed it was a thing we did. But anyway your attack didn't do any good, see for yourself." he pointed to where the smoke was finally clearing, and 17 and 18 were standing there with 16's pod, totally unharmed.

"What the- How did they- They're still alive and they weren't even hurt, but that was my strongest blast!"

"So you just assumed that they were dead." Raditz noted.

"You guys do that a lot too."

"Besides, what exactly changed from you in the future and now?"

"A lot more than I thought, a lot less than you would think."

"Good to know, anyway since I can't feel my arms would you mind sticking your hand in my pocket and getting a Senzu Bean? Who knows, I might even get a slight Zenkai."

"Yeah sure, just hold still."

"Um, hey guys?" Tarble pointed down at the Androids "I think it's safe to say that the plan to keep the pod closed isn't exactly going to pan out.

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17 glanced up at Raditz and the others, then over at 18 "Well we'd better get the tall bastard out of there fast, all of the support systems got blasted to hell."

"Whatever, let's just pop that bad boy open." 18 placed 16's pod on the ground and pressed the activation button, causing the pod to slide open, before she kicked off the door.

16's eyes flashed open, and he slowly stood up, revealing his red mohawk and green armor with the Red Ribbon symbol on his chest "Activation complete."

"Damn, you are one tall bastard." 17 noted "Krillin and the Saiyan with the spikyhair and the stupid armor don't even come up to the kneecaps on you. So tell us fire-crotch, what's your name?"

"I am designated as Android 16."

"What are the odds? You know come to think of it I've never seen one of your models activated before, you glad to be out and about after all those years? Truth be told Dr Gero tried to force us to leave you inside, he kept yelling about how we were dooming the planet and ourselves if you got woken up, so you wanna fill us in on what the old man was so upset about?" he received no reply "Not much of a talker are you, I guess that makes you the strong silent type. So then what's your deal?"

"I was created and programmed with the soul purpose of murdering Son Goku."

"Yeah the old man always did have a one track mind, frankly I did the world a favor when I killed him."

"You killed Son Goku?"

"No, I killed Dr Gero. Anyway come on, let's get moving."

"Where to?" asked 18.

"Wheverever the hell Goku is, it's not like we have anything better to do. I mean you said it yourself big guy, that's why Dr Gero created you."

"Affirmative."

"So killing Goku gets you into the conversation."

"Makes sense." 18 commented "He's only programmed to get involved with the topics the old man programmed into him. He's not a failure, he's just focused."

"Well like I said, as much as I hate the thought of giving Dr Gero what he wants, the idea of us just standing around here doing nothing bores the ever loving hell out of me." so the three of them took to the skies and flew off into the distance.

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"So they're flying away from us, thank god." Krillin breathed a quick sigh of relief "Well that makes us lucky I guess."

"But what are they planning to do?" asked Nail "Considering the fact that they turned against their creator, along with some help…" he glanced over at Raditz "I'm sure it can't be anything good."

"They're heading away from North City, so we know that's not their objective." Piccolo pointed out "I don't understand, this doesn't make any sense."

"It's not that hard to figure out." Raditz got their attention "From what I understand Kakarot was the one who defeated this Red Ribbon Army when he was a child, and that's why Dr Gero is so obsessed with getting revenge on him, and considering that he's out of commission right now he's just ripe for getting butchered by Androids."

"But it still doesn't make sense, why would they kill their creator one minute and then turn around and carry out his orders the next?"

"Does it matter what they want to do, if they're aiming to kill my brother then that's all we need to know about then." Raditz promptly swallowed a Senzu Bean, and with a pulse of energy and a flash of golden light he flasted into Super Saiyan.

"And they ignored me, so there's no fucking way they're getting away with that." Kai's green aura of the Namek-Ken surged around his body "I'm taking them, don't even think about getting in my way."

"There are three of them and two of us, at least this way is somewhat fair and we both get to fight."

"...Fair point."

"No don't!" Future Gohan blitzed in front of them "Don't follow them, please just wait and listen to me!"

"Are we seriously going through this again?"

"I wish you would understand Kai, I really do, but without Father there's no way we can defeat them."

"And I wish you would pull your head out of your ass and realize who the hell you're talking to right now, you don't need a Saiyan to solve all of your problems! Why the hell are you so insistent on waiting for Goku?!"

"Because you're not as strong as-" he was silence by a fist to the gut that caused him to wheeze and hunch over in pain.

"And again, who the hell do you think you're talking to? Limitations are only a state of mind, if I want to get stronger than a Super Saiyan then goddammit I'll make it so! If you need proof then just wait here and I'll come back with their heads in my hands." and so Kai blasted off after the Androids, with Raditz following him.

"Ow…"

Gohan made his way over to his future self and let out a sigh that sounded like it was filled with disappointment "You tried to stop Kai by telling him that he wasn't as strong as someone else, are you serious?"

"Yeah… in hindsight… not the best selling point… But still… go after him… please… I can't bear the thought of… losing my best friend… to those monsters… not again… You have to stop him… please…"

"...Oh no. Yamcha and Bulma are still out there, for all we know they might end up crossing paths with the Androids!"

"No…" Future Gohan took a moment to pull himself together "I won't let anyone else die by the hands of those monsters, we're going after them!"

"Right, we'd better get moving."

"No time to waste, go at full speed!" and so with both Gohan's in the lead, the group wasted no time in blasting off after Kai, Raditz, and the Androids.

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Upa knelt down next to Goku's bed as his rapid panting and screams of pain subsided "It looks like he's gotten through the worst of it, at least he's stopped screaming so that should be a promising sign."

"So does that mean he's going to be okay?" asked Chichi.

"As far as I can tell he's on the road to recovery, but based on what Gohan's future self told us whatever sort of virus he came down with is contagious, so I think it would be for the best if we took some of this medicine ourselves."

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Kai and Raditz bolted across the skies at full speed, the Namek-Ken and Super Saiyan power keeping even pace with each other "So here's what I'm thinking Sonic the Hedgehog, we each take one of the Androids and then we play Rock Paper Scissors for the last one."

"Depending on who's in the best shape when the other two are done." Raditz shot a glance over at Kai "So tell me something kid, did you mean what you said back there about limitations only being a state of mind?"

"You're goddamn right I do, Super Saiyan and Zenkai stuff can go to hell. With the proper amount of technique and brains, I'll be the best of the best. We don't need Goku to solve all our problems, the fact is that we're both already on his level as it is. I say we show Gohan's bullshit future self just what a full blooded Earthling can do once he puts his mind to it."

"I'll be holding you to that."

"You won't be disappointed if you like being hopelessly outclassed."

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Meanwhile, on a mountainside road…

17 and the others dropped to the ground on a quiet mountainside road "Alright, this should be a good spot."

"Okay what gives 17, why did we land in the middle of nowhere?" asked 18.

"Well we're not in any sort of hurry right, the way I see it we might as well enjoy the trip for what it's worth."

"Is that code for you making us walk?"

"That sounds like a pain in the ass, I say we wait here until someone comes by in something we like and then we appropriate it."

"Oh yeah, boys just love things like road trips don't they? But we're all the way out in the boonies, chances are it's gonna end up being a semi."

"Hey 16 knows what I'm talking about, I'm betting he was totally a car guy before the old man got his hands on him right?"

16 slowly shook his head "Negative, I was never human."

"You mean Gero didn't make you from a human being? You're a totally different sort of Android than the two of us aren't you?"

"Affirmative." 16 looked over to see some birds land on a nearby perch, and he gave a small smile.

' _That doesn't make sense, if Dr Gero was already good enough to build 16 from the ground up then why did he bother using real humans as a starting point for 18 and me?'_

"What the hell do you know?" that was when Kai and Raditz dropped down onto the scene "If it isn't Faggoty Andy and On The Raggedy Ann, not the sort of place we expected to find the three of you but it works for me."

"Looks like the little troll doll and Sonic the Hedgehog are back, but what the hell did he do to his hair?"

"Does it matter, we're here to turn you three into scrap metal. You leaving all of a sudden made it pretty clear where you guys are heading, you're going after Goku so you can take him out, that sound about right?"

"Look who's a master of the obvious, we're going to kill him."

"Doesn't seem all that surprising really, not like you're going to get there. Me and the hedgehog are here to take you down here and now."

"Is that so?" 17 turned to 16 and 18 "Hey get a load of this you guys, looks like Raditz and the kid are proving to be pretty cocky right about now. I don't know what it is but guys like them always talk such a big game and then they end up dead on the ground so fast, really they bring it on themselves."

"And just like that I'm more than game for ripping you apart on a molecular level, so who's going first? How do you want to go about this, we go one at a time or I demolish all three of you in a single go?"

"Either that or you'll get yourself killed." Raditz pointed out dryly.

"Shut up troll doll."

17 glanced over at 16 "Alright big guy you're up, I want to see what you can do when you're in a real fight."

16 shook his head "Negative, I am programmed only to destroy Son Goku. I have no desire to shed blood unnecessarily."

"...Oh yeah, you're basically a blank slate except for what Gero put in you. Fine by me then, I might as well see what the kid can do." 17 promptly stepped forward "Alright then you cocky little runt, let's get this going with just you and me."

"Works for me." Kai dropped into a stance "You know it's only fair to warn you now, I'm not afraid of hitting a woman."

"No problem in that regard, I'm not either."

"Well aren't you a fucking smartass?"

"Oh this is going to be bad." Raditz just facepalmed at the sight and glanced over at 18 "So are going to fight now or what?"

"I don't really care either way, frankly I just want to see the kid get his ass kicked." 18 gave a simple shrug.

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 **Kai's confidence soars higher with every passing second, but what sort of terrible power are the Androids hiding behind their unassuming exterior? Does he have any chance of winning this battle? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And as we delve deeper into the Android Saga, not only is Android 20 revealed to be none other than Dr Gero himself, but it's revealed that there are some very significant changes from Future Gohan's timeline for one reason and one reason alone: Multiverse Theory is a bitch. Yes, expect TFS references galore, along with a considerable number of quotes from Deadpool and Rick and Morty.**

 **As I planned out the writing for this chapter, I was honestly having a really hard time figuring out who to have beat the crap out of Android 20/ Dr Gero since, while it was awesome to have Piccolo go to town on him, I wanted to give one of the other characters more spotlight, one that wasn't a Saiyan obviously. In the end, considering how I planned out the power levels for this arc, I decided that the best choice for this role would be Nail, since I haven't really given him a chance to shine in a fight of his own up to this point.**

 **What I had Kai say to Future Gohan is something that I genuinely believe to be true, at least in the case of Dragon Ball characters. Limitations are only a state of mind, and I believe that if they have the proper amount of willpower, even the human characters like Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, etc can rival the Saiyans and the bigger threats in the DBZ universe.**

 **Now pay attention, because this note is important for you to understand what I'm going to do for the story later on. I've decided that I'm going to change up one of the pairings for this fic. To put it quite simply, there will be no Krillin x 18 pairing in this fic. Don't get me wrong, I love that pairing just as much as anyone else, but there are times when I feel a little bit of variety can help a story grow and flourish as its own thing rather than just cutting and pasting from canon.**

 **And to cap these author's notes off, I want to thank everyone who favorited, followed or reviewed this story up until now, especially since the number of views for this story is now OVER 9000! Yep, I can officially say that now! Thanks so much you guys, this story would be nothing without all of you.**

 **Power levels:**

Gohan: 9 million

Raditz: 9.2 million

Raditz (Zenkai): 10.4 million

Weighted Piccolo: 140 million

Nail: 165 million

Kai: 11 million

Kai (Namek-Ken): 220 million

Tarble: 6.2 million

Yamcha: 5 million

Tien: 4.8 million

Krillin: 2.4 million

Dr Gero: 50 million

Dr Gero (energy absorbed): 100 million


	22. Androids Unrivaled, A New Mystery

**Vukk (chapter 12):** Well you'll only be able to find out by reading the chapter.

 **Vukk (Chapter 14):** No, Vegeta wasn't working for Frieza when he showed up during the Namek saga. I have plans for the rest of the Ginyu Force later on, more or less.

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The scene at the Son residence had calmed down considerably.

Chichi was carefully wiping the sweat from Goku's face with a washcloth while he was still fast asleep ' _Looks like Goku is finally starting to get some color back in his face, so I guess that means progress. Still though I can't help but wonder, Gohan should've been back home a long time ago, so where could he be right now?'_

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Gohan and the others were flying through the skies at full speed, with him, Piccolo and his future self in the front, and Krillin, Tien, Tarble and Nail trailing behind slightly ' _I just hope the Androids haven't had time to get back home and find dad, or to run into Yamcha and the others for that matter. Kai, Raditz, I really hope you guys know what you're doing right now._ I have a bad feeling about this. I'm going on ahead, you guys catch up later." he promptly blasted ahead of the others.

"Gohan wait!" Future Gohan, Piccolo and Nail all blasted off after him, leaving Tarble and the others to catch up.

' _Seriously Kai, don't do anything stupid or reckless that will get you killed.'_

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The first battle with the Androids was about to get underway.

16 looked up to see a bird land on a branch not far away, and he gave a small smile ' _Such gentle and majestic creatures…'_

18 glanced over at Raditz "So you're not going to fight either?"

"The kid needs to learn a little bit of humility." Raditz gave a shrug "Besides, I'm probably going to regret mentioning this out loud, but this gives me a chance to study your moves and see if you guys really do have an unlimited energy supply."

"Huh. Smart."

"I've been an intergalactic soldier since I was three, you tend to learn a few things in the field when you're out conquering planets for a living under the boot of an intergalactic tyrant who destroyed your planet."

"Sounds… interesting to say the least."

"Same with being an Android I'm assuming?"

"Not really, it got boring after awhile."

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Meanwhile, with the actual battle…

17 shot Kai a cocky grin "So you mind if I make the first move?"

"Oh by all means, go ahead and show me what you've got." Kai shot him a confident smirk and dropped into a combat stance, his Namek-Ken aura surging.

"You asked for it kid." 17 charged forward and let a fist fly.

Kai blocked the fist with his forearm, which led to the two of them trading even blows at high speeds, which ended when he grabbed 17 by the arm and hurled him into the nearby cliffside, scaring away the birds in the process, much to the dismay of 16. Kai then blitzed upwards and slugged 17 across the face, sending him flying backwards a short distance.

17 wiped the blood from his lip and let out a chuckle "Well this is quite a surprise, from the looks of it I'd say you're a hell of a lot more powerful than Dr Gero's data predicted you would be. I have to say I'm actually sort of impressed."

"Yeah well if he got off his lazy ass and followed us to Namek then his data might actually be worth something." the two of them returned to the ground "It's too bad you being an Android means I can't tell how much damage you stain, I guess that means I'll just have to go Scarlet Witch and vaporize you. It's a damn shame our fight has to end here though, it's been less than a minute and you already gave me a more satisfying fight than the fat sexbot did earlier."

This was when a truck stopped behind 17 and Kai, and the driver wasted no time in yelling at both of them at the top of his lungs "What in the hell do you two idiots think you're doing? Get out of the damn road, some of us have places to be! You've got about three seconds before I run you all down!" his rantings were promptly ignored.

"Well what do you know, I'm not so funny now am I?" Kai dropped into a stance with his hands cupped at his side.

"By all means, go ahead and show me what you've got." 17 told him.

"If you say so. **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Kai wasted no time in firing a quick Kamehameha blast at 17 and the truck behind him, vaporizing the truck on the spot but somehow not killing the driver.

When the smoke cleared, 17 was revealed to have dodged the blast "Not too shabby in terms of raw power."

"And it looks like you're pretty fast for a pile of scrap metal and subpar wiring."

"So why do I get the feeling you're still holding out on me?"

"Because I am, I was just trying to get a read on your power and see if you live up to the hype of what I've been told about you up until now."

"I guess great minds think alike, truth be told I've only been trying to gauge your power level myself and see if you can back up the shit you've been talking."

"Hey no need to be shy now pretty boy, if you think you can walk away from this then you're going to need to show the kind of power that made my best friend come back from 10 years in the future in a way that proves Back to the Future to be a bunch of bullshit."

"...I have no idea what the fuck you just said, but I'm guessing that means you want me to go all out?"

"Pretty much yeah."

"Then I guess I'll just have to oblige you." 17 blitzed forward and dealt Kai a brutal headbutt, sending him skidding back a short distance and drawing blood from the bruise he left.

"...Okay, just for that I'm not taking it easy on you anymore Faggoty Andy! Come on, let's go for the second round! **Namek Ken 20x!"** with his Namek-Ken surging even higher than it had before, Kai blitzed forward and slammed his fist into 17's gut as hard as he could, resulting in a brief silence, only for him to cough up some spit as he felt 17's knee slam into his gut.

"Alright then Hype Man, I think it's my turn now." 17 dealt Kai a sudden fist to the jaw, the force sending him flying into the nearby cliffside.

"Ow…"

This was when Gohan and the others (at least those who had followed him) dropped down onto the scene "Kai are you in there, are you alright?"

"I'm getting a serious case of deja vu right now… Hey just out of curiosity, did anyone get the number of that dick?"

"17." was all he said.

"Thank you…"

"Seriously Kai, are you alright in there?" asked Nail.

"Suck on a dick."

"Very well then, he's fine."

"You're damn right I am." Kai pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out some blood.

Future Gohan breathed a sigh "Oh thank god, you're still okay. Let's not waste anymore time, we have to get out of here right now."

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to, I've got this assclown right where I want him right now."

"Oh for crying out loud, do you live in your own little world?"

"Yes, but unfortunately I have to share it with dipshits who ask stupid questions every time they open their mouth!"

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18 looked over at the cavalcade and glanced over at Raditz "Well what do you know, looks like your little pals finally showed up. Call it a hunch but I have a feeling even 17 would have a tough time taking all of them on at once, which means that I should help him."

"And that would mean that I would have to help them as well, if for no other reason but to make sure you and your friend don't kill them. You think the big guy is going to get involved in this fight?"

"Considering what we've seen of him so far I doubt it, unlike us he was never even organic and he's only got what Gero put in his head."

"In other words, he only has thoughts of killing my younger brother right?"

"Pretty much yeah, why else would be turned into Androids by that old prick?"

"What did Kakarot do to make that old man hate him so much anyway?"

"Hell if I know." they both started walking towards the scene

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Nail glanced back to see Raditz and 18 heading their way "It would seem that you're far more nonchalant about this threat than I expected you to be."

"Better nonchalant than so rigid you can't think straight." Raditz pointed out dryly.

"And yet here I find you,fraternizing with the enemy."

"They're only enemies when they try to kill us."

"...I'm not even going to begin to go into what's wrong with that."

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Future Gohan was still trying to persuade Kai to abandon the fight "For crying out loud Kai we have to get out of here right now, what good is your pride if you end up getting yourself killed because of it?!"

"Do I really have to fist you again?" Kai received numerous looks "I know what I said, choke on it. This Android is mine, I'm sick of listening to you whining."

"I say go ahead and run away if you want to." 17 gave a shrug "The way I see it, if someone has to be the coward and run then they're not even worth chasing anyway."

"You've gotta be fucking with me right now, what good reason could I possible have to run when I'm so close to taking you out? I aim for the top in everything I do, I never settle for anything less, especially not in a fight. And for that matter, since we're on the topic let me just say that I'm fine with fighting with my one actual friend or my teacher or one of these assclowns if I have to, but if I can win a fight on my own then goddammit I will."

"Bravo, quite the prideful speech." 18 made her way towards the group while clapping in a very condescending way.

"You know the condescending slow clap is supposed to be a lot slower than that."

"Whatever, you've more or less got the Talk no Jutsu down and you're packing an impressive level of power to back it up, especially for suck a cocky little runt who's only about 10."

"If you're trying to boost my ego it's not going to work, I'm the only ego booster I need to push it through the roof."

"Well either way I'm assuming that you and all of your little buddies here embrace the unspoken code warriors share, the one about not interrupting a one on one fight. I can tell just by the looks in all of your eyes. But regardless of that, I doubt any of you would be stupid enough to interfere when 17 actually gets interested in an opponent right? Let me just shoot down any ideas any of you might have in that regard, any of you get involved in that fight and I won't hesitate to personally introduce you to the ground, and believe me when I tell you the relationship is going to be intimate."

"Even if they wanted to, and I'm pretty sure at least one of these jackasses do, I'll be more than happy to do that job for you."

"Fine by me, now let's do this."

"So are you finally ready to continue?" asked 17.

"You're damn right I am."

"That's what I like to hear." 17 promptly slugged Kai across the face, sending him flying backwards.

Kai rebounded off the cliffside and dealt 17 a headbutt to the chest, followed by a smash attack to the spine, sending him crashing into the cliffside " **Masenko!"** he promptly followed up with a quick Masenko, engulfing 17 in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, 17 was surrounded by a green glow, but it quickly vanished as he dusted himself off "Well what do you know?"

"Looks like someone is still unfazed, and that's starting to piss me off."

"I have to admit I'm both surprised and impressed, you're just a kid and a mere human but you're doing a lot better than I was expecting from you. That does raise the question, does this mean that Son Goku is even stronger than you are?"

"The hell he is! I don't give a damn about Super Saiyans or Super Namekians or whatever the hell advantages they have, I'm going all the way to the top, and that means I'm going to surpass them on my own power, no transformations required."

"Now I get it, I thought you guys were special but it turns out none of you are."

"You wanna try that one again?" Kai charged at 17 and aimed a kick at his head.

17 blocked the attack, followed by him dodging and blocking every punch and kick being thrown in his direction ' _Looks like this kid is starting to grow frustrated.'_

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Future Gohan could only look on in disbelief ' _Amazing, I had no idea that Kai had grown so powerful in this timeline. I knew his drive as a warrior is almost unrivaled, but to think he's actually holding his own against one of the Androids!'_

"I was afraid of this." Gohan glanced over at Piccolo and the others "You guys see it too don't you?"

Piccolo nodded "Good job spotting it. There's no doubt about it, Kai is going to lose. You can see it if you look closely."

"Yeah, it's a slow process but it's pretty obvious that the Android is wearing Kai down. He's taking advantage of the fact that he has an unlimited energy supply, plus with the fact that Kai is losing a little bit of energy with each attack and every move he makes."

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"Well it's official, this is getting boring." with a quick barrage of attacks, 17 sent Kai crashing into a nearby boulder "I know first hand how fast brovado can go out the window when you're sitting flat on your ass."

"D-Dammit…" Kai staggered back to his feet and spat out some blood "I'm not… going down… that easily…"

"You know if it makes you feel any better, you lasted a hell of a lot longer than I thought you were going to."

"Don't think I'm down for the count yet!" Kai burst forward as fast as he could, but considering how drained he was, it was only about ⅔ of his full speed even with the Namek-Ken.

17 calmly dealt him an uppercut kick to the jaw, and then he went for the move that pretty much sealed the deal: he dealt Kai a swift kick to the shoulder, pretty much shattering the bones in his arm, earning a quiet squeal of pure agony.

Kai promptly dropped to his knees as his arm fell lip at his side, and he promptly screamed the first thing that came to mind at the top of his lungs "FUUUUUUCK!"

"KAI NO!" without thinking, Future Gohan promptly flashed into Super Saiyan and charged forward in a blind rage "I won't let my best friend die because of you, not again do you hear me?!"

"If by hear you you mean classify you as Ear Rape, then yeah." 17 cranked his neck to the side to dodge Future Gohan's attack, then promptly slammed a knee into his gut, sending him hurtling into the cliffside with a mighty crash "Well what do you know, down with one hit. I guess this kid was right when he mentioned Super Saiyans weren't all they were cracked up to be."

"You don't need to be a Saiyan to know how to throw a punch!" Piccolo and Nail both promptly charged into the fray at full speed.

"I tried to tell them but they didn't listen, it's their own fault." 18 promptly kicked Nail in the skull and sent him crashing to the ground, and then she grabbed Piccolo and pulled him into a tight chokehold "Here's how this is going to work, if you can explain it to me in just one sentence what made you think charging into this fight like an angry rhino was a good idea I'm willing to let you go." she was met with a gurgled choking noise "Yeah see that's the thing, it didn't make sense to me either."

"Dammit Piccolo what the fuck?!" Kai flared his aura and prepared to charge towards 18 despite being down one arm, only to feel something holding him back.

As it turns out, it was 17 holding him by the foot "And where the hell do you think you're going little man? Our fight isn't over just yet."

"Let me make something clear to you Android, if you think breaking my arm was enough to take me down then you're in for one hell of a world of pain!

"Kai hold on, I'm coming!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and charged at 17 with a Masenko ready to fire.

"You're coming, you're coming, and you came." 17 promptly swung Kai into Gohan and sent both of them crashing to the ground, knocking the Namek-Ken and Super Saiyan out of both of them respectively "You know you're probably not wrong, if I hadn't used you as a human wrecking ball then chances are you would've kept going and going on willpower alone."

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Raditz observed the battle from his place back on the roadside, his frown deepening as he powered down from Super Saiyan ' _Limitless energy reserves combined with the speed and power necessary to oneshot a Super Saiyan? I guess that kid from the future wasn't exaggerating when he said that they were unlike anything we'd ever seen before. Plus it's shit like this that justifies why we usually don't group up.'_ then he glanced over at 16 from where he was standing a short distance away ' _It is odd though, I don't get a malicious feeling from any of them, no sense of bloodlust or anything, least of all from the big guy.'_ then he noticed some birds landing on 16, and some other animals being attracted to him ' _Well that was definitely unexpected, I guess there really are more to these Androids than meets the eye, at least the versions from our time. I can't help but wonder, if Kakarot was here would he try to appeal to them in some way?'_

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Nail pulled himself off of the ground and looked up to see Piccolo still being choked out by 18 in mid air "Piccolo hold on, I'm coming!" he charged at 18 at full speed.

"Points for effort, but not much else." 18 swept his attack to the side and slammed her fist straight into Nail's gut full force, causing him to cough up blood before he fell to the ground with a loud thud "So you think that's enough of that?"

17 looked over at the others lying on the ground "Hold that thought, we've got someone preparing a sneak attack."

"ELEMENT OF SURPRISE!" Kai bolted up to his feet and fired a quick Explosive Demon Wave with what little Ki he had left.

"It's not very effective." 17 deflected the blast with ease, then elbowed Kai in the face, uppercutted him in the jaw and stomped down on his spine.

"Why do I yell things…?"

"You tell me hotshot." 17 kicked him to flip him over "So I've got a quick question for you, who has two broken arms and is a total bitch?"

"You stupid prick… You only broke one of my-"

"This guy." 17 stomped down on Kai's arm hard enough to break it, causing him to quietly squeal in agony until he passed out "As they say, timing is everything."

"So now are you done?" 18 floated down next to him.

"Yeah I'd say so. Hey check it out, Goku's kid and that mystery kid know how to turn off the blonde. That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, and unlike you he doesn't need a bottle."

"You're just mad because I wore it better."

"If by wore it better you mean people kept mistaking you for me, then yeah you totally wore it better."

"Oh I'm sorry, does that make me girlish or you manish?"

"Oh yeah that's hilarious, you talk like he fights." 18 glanced over at Future Gohan "Speaking of mystery kid, who the hell is he anyway? I don't have anything in my databanks about him."

"Neither do I."

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Raditz gritted his teeth as he surveyed the situation ' _They beat down two Super Saiyans, two incredibly powerful Namekians that rival Super Saiyans, and whatever the hell Kai is supposed to be. None of them could beat them by grouping up, what chance would I have going two on one against them?'_

"And then there was one I guess." 18 calmly floated her way back towards the mountainside road, with 17 just following right behind her.

"On one hand, I'm a Saiyan and normally we never go down without a fight. On the other hand, I know that if the two of you fought seriously you'd be able to kill me before I had a chance to even transform."

"Relax they're fine, at least they're not dead. I say go ahead and give them some of those Senzu Beans you've got with you, that should take care of any damage we did to them right?"

"Looks like the old man did research on more than just Kakarot's past battles."

"He was a man with a mission, whatever it might have been. Give them a message to, once they finish up with the inevitable therapy they'll have to go through because of this, we'll be glad to give them a rematch anytime."

"I know that's definitely going to be the case with that kid, the others probably won't be too far behind either."

"Wouldn't be surprised." 17 promptly started walking away.

18 glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow "So what the hell gives, aren't we going to ask him where Goku is right now?"

"No need, doing it the old fashioned way will be a lot more fun. Besides, all we have to do is go out there and cause enough trouble then Goku might actually come looking for us."

"I see, not a bad idea actually. At least this one doesn't involve drowning Coachella in Szechuan Sauce."

"That was one time!"

"One idea that you repeated three times." she shot a wink at Raditz "Later Sonic the Hedgehog, we're out now."

"So what, you've got a thing for hedgehogs now?"

"Better that than trying to hump a porcupine."

"Again, one time!"

"Whatever lets you sleep at night." 18 glanced over at 16 "Hey what's up with you big guy, what are you looking at?"

16 frowned slightly "There were birds here, but you were loud so they flew away."

"And?"

"I liked the birds."

"Good for you big guy. Anyway it doesn't seem like this road gets a lot of traffic, if we want to attract more attention then we'll need to find a more populated area."

17 nodded "Yeah I can't really argue with that, an area with more people around would definitely be more suited to our needs. I'm all for changing up the location if you are."

"And when we do I was hoping to find some new clothes, I have no intention of wandering around for days on end fighting in a bunch of rags with the symbol of that old bastard."

"Find by me, besides they smell like copper anyway."

"You think everything smells like copper." they started walking away, when…

"Hold on a second." Raditz suddenly blitzed in front of them.

"Anything else we can do for you?"

"Before you go blast off like Team Rocket, there's something I need to know. What exactly is your objective? Are you just trying to kill my brother, are you out for revenge or something, do you want to take over the world just for the hell of it, what is it?"

17 and 18 shared a look "Well for now it's taking down Goku, and once we're done with that we'll have to wait and see."

"That's what I don't understand, as far as I know my brother never did anything to you, and it can't be because of Dr Gero's orders or else you wouldn't have just up and killed him. The old man was the one that hated Goku and you literally crushed his brain underneath your foot, so now that he's out of the picture why do you even care?"

"Dr Gero doesn't have anything to do with it, truth be told Raditz right now all of this is just a game."

"You seriously see this as a game, that's the only reason as to why you're doing this?"

"The short answer to that would be yes, it's just fun. If I wanted to know where to find Goku at this very moment then I could just beat the answer out of you, but hunting him down is one of the best parts of the game. It's like how One Piece is probably going to end, it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey."

"It's been confirmed by the creator that the One Piece is actually a physical reward."

"So he says."

"Whatever, I don't suppose I would be able to talk you out of trying to put my brother's head on a pike?"

16 studied Raditz for a moment, then slowly shook his head "Negative, I have only one purpose for existing and that is to kill Son Goku."

"I figured as much."

"As fun as this is we have places to be, take my advice and give the Senzu Beans to your friends before they end up bleeding out." 18 told him.

"They're not bleeding."

"Maybe not externally. Well we'll be going now, but in the meantime you might as well call this a parting gift." 18 made her way over to Raditz, wrapped her arms around his neck and pecked him on the cheek "See you real soon, later." and she promptly took off into the air.

17 and 16 took off after her and shot her a look "What the hell was that, do you have a thing for hedgehogs now?"

"So what if I do, societal definitions of beauty are BS anyway."

"Look if this is about pissing off mom and dad, you could just date a black guy."

"Oh my god."

"Oh yeah right, they're dead."

"Oh my god!"

Raditz on the other hand, he found himself alone on the mountainside road ' _Okay, so that happened I guess. I can't waste any time, I have to go and help the others, and more importantly I can't let them know about that or I'll never hear the end of it. With any luck the others still have the Senzu Beans that we split up earlier.'_ he quickly floated down to the crater where the others were lying and went over to Nail first "Nail, hey Nail can you hear me? Listen, I need you to bite down on a Senzu Bean okay?" he was met with groaning, and the sound of chewing "Good he can still chew, for a second there I thought I would end up having to slip him the tongue." he was met with more groaning "Yeah I'm not any more fond of it than you are."

"Hey Raditz!" this was when Tarble, Krillin and Tien finally showed up on the scene "Sorry we're late, we didn't miss too much did we?"

"You missed the entire battle, just reach into their pants and feed them some Senzu Beans and I'll explain everything when you're done."

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Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp…

"Hm?" Panchy (Bulma's mom) looked up from the magazine she was reading when she heard something.

"Hey mom, up here!" as it turns out, it was Bulma and the others being carried by Yamcha, much to his discomfort "So did you miss us?"

"Oh Bulma, if it isn't my beautiful daughter and my even more beautiful granddaughter! I'm so glad you're home, and Yamcha you must've gotten even more handsome since I last saw you dear."

"Uh…" Yamcha blushed and let out a nervous chuckle "Not that I don't appreciate the compliment, but that was just this morning."

"And that just proves that you get more and more handsome every day, plus you're just so darn cute when you're bashful. Well you guys just make yourselves comfortable, I'll go ahead and grab some snacks so we can have a proper sit-down together." and she walked off before any objections could be voiced.

"As nice as that would be considering I got fisted this morning, I think I should head over and make sure Goku is recovering okay from the Heart Virus."

"Yeah go ahead pretty boy." Yajrobe let out a scoff "I've gone for way too long without a proper snack that doesn't shoot out of my crack like a bunch of rocks, I say you're on your own. And your fridge is mine."

"...Good to know, I'll be back as soon as I know Goku is okay." and so Yamcha promptly blasted off into the skies, his Kaioken flaring and boosting his speed to new heights ' _Even though I've had about three years to process, it still feels weird to think about someone as insanely powerful as Goku could be killed by something as simple as a Heart Virus. But Goku's tough, I know that now that he's got the medicine he needs he'll pull through in no time. All the same, I'd better speed things up.'_

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

"What?!" Piccolo shot an alarmed look over at Raditz "You're telling me the Androids know about Senzu Beans too?"

Raditz nodded "It make sense, from what I heard Dr Gero knew about them too."

"But it doesn't make sense, if these things wanted to kill us then why didn't they just finish us off and be done with it? Is this their way of saying that we're not even worth that much effort to them?"

"It's not like you can deny it considering the proof they've shown, they've been toying with us from the very beginning."

"Meaning that they humiliated all of us just for the hell of it."

"Dammit!" Kai promptly fired a Ki blast into the nearby cliffside, blowing a good chunk of it to hell out of pure rage "Son of a mother fucker!"

"Take it easy Kai, just because we lost doesn't mean that you have to let your rage get the better of you." Future Gohan tried to calm him down, the key word being tried.

"Are you seriously trying to tell me to cool it? You don't get it, the entire point of me driving myself to surpass the Super Saiyans was to prove to myself that I had what it takes to be the best, and then some punk with a chick haircut snapped my arms and my pride like a bunch of fucking twigs!"

"You weren't the only one who was defeated." Gohan pointed out "Not to belabor a point right now but we were all just beaten pretty badly, they were way stronger than any of us could possibly have prepared for regardless of whether or not dad was here."

Raditz nodded "The kid has a point, even if I had joined in the fight then I probably would've been beaten down just as badly."

"No offense but I think you're right, they took both me and Kai down in one shot, so I don't think it would've made a difference. There's no sense in trying to beat ourselves up over something like this."

"I hate the thought but you're right, even if sensei was here I doubt he would've made much of a difference." Tarble pointed out "Even though he defeated the likes of Frieza and Turles there's no confirming that he would've been able to win, as much as I hate the thought. I saw it just as clearly as all of you did, if Kai hadn't shown up when he did then who knows what would've happened. We have to face the reality of the situation, even if sensei was here right now I doubt he would fare any better than the rest of you did."

"What's really concerning is that you're more right than you know." Future Gohan muttered "I was afraid of this."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that these Androids aren't exactly like the ones I'm used to deal with either."

"What are you getting at now Gohan?" asked Piccolo.

"The Androids that I fought in my time weren't anywhere near as powerful as the ones we just fought, I wasn't strong enough to beat them but at least then I could somewhat hold my own against them."

"Well this is just great." Krillin muttered "That means the situation is even worse than any of us thought, so what the heck do we do now?"

"Well first things first, the way I see it the rest of you should head over to Goku's place and take him to hide somewhere the Androids won't be able to find him." Piccolo told them "Regardless of whatever our next move might be, we need to keep Goku safe until he's well enough to join us in battle."

"Well at least we have some kind of plan, but if all of us are going then what exactly are you planning to do?" asked Gohan.

"Good question."

"Piccolo you obviously have some kind of plan so fill us in, there's no point in keeping us in the dark." Tien told him "Last time I checked, we were all on the same side here."

"Oh is that so, and when the hell did I agree to that?" Piccolo flared his aura and burst high into the air "Don't make the mistake of thinking that I was ever friends with the likes of you!" he fired a Ki blast at the ground, forcing them to dodge it "Even if we have a temporary truce between us it's only because it furthers my goals of world domination, make sure you never forget that! As far as I'm concerned, all of you can kiss the greenest part of my ass!" and he promptly soared off into the distance.

"...There are greener parts of his ass?" was what Kai took away from that.

"Why would you even want to know that?" asked Gohan.

"I have a natural curiosity that rivals Sokka from Avatar. Anyway screw it, let's go follow the green diva."

"What do you mean, where's he going?"

"I'll explain it on the way." and so they both promptly blasted off.

"Dammit." Krillin muttered "Once a bad guy always a bad guy and there's no denying the fact that Piccolo used to be a real asshole, I can't believe I thought those days were behind us."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Nail told him "Piccolo may be prideful and reclusive, but if you looked closely he deliberately made sure that blast was intended to avoid hitting us. He just wanted to make sure we didn't try to follow him, so we didn't know what he was up to, although it appears that his two students have already figured it out."

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At the same time, Gohan and Kai were following Piccolo as he soared across the skies from a safe distance away "So what exactly do you think Piccolo is up to?"

"It's not that hard when you stop and think about it." Kai told him nonchalantly "First of all I'd say that little stunt was just his way of trying to save face, even Big Green has his pride that he wants to keep up. None of us are going to take what they dished out lying down, he knows that we have to do whatever it takes to beat them. He knows what he has to do, he has to cash in the last resort option that he never even wanted to think about using."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"Take a wild guess, where exactly do you think we're going right now? You know the direction we're flying in right now don't you? I thought you would know it's obvious."

"Um…"

"Okay let me put it this way, do you remember what Piccolo told us about the training he did in Otherworld after he was killed by Nappa, what he had to do in hell?"

"Yeah of course I do, he went to Hell and then met his father the original King Piccolo, and then the two of them- Wait a second, do you mean…"

"Yep, we're heading up to the Lookout so Piccolo can meet up with Kami."

"So that would mean…"

"Remember what the Grand Elder told us back on Namek, Piccolo and Kami used to be a single being and if they had been a single being when the Saiyans arrived then chances are he would've been able to hold his own against the Saiyans. Piccolo knows that he has to become a hell of a lot more powerful than he is right now, he just has to convince Kami to fuse with him."

"What? But they're…"

"Think about it, if the good half and the evil half manage to fuse back together into a single being then they'll go back to being what they were before, a Namekian with powers unlike anything we've ever seen before. Let me put it in simple terms, if you and the others are Super Saiyans then Piccolo's trying to turn into a Super Namekian."

"Well on one hand that does sound like a really good idea, that's the kind of power we need to take on the Androids. But at the same time, if Piccolo and Kami merge into a single being, that would mean the Dragon Balls would disappear as well?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if that actually did happen, but seriously think about it, if the Androids got ahold of them and finished the job then we would probably just lose the Dragon Balls either way. Besides, if Piccolo is even thinking about doing this then that proves how desperate we are to have a trump card right now. He can't stand Kami, so there's no way in hell he would fly within 100 miles of Kami unless he thought it was the only option we have to win against these things. Besides we know Piccolo better than anyone, chances are this will be the biggest sacrifice he'll ever make."

"Yeah, you're probably right. But what about the rest of us, even of Piccolo and Kami do merge back together I doubt he would be able to defeat all of the Androids by himself."

"Well of course not, Androids or no Androids there's no way in hell I'd be willing to let anyone, Saiyan or Namekian or whatever, pass me by. I have a plan of my own to be able to compete with the Androids, but for the time being let's see how Piccolo's plan turns out and then we'll go from there."

"Can you fill me in on that?"

"When we actually have time for that, for now let's see how Piccolo's plan turns out and then focus on moving your dad somewhere the Androids won't find him."

"But even when dad is back to full healthm I doubt it will be enough for him to put up a fight against the Androids."

"Not necessarily, keep in mind that there's a Saiyan's Zenkai to consider here. Goku is recovering from a heart virus that should've killed him, at the very least I would probably have to push my Namek-Ken up to 25 in order to keep up with him."

"How high can you push the Namek-Ken?"

"We'll find out soon enough. But one thing is for certain, those Androids will regret not killing me when they had the chance."

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Meanwhile, with the other Z fighters…

Tarble was leading Future Gohan and the others back towards Mount Paozu in order to check up on Goku's current condition "So about that medicine, how long will it take for sensei to make a full recovery? We have to be sure we keep him hidden from the Androids until then."

Future Gohan thought for a moment "Well considering it's my Father we're talking about, if I had to guess I would say about 10 days at the most and three days at the very least."

"That definitely works in our favor, we should at least be able to keep him hidden for a few days or so."

"But the problem is that once Father is fully recovered he probably won't be able to help much against the likes of the Androids."

"Well that doesn't matter right now, what does matter is that we have to get him out of the house for the time being."

"I'm just thanking whatever Kais are up there that the Androids don't literally have radar or else we would probably all be dead by now."

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Kami sat in his throne on the Lookout, sensing those approaching and being exactly aware of what they were coming for ' _So Piccolo, it seems the time has come and you've at last made your decision. It would seem that the time has drawn near for the two halves of our being to be made whole once again, for only then will we will be able to hope to conquer the threat that looms on the horizon.'_

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Outside…

Piccolo set foot on the ground of the Lookout, and he shot a glare at Gohan and Kai as they both landed "The two of you shouldn't have followed me."

"And you shouldn't have tried to blast us to Kingdom come." Kai told him dryly "And for the record I've seen your ass, it can't get any greener."

"...How and why do you know that?"

"I believe you came here for more pressing reasons." this was when Kami appeared on the scene in front of them, his deadly serious expression matching Piccolo's.

"Would I be correct to assume that you already know exactly why I came to see you here?"

"Indeed you would be, you and I were… Well that is to say your father and I were once a single being long ago, so suffised to say I know your mind quite well."

"That should save us some time then."

"Though I must admit, I never thought the day would come when you and I would resolve our differences and merge into the original form that we once shared."

"Don't get the wrong idea, this isn't us merging. I simply intend to take you into my body."

Kai let out an audible snort "You could at least take him out to dinner first."

"First of all, Namekians don't eat. Second of all, Gohan."

"On it." Gohan chopped Kai on the back of the neck, knocking him to the ground "Go on."

"Thank you. Anyway Kami I have no intention of merging with you, I simply intend to absorb you into my being in order to increase my power enough so that I can defeat the Androids, and if the Earth has to do without the Dragon Balls before we can find someone to make another set then so be it."

"...I see." Kami gritted his teeth and started tightening his grip on his staff "You speak a greater deal of sense thank you realize. The truth is that I no longer serve a purpose alone, somewhere along the way the gap between our powers grew beyond anything we believed to be possible. As you pitted yourself against one ghastly monstrous foe after another, my own strength diminished to nothing."

"That was the case since the Saiyans showed up." Kai pulled himself back to his feet, shooting a certain finger gesture at Gohan in the process.

"The boy speaks the truth as well."

"No you mustn't!" Mr Popo protested "Regardless of how powerful Piccolo may be, I won't let you speak this way! The fact is that you're still the wise and gentle Guardian of the Earth!"

"Please calm yourself Mr Popo, the situation is quite grave. Neither Gohan, the son of Goku from this timeline or another, both of whom have reached the power of a Super Saiyan, was able to stand against the Androids with even the slightest chance of victory. The present situation suggests an outcome so dire that I fear not even Goku himself will be able to vanquish those foes once his health has recovered, perhaps the only way to be able to respond to this threat would be for Piccolo to absorb my power into his being."

"First sensible thing you've said in you know how long." Piccolo told him flatly "What the Earth needs right now isn't a guardian that hasn't lifted a finger in more than a decade, what it needs is a warrior with the necessary strength and intellect necessary to crush these bastards before they have the chance to take us out."

"Yes it is true, a great evil has risen, one unlike anything this world has ever seen before. I just need to let things unfold a bit more for the time being."

"Unfold? You can't be serious! You know exactly what I'm talking about, you know damn well just how dangerous these Androids are!"

"The Androids are a threat yes, but they pale in comparison to what I fear comes next."

"As ominous as that sounds, you've seen exactly how powerful they are!"

"What I've seen is that you and one of your students were the ones to start the fight, and more importantly that they could've killed you when they had the chance but they didn't."

"...You disgust me, while you've been up here looking down on the world from the safety of your throne the rest of us have been risking our lives to save it! You heard what Gohan's future self told us, the future is in ruins because of these monsters!"

"Yes but he also told you that the Androids you face now are different from the ones he fought against in his own time, the implications of this fact remain unclear."

"Meaning what exactly, you think they're all just misunderstood? You think all they really want is to be our friends?"

"I'm not saying anything of the sort, I'm only suggesting that we survey the situation in greater detail before resorting to a proposal as radical as this."

"You spineless coward! Fine, if this is the way it has to be then I can wait. After all we wouldn't want to act rationally, let's just hope that when you come to your senses there will still be a world left for us to save." he promptly sat himself down on the edge of the Lookout, then spared a glance back at Gohan and Kai "Clearly this is going to take awhile, you two head over and try and move Goku somewhere."

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Meanwhile, with the others…

Raditz and the others continued flying towards Mount Paozu ' _Why do I have this feeling there's something we're missing?'_

That was when Tien snapped him out of his thought "Hey guys listen, I'm going to split off from here and pick up Chiaotzu from Kame House so the two of us can do some training. Best to do it now before things get… weird."

"Duly noted, go ahead and do what you have to do. Don't worry though, if things start looking bad then we'll be sure to be close by. Granted I don't know how much help we're going to be, but we'll be there."

"You go ahead and do what you have to do, the rest of us will take Kakarot over to Kame House before the Androids figure out what we're going to do. With any luck we still have enough time before they wise up."

"Right and make sure you tell Goku not to push himself, he needs to rest so he's at full strength when the time comes for him to deal with the Androids." and then Tien promptly blasted off in another direction.

"There will be a cold day in hell before that happens. Of course Kakarot would push himself, regardless of how pointless it may be."

"But that's just it." Future Gohan pointed out "The question is, why did it become so pointless in the first place? There were only two Androids in my time, and they weren't anywhere near as powerful as these three are, so what could've changed?"

"I doubt I'd be able to answer any of that, besides it's not like it even matters at this point. It doesn't matter if we like it or not, that's how it is."

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Meanwhile, somewhere in the Northern mountains…

18 was growing impatient as she and the others were flying through a snow covered mountain area "Hey seriously do you think we can speed this up, it's cold as tits up here."

"You know, maybe if you stopped whining and helped me look then we'd be moving a hell of a lot faster- Oh hey check it out." 17 glanced down at a pink van parked on the side of the road below them "You know on second thought, I don't think we have to steal the first one that we see down there."

"Oh I'm sorry, I can't hear you over your welching."

"Fine, fuck it." and so they floated down towards the road.

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The drivers of the aforementioned pink van, two guys by the name of Chuck and Jones, were getting cups of hot chocolate a short distance away "So talk to me Jones, how are the wife and kids doing?"

"They're still dead Chuck, it's been four months." Jones told him flatly.

"Oh. I am terrible at small talk."

"Yes, yes you are- Huh?"

As it turns out, 17 didn't go unnoticed as he and the others landed by the pink van "Huh, Lucky Foods. Kind of ironic when you think about it."

"Uh excuse me young man, I'm gonna need you to stay out of our van."

"Alright here's the plan guys, we're taking the van."

"Affirmative." 16 promptly picked up the van and tilted it, dumping all of the cargo out of the back.

"No not like that buddy, I mean we're gonna drive it."

"Oh." he sat it back down "Sorry."

"Hey it's cool man, at least now you have a place to sit."

"Affirmative." he promptly found himself a seat in the back of the van "I call shotgun."

"That's not exactly what that means, but points for effort so I say keep trying."

"Better than when we started with him this morning." 18 promptly sat in the passenger seat of the van.

17 took the chance to hop into the driver's seat and start it up "Alright that's bitchin. Now next stop, Casa de Goku."

"How about no, new plan. New clothes first, Goku's Casa second."

"Alright fine. Women, am I right 16?"

"Confirmed, she is female." 16 noted.

"Yeah she is." and then they drove off.

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"Alright here it is, sensei's house is straight ahead." Tarble and the others touched down on the ground of Mount Paozu and made their way towards Goku's house.

As they did, Nail glanced over at Raditz and noticed him deep in thought "Is everything alright, you seem distracted."

"Yeah, yeah…" Raditz let out a sigh "I've just been thinking."

"About what?"

"Well those Androids that beat the crap out of all of you, I'm guessing you're saying they don't have any redeeming qualities."

Future Gohan shot him a deadpan look "They're cold heartless killing machines, at least that's how they were in my own time. I couldn't get any read on them when we fought before, so I can't say for certain. Where's this coming from?"

"Nothing really, I was just thinking about what it would be like if they were good."

"Yeah well don't bother holding your breath on that one, they killed all of you in my timeline and they cost me a leg and Kai an eye."

"Hey you see the things I see your mind tends to wander places, I like to explore ideas. What the hell do you think fanfiction is for." he looked over at Nail "Don't say a fucking word, I know you're thinking it but don't say it." he was met with only a small smirk.

"Hey by the way guys, quick warning." Krillin ushered everyone back a few feet as he knocked on the door "I say be as nice to Goku's wife as you can, when she's in a bad mood she can be a total-"

"GOHAN!" that was when Chichi slammed the door open right onto Krillin's skull, only to scowl at the sight of everyone else before her "Oh great, it's just you idiots."

"Alright fine, I think I pretty much asked for that one." a gigantic bruise started swelling up on his head.

"Hey everyone is that you?" that was when Upa rushed out towards them "Oh thank goodness you're all okay, I was worried sick about all of you."

"Nevermind that, how is sensei doing?" asked Tarble.

"He's a lot better now that the medicine is taking effect, he just needs some rest and some time to recover now. So what happened, did all of you manage to take care of the Androids?"

"Farthest thing from it." Raditz told him dryly "The kid from the future showed up, turns out there were three more, Kai got both his arms broken, we all got the crap beaten out of us in an instant, Piccolo lost his shit and I got kissed by the hot one."

"...You mean the clown?"

"No no no, there's a girl now."

"You can't be serious."

"I really don't care if you do or not, I'm thinking we continue this conversation after we hurry the hell up and move Kakarot."

"So what do we do?"

"We can take him to Kame House, I doubt they'd look for him there."

"Isn't that literally the second place they'd look?"

"Look we're short on time and options, and got only knows what the Androids are up to right now." Raditz looked back at the others, only to stop when he noticed that one of them was missing "Okay where's the future kid?" he received numerous shrugs.

"Hey guys." that was when Yamcha showed up with Future Gohan slung over his shoulder "I was coming to check up on Goku and I found him trying to make a break for it."

"I wonder way." Raditz was met with a low growl from Chichi.

"Deal with bashing Chichi later, we have to move Goku."

"Right, let's take him to Kame House."

"That's literally the second place they'll look."

"Your point being?"

"...Fuck it, let's do this."

"That's what I thought."

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About 20 minutes later…

Soon enough, Raditz and Tarble were loading Goku's unconscious form onto a capsule plan to ship him to Kame House "Alright forward, forward, there's the ramp."

"Hey take it easy you guys, he's not laundry." Chichi was quick to scold them.

"Well there are times when he has the brain power of dirty socks."

"That one seems like a cheap shot." Upa pointed out "But you mean you're not exaggerating, these new Androids really are that powerful?"

"They're unlike anything we've ever seen before, believe me when I tell you that if you had seen them for yourself then there wouldn't be any question. Now all we have to do is wait for the runts to show up."

"You said that they took off after Piccolo after he lashed out at all of you earlier?"

"Pretty much yeah."

That was when Chichi lit up when she saw something flying towards them "My baby is finally here, Gohan we're down here!"

Sure enough, Gohan and Kai dropped down onto the scene, only for to almost instantly get smothered by Chichi "Okay, so it looks like everyone is getting ready to hide dad from the Androids right?"

"We can talk details later." Raditz told him flatly "For now we're getting your dad over to Kame House before the Androids find him."

"But that's literally the second place they'd look."

"Less lip, more ship."

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At the same time, Bulma was putting Bulla down for a nap, only to notice the phone ringing across the room "What the heck, who could that be?"

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

The door to Kame House creaked open to reveal Tien standing in the doorway "I came here to pick up Chiaotzu, we need to train."

"But Tien, the doctor said if your shoulders get any bigger-" Chiaotzu was promptly cut off.

"That's why we don't see him anymore."

"Wait a second, so you guys didn't beat the Androids?" asked Launch, currently in her blonde persona.

"Well from what I've been told they broke both of Kai's arms, swung him into Gohan like a wrecking ball and drop kicked Kai, two Super Saiyans and two incredibly powerful Namekians, so that was a lot of fun. Other than that, it proved to be a total wash." and so Tien promptly blasted off, with Chiaotzu following right behind him.

"Well you heard the man, now there's only one thing left to do. Someone fetch my laptop, I say we buy us a submarine!"

"Alright fine, but you're not allowed to name it after your boobs."

"My submarine, my stolen money, I get to name it!"

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It didn't take long for the group to end up airborn.

Raditz didn't waste any time as he explained to Upa and Yamcha what the Androids had told him before "So the three of them are apparently treating this whole thing like some kind of game, and it's definitely a game they want Kakarot to lose."

"But are they really that strong?" asked Upa.

"Let me put it this way. Take the warning from the future kid brooding over in the corner, then throw it out the window and imagine it snapping Kai's arms like twigs and drop kicking two Super Saiyans and two Namekians."

"Wow."

That was when Chichi suddenly let out a shriek of terror and started shuffling over towards the bags she brought with her "Oh no no no, I'm a terrible mother! I was so caught up in all of the commotion that I almost forgot the most important thing!"

"Wait, mom what are you talking about?" asked Gohan.

"What else?" she dropped a few textbooks in front of him "You have studying to do."

"You can't be serious!"

"It doesn't matter what the current circumstances are, they don't excuse you from trying to earn an education."

"And shit like this is why I'm still single." Raditz immediately pointed at Nail "Shut up."

"So what do we do from here?" asked Tarble.

"You're asking the wrong Saiyan, I have no idea what the hell to do."

"I might have one idea, it's crazy but it's better than nothing." Future Gohan spoke up "Since we know where Dr Gero's secret lab was hidden, maybe I could travel back in time to before the Androids were activated. I could try to destroy them before they could ever be brought online in the first place all at once."

"Well on one hand I could see that working on some level, but something doesn't sound right about that. Correct me if I'm wrong here kid, but I thought you said your time machine wasn't very precise. Besides it's like you told us before, travelling back in time in the first place takes so much energy that it takes you months to gather enough for a round trip, which means that if you go further back into the past then there's no guarantee you would have enough to make it back to your own timeline."

"That is a fair point."

"But if you could go back and destroy the Androids in the past then what would happen to the Androids that are already here, in our timeline I mean?" asked Tarble "Would they all just disappear or would it be more like they were wiped from existence."

"No, if that was the case then it couldn't work. Even if I went back to before the Androids were created and stopped Dr Gero from making them it would alter the course of that timeline, but it wouldn't do anything to stop the ones in this timeline or the ones in my timeline."

"There's something I don't get, if you really can go back in time then why didn't you go back and find baby Dr Gero and…" Krillin promptly made a hand gesture of strangling him with a rope, complete with the choking sound and everything, leaving everyone present disgusted by the thought.

"...Okay first of all, that's horrible."

"What, it's a Red Ribbon Army scientist who created a bunch of Androids to kill all of us and bring about the apocalypse! I can't be the only one thinking about that."

"It's still horrible. And second of all time doesn't work that way, changing the past doesn't change the future."

"What's so complicated about it, you came back to warn us about the Androids before they showed up so we would actually bother to train and get strong enough, so we should've been able to defeat them without overcomplicating it."

"That's not how it works."

"Well that's what I've heard."

"From who, who did you hear that from?"

"Oh gee, let me think. Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time, Quantum Leap, Wrinkle in Time, the Hot Tub Time Machine movies, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures, X Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool 2, Back to the Future for crying out loud, basically any movie ever that deals with time travel."

"With the exception of the fourth Avengers movie."

"Whatever man, this is common knowledge."

"Look, I don't know why everyone believes that but that isn't true. Think about it for a minute, if you travel to the past then that past becomes the future, and your former present becomes the past, which can't be changed by the new future you created."

"...I'm starting to see why you didn't get laid in your timeline." Kai noted dryly.

"I'm 17!"

"Your point?"

"...Not dignifying that. Anyway let me try this another way, even if you do travel back in time it wouldn't chance the timeline you came from. All that it would do is create a different timeline based on the changes that you've made."

"Okay there you go, was it that hard to say that Back to the Future is a bunch of bullshit?"

"...Honestly, no matter what the timeline you can be just exhausting."

"But there's one thing I don't understand." Tarble spoke up "If changing our timeline won't change yours in any way, then why would you bother to go through all of this trouble in the first place? After all, the timeline you're from wouldn't be benefitted at all."

Future Gohan breathed a sigh "Bulma and I both agreed that we were done, done with living in a world without any hope because the Androids had ripped all of it away. Any future where they didn't exist was good enough for us, even if we couldn't live in it ourselves. Of course recon was the primary objective, she thought we might be able to find some weakness we could exploit by watching all of you fight them, and if that wasn't enough I was supposed to bring you back to our time so that we would be able to face off against the Androids together." he tensed up slightly out of nowhere, his teeth grinding furiously, earning looks of concern from everyone present "Sorry about that, it's just that I've spent so long having to deal with the Androids that I'd forgotten how peaceful the world used to be. Plus events now are so different and unexpected that it throws a wrench into everyone's plans. Not only is the timing of the Heart Virus taking effect off by several months, the two Androids are far more powerful than in my time and there's even a third one that I wasn't prepared to deal with."

"But what caused everything to change in the first place?" asked Nail.

"I can't say for certain, I just don't have the answer to that. But still, maybe it was actually me who caused all of this by coming to this timeline in the first place."

"Hey there's no need to overthink it." Chichi sat down next to Goku and smiled "It doesn't matter how bad it may seem, I know that we're still better off now than we would be if you hadn't shown up. My Goku is alive right now because of you."

"Maybe, but…"

"This is probably the only time in this timeline or any other that I'm actually going to agree with her on something." Kai pointed out "If there's one thing this pack of disfunctional morons is good at it's focusing on the positives in life, they pride themselves on the fact that things always seem to work out somehow."

"...Yeah you're right, I guess I had forgotten about that sort of thing. We've been through spots a lot worse than this one before."

"We'll probably scrape through this one way or another, it's just a matter of how." Kai just leaned back and glanced out the window at the scenery passing them by ' _Yeah, like optimism has ever been my strongpoint, as in never. They said that a Super Saiyan is supposed to be absolutely invincible in every sense of the word, and yet now we have Androids, Namekians and the only human in the universe, as in yours truly, capable of matching and maybe even surpassing them entirely. I pushed myself to the absolute limit to surpass that amount of power for years on end, so what the fuck went wrong? It just doesn't make sense, the Namek-Ken should allow me to push myself to even greater levels of strength through sheer willpower. I fought a Super Saiyan to a standstill three years ago, and now I was able to slaughter one Android only to get beaten down by another one with ease. Does this mean that technology able to overcome what I can't, does mere biology have the ability to surpass the limitations built into me by my humanity? No what the hell am I saying, I can't let myself start saying crap like that or else I'll end up looking like a hypocrite! I'm a warrior, human or not, I don't have any limitations! It doesn't matter who I have to face in a fight, if I have to get stronger to beat them then I'll force myself to reach their level of power! All I have to do is get back out there and destroy them, and I think I know just what I have to do in order to make that a reality.'_

"Hey guys." that was when Yamcha got their attention "Just giving a progress update, Kame House shouldn't be too far from here."

"Good to know, I have to pee." then a certain ringtone sounded through the plane phone "Oh for fuck's sake."

Future Gohan blinked "What is that?"

"What is what?"

"This music."

"You mean country music?"

"Oh… it's been so long since I've heard it."

"What, you don't have country music in the future?"

"No. Shortly after the Androids appeared it all just vanished, no one knows exactly what happened to it- Wait a second."

"Let's table that for the time being and deal with the inevitable future cougar."

"You realize that's my wife you're talking about." Yamcha pointed out dryly.

"Yeah I know."

"Just checking." Yamcha picked up the phone "Hey what's up babe-"

" _Yamcha! What's wrong? Something has to be wrong, tell me everything and don't leave out any details! First things first, where the heck are you calling from? Second of all I tried checking in with you guys to make sure that Gohan made it home and you got there okay, but no one over there would pick up the phone. Third of all, please tell us the grown up version of the only kid in our group who knows when to shut up is there."_

"That depends, is this a booty call?" was Kai's snarky comment.

" _My point exactly!"_

"Dial it back, he's right here with us."

" _Oh perfect, go ahead and put him on."_

"Keep squawking your head off as much as you want, you're on speaker."

" _Okay good, and for the record you ever make a crack about me being a fat chicken and I won't hesitate to skin you alive."_

"You can try, now what did you call us for?"

" _I just got a call from some really screwed up call from some farmer in the countryside about 50 miles outside of Ginger Town and said that he found some weird abandoned vehicle with the Capsule Corp logo."_

"Oh wow that's super interesting, so does it have anything to do with the Androids that we're in the middle of fighting?"

" _Dial back on the asshole factor and it might, I asked them to send me a picture of the machine and I have it with me to make a long story short. Not only is this the time machine I'm staring at right now, it's showing some major signs of wear and tear."_

"What?!" Future Gohan bolted to his feet "But that's impossible, I still have my time machine in my pack of capsules like it's been since I came to this timeline earlier today."

" _But that doesn't make any sense, I mean the resemblance is uncanny. The one in the picture here is pretty beat up and overgrown like it's been sitting there for awhile, but aside from that it's pretty much identical. Do you think it's possible that my future self cranked out more than one of these things?"_

"Sorry but the chance of that being the case is slim to none, it took you more than half a decade to be able to scrounge up the materials you needed to build one."

" _Well that makes things even more confusing, that would make this the exact same machine you travelled here in. I'm absolutely positive of that, believe me when I tell you that I have an eye for this stuff. Just hold on a second, I'm faxing over a picture the farmer took so you guys can take a look for yourselves."_

"Faxing?"

"You still have a fax machine?" was Kai's takeaway from that.

"What's a fax machine?"

"You see, that one makes sense."

"I've never heard of a fax machine either." Gohan pointed out.

"And so does that."

" _Just shut up and show the picture to them!"_ and then she promptly faxed the picture over to their plane.

Future Gohan took the picture and looked at it, and he froze "But… But this doesn't make any sense. This is the exact same time machine I used to come here, there's no question about it. But what does this mean? Tell me Bulma, do you know the exact location where that farmer took this photo, as in do you have the precise coordinates of the area?"

" _Well I wouldn't say precisely, but judging from the postmark on the package they'd sent it in I would have to say it's outside of section 1050 West, not far from Gingertown. Are you gonna go down there and check it out?"_

"Yes, I have to see that for myself just to be sure."

" _I was actually hoping to come to if you don't mind, it's not that far of a flight for me."_

"Well… If you want to then I guess it would be okay."

" _Great, I'll meet you there in a little bit."_ and then she hung up.

"Call it a hunch but I have a feeling we're not going to like what we find."

"Hey I knew what I was getting into." Yamcha barely even spared him a glance "So let me ask you again, are you absolutely certain that there's only the one time machine?"

"Yes, I'm absolutely positive. But then again they also thought there was only one Thanos and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in this plane who knows how that turned out."

"Um, excuse me?" Gohan looked up at his future self "I was hoping I could have a look at the time machine too, if you don't mind I mean."

"Excuse me?" Chichi bolted upright and shot him a look.

"It'll be fine mom, it's not like we're going anywhere dangerous. We'll be safe. And besides, how often can you say that you got to investigate a time machine? And who knows, I might be able to put that studying to use when we do find it."

"Add this to the list of reasons to give a gigantic "Fuck you" to Back to the Future, might as well come myself and see what this is about." Kai pulled himself to his feet, and once the hatch opened the three of them set off.

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The drive to Goku's house was pretty slow going.

18 glanced over at 17 "So I've been thinking about it, what do we do after we kill Goku, you know after we get to his house, whenever the hell that might be?"

17 gave a shrug "Whatever the hell we want, I mean who the hell is going to stop us?"

"Not Goku." was 16's contribution to their conversation.

"Exactly. Who knows, I might even be a park ranger. Speaking of Goku, hey 16 what's our ETA at right now?"

"We are currently 2,544 miles from our intended destination."

"Good to know."

"Well this is boring as all hell." 18 muttered.

"Hey come on sis, it's not so bad. What do you say we go ahead and turn on our good old friend, the radio here." 17 switched it on, only to end up filling the van with the monstrocity that is country music.

"Oh that's just 10 pounds of nope in a 5 pound bag."

"Oh yeah sorry about that, I forgot we were out in the sticks."

"...You know what, I think I know the first thing we're gonna do after we kill Goku."

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Meanwhile, with Kai and the two Gohan's…

Gohan was flying alongside his future self and Kai towards the location where the other time machine had been discovered, but during the trip he glanced over at his future self "Hey future me, I was wondering."

"Whatever you have to say, go ahead." Future Gohan assured him.

"Well first, what about the rest of the humans from the future you're from? I mean have the Androids in your timeline really managed to turn the entire planet into a warzone as bad as you said they did?"

"That could be one way of putting it, except if the planet is at war then the humans have been on the losing side of it pretty much since day one. By this point the population has dwindled to almost nothing, the few hundreds of thousands of people left are forced to live in secret underground bunkers that Bulma and I built, and it would probably only be in the tens of thousands if Kai hadn't managed to take out one of the Androids with his suicide attack."

"Wow, that really is bad. So I've been wondering, are there any other changes in this timeline that make it stand out in comparison to yours?"

"Well there are a few little things, for starters Bulma and Yamcha never had any kids before the Androids got to him. I mean we did hear that Bulma was pregnant a few months before they appeared, but with everything that happened when the Heart Virus started popping up… she had a miscarriage."

"Oh… that's horrible."

"Yeah, combine that with losing Yamcha and she had it just as bad as we did. Kai was the one that kept us together before he died."

"I see. So just out of curiosity, how many of our friends are still alive in your timeline?"

"Well Piccolo, Yamcha, Krillin, Nail, Tien, Chiaoutzu, Raditz and Nail all got killed by the Androids when they first attacked, but I don't know about Yajriobe. Korin, he didn't last a year with the Androids around, and by extension neither did the Senzu Beans. The only ones left were an emergency supply that Kai kept stashed away, but that only lasted about 7 years."

"What about people that didn't fight, like my mom or Master Roshi or Mr Popo?"

"Well I think Master Roshi is hiding out with Launch, Puar, Oolong and Turtle in a submarine that Launch bought online. As for mom and grandpa, well… the Androids didn't get to them, I can say that's the one positive."

"What's the negative?"

"Even with the Androids running around slaughtering people like it was the Purge, we still had to deal with the Heart Virus."

"So… you mean they…?"

"Yeah, three years after the Androids showed up. I lived on my own for awhile after that, and after Kai died I moved into Capsule Corp with Bulma."

"...Oh."

"Yeah."

"Okay moving on from what's probably a kid friendly version of 28 Days." Kai cut into their conversation dryly "Hey Future Spike, let me run something by you."

"Go ahead."

"I've been thinking about this, it seemed pretty obvious that Dr Gero didn't want to activate the other Androids, and for all we know he probably knew how much of a risk it was to turn them on in the first place, but considering how I wasted his sexbot and how Nail went to town on him before we ended up forcing his hand, and that's when they ended up turning on them and taking him out, with some help from a certain Saiyan that looks like a hedgehog who's got a hell of a lot of residual sexual tension with the blonde. Anyway, the old man might have been evil but he was no idiot, if the Androids were a threat to him then he would've had some kind of backup plan in case something like that happened."

"That sounds like a reasonable theory."

"He would've needed some way to turn them off if they went out of control, like an emergency shutdown device, it's a longshot but if we can find any kind of device like that we might be able to stop them. Either that or I can go with my contingency plan."

"Which is what exactly?"

"I'll tell you later for the sake of plot and suspense."

"It doesn't sound like a longshot to me." Gohan told him "I think it makes a lot of sense."

"Add that to the list of reasons why you've essentially become my hypeman."

"Do you really believe in your own hype that much?" asked Future Gohan.

"Bitch please, I am the hype."

"...Ignoring that, I think we've reached the coordinates Bulma told us about, at least the general area so you guys keep your eyes peeled-"

"Found it." Kai jerked a thumb down towards where the machine was sitting, apparently having some significant damage and being covered in moss, and the three of them set down on the ground in front of it.

"Well this definitely does look like my time machine."

"But it also looks like it's been here for Popo knows how long."

Gohan lit up at this "Ooh looks like we have a mystery, I never get to solve mysteries! Like if I was Sherlock Holmes or Batman. Usually we're just busy fighting people, like if we were Bruce Lee or Batman."

Kai looked up to see a ship approaching from the distance "Well it looks like Mother of the Year didn't take very long to get here."

"Hang on a second, I'll go flag her down." Gohan flew upwards to meet up with Bulma.

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Meanwhile, with the Androids…

As it turns out, 18 and the other Androids had been pulled over by the cops, mostly to her great annoyance "Wow, I can't believe you actually pulled over."

"No no shut up, this is gonna be great." 17 assured her.

"You two!" one of the cops rounded on both of the Androids and cuffed both of them "This vehicle has been reported as stolen, you are hereby under arrest!"

Another one had managed to find 16 and wasn't shy about his opinion "Sir I have checked the vehicle and I have identified another male, and he is fucking big!"

"You cannot sit in the back, I called shotgun." 16 told him.

"He has a weapon, I'm cuffing him!" he promptly cuffed 16, only for him to shatter the cuffs with ease almost instantly "Uh… Hey just out of curiosity, do we have any bigger and stronger cuffs on us?"

"Yeah, they're in the car." the first cop told him.

"Oh wait, you mean this car?" 18 promptly hurled the car in question into the mountainside, destroying it in the fiery explosion that followed, resulting in one cop catching flies and the other cop evacuating himself "Alright 17 I take it back, this is fun.

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Meanwhile, with the group searching for the time machine…

"Hey you guys look who's here!" Bulma descended onto the scene with a broad smile and hopped out of her plane "Guess who's here, the genius who actually cracked time travel!"

"Um… hey." Future Gohan gave an awkward wave.

"Tell me something future kid, is it weird seeing me all young again? You have to tell me, do I manage to stay gorgeous even in the future?"

"Well, I guess… you don't really change that much when you think about it…"

"Wait are you serious? So as the years go by the looks of the delicate flower that is myself are spared from the wrath that comes with the cold ravages of time, it's almost criminal!" she let out a loud and rather arrogant laugh.

"Bulma, please." that shut her up, and so he pulled out a capsule and opened it, revealing his time machine next to the one that was being questioned "Just take a look at this, this is the ship that you built for me to travel back in time and I used it to travel back to this time, and I've kept it in my container of capsules since I arrived."

"Well then that settles it Gohan, this broken down old thing can't be yours."

"No, I know for a fact that there's only ever been one of these time machines. I know it may seem weird but there's just no other way, this is the same one that I came here in. I don't know how, but it just has to be."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive, and I know exactly how to prove it." he scraped off some of the moss from the other time machine, revealing the words HOPE spelled out on the side of the machine.

"What does that say, hope?"

"Exactly, you painted it on there yourself before I came to this timeline in the first place, and if you look closely you'll noticd that it's on both versions of the time machine."

"Wait a second, I have to think about this. Well it's definitely been here for awhile, at least a few years by the looks of it."

"Plus take a look at the gigantic hole in the dome." Kai pointed out.

"Well that's weird, do you think whoever was piloting it was attacked?"

"I doubt it, take a look at the hole and notice the way the edges of the glass are curling. Think about how it's curved along with the lack of glass or any damage in the cockpit, I don't think it would be stretching it to assume that whatever did this did so from inside the time machine."

"So what then, do you think the pilot did that?"

"Only one way to find out."

"Stand back a second, just to be safe." Future Gohan pressed the button and opened the hatch of the machine, and made his way inside the cockpit to find what looked like two odd purple shells sitting inside "What the heck are these things?"

"Well that's all kinds of fucked up, what is this some kind of alien coconut?"

"Hey let me take a look at these things." Bulma took the shells and studied them intently for a moment "My best guess is that this is the shell of some kind of egg."

"The question is, what the fuck made that egg?"

"Wait a second…" Gohan looked up at the time machine "Call it a guess, but I'm thinking that whatever made that hole in the dome hatched from this egg."

"Wait let me check something." Future Gohan tried turning on the time machine "The residual energy in this thing is almost down to 0, but at the very least it should be able to scan." he pushed a few buttons, and some numbers popped up, and his eyes widened at what he saw "Who or whatever came here in this thing did so from the year 777, two years after the first trip I made to this timeline, and if this thing is still functioning properly then that means the machine landed here four years ago, a full year before I defeated Frieza and his father!" that was when the realization really sunk in "Wait a second, yes now it all makes sense! This explains why the events taking place in this timeline have changed as much as they did, the presence of this time machine was what altered events so drastically!"

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The scene on the Lookout was grim and quiet.

Kami stood on the edge of the Lookout, looking down at the Earth below ' _So it would seem that the disturbance I felt taking shape down on the Earth below is finally showing itself.'_

Piccolo looked up from his meditation and shot Kami a smirk "So this is how you like to spend your freetime is it, spying on the world from the safety of your perch? If it's a view of the action you want just say so, then we can stop wasting time and get on with this merge already, that way you'll get to see all of it upclose."

"So it would seem that the feelings of doom that have haunted me over these last four years have little to do with the Androids after all, some sort of creature has come to our world to wreack havoc from I know not where."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"There's only one thing I do know, and it's that something far worse and far superior to any of the Androids in strength or cruelty is lurking in the world below."

"What the hell are you going on about Kami, what the hell do you mean there's something lurking down there?"

"The time is upon us for me to relinquish my duties as Guardian of the Earth, and assume with you the mantle of a full fledged Namekian warrior. Take heed Piccolo, for the foe that we must face is beyond our capable imagination, the feeling of sheer dread that heralds its coming is so strong that any and all past enemies pale in comparison to its cruelty and might."

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 **A mysterious being has arrived from the future, even before the likes of Gohan himself had three years prior. Does this unknown creature truly pose a greater threat than even the likes of the Androids as Kami believes? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, not only do we see what the Androids are truly capable of in battle, but we also see one of our non-Saiyan characters begin his plan to get a massive increase in his power level, as well as the revelation that Future Gohan isn't the only time traveller in the world at the moment.**

 **One notable difference from canon was the fact that the hotheaded reckless jackass of the group, in this case Kai, went up against 17 instead of 18. This gives me the opportunity to diverge from canon and give this fic more of its own identity, and add some development of the intended relationship between Raditz and 18.**

 **Adding onto that point, I can imagine some of you aren't exactly happy with how I stuck Raditz on the sidelines again, but it's for the sake of his character arc in this saga. He'll get his moment in the spotlight soon enough, I assure you.**

 **Okay, I'm just going to put this out there. It's November of 2019, 7 months after the release of Avengers: Endgame. You guys should've seen it coming that I was going to reference the similar logic to time travel shared between DBZ and the MCU. Plus it makes the explanation of the time travel even more entertaining than what TFS did with it, which is extremely hard to top.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 11 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 10x): 110 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 20x): 220 million

Raditz: 10.4 million

Gohan: 9 million

Gohan (Zenkai): 10 million

Super Saiyan Gohan: 225 million

Future Gohan: 5.8 million

Future Gohan (Zenkai): 6.2 million

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 203 million

Tarble: 6.2 million

Weighted Piccolo: 140 million

Unweighted Piccolo: 182 million

Tien: 4.8 million

Krillin: 2.4 million

Android 17: 450 million

Android 18: 440 million


	23. Enter Cell, Shattering Limitations

(Normal speak)

 _(Thoughts/ Kami speaking inside Piccolo's head)_

 **(Techniques)**

 **Guest:** Well it's like I had him say before, limitations are only a state of mind. Besides, a huge part of the reason why Saiyans pull so far ahead is because of the Super Saiyan transformations. Face it, if it wasn't for that then the gap in power between Saiyans and other characters like the Earthlings and Namekians would be a lot more even.

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By this point, Raditz and the others had brought Goku to Kame House in order to hide him from the Androids while he recovered, and was explaining the situation to Master Roshi, Launch and the others "And then they just flew off, Kami only knows where they are right now."

Master Roshi gave a grave frown as he thought over what Raditz had said "And all of this is happening right now?"

"Yep, all we can do for now is wait until Kakarot is fully recovered, and hope that does happen before the Androids are able to figure out where we're hiding out."

"I guess all we can do now is wait, and move onto other important matters."

"...I should've guessed that this was coming. So there's a hot one now?"

"Oh like you wouldn't believe. Her eyes are this beautiful and piercing blue, her confidence is stunning, especially by the standards of a non-Saiyan, plus this thing that she does with her hair is a major turn on-"

"Fantastic, now how's the rack?"

"I'm surprised you didn't start with that."

"Sometimes you just have to work your way up."

"Uh, hey guys?" that was when Krillin made his way downstairs "Just a quick update, Goku is in the middle of sweating like a bucket and the sweat is purple. Is that normal?"

"Did he eat any grapes?"

"I… have no idea."

"That boy can't handle his grapes. Speaking of fruit Raditz, what are we talking here? Are they along the lines of apples, oranges or melons?"

Raditz let out a groan "Is that really important?"

"YES!"

"...Fine, oranges."

"That's my brother's student!"

"And just like that I'm out of here."

"Where are you going?"

"To blow stuff up and clear my head." and so Raditz promptly blasted off.

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Bulma shot a grin over at two Gohan's and Kai "Not to toot my own horn-"

"You will either way." Kai noted dryly, which was ignored.

"-but I really must be even more of a genius than I thought, I mean I was able to crack time travel for crying out loud."

"Yeah awesome, just wait until the cult following of Back to the Future inevitably comes to your doorstep trying to skin you. I know this because I play laser tag with the leader of that cult following on weekends."

"Putting aside the fact that you have way too much time on your hands, we can't just leave this time machine out here like this or else there would be way too many questions if someone should find it." Future Gohan promptly pressed a button on the second time machine, regressing it back into its capsule form.

"Hey is it alright if I shrink the other one down for you?" asked Gohan.

"Sure thing, thanks… I guess me."

"No problem." so Gohan shrunk the other one down.

Bulma promptly picked up the egg shells that had been found in the time machine "Well in the meantime, I'm gonna take these weird egg shells or whatever they are back with me so I can study them."

"Probably for the best." Kai noted "In the meantime everybody is hiding out at Kame House so they can hide Goku from the Androids."

"Isn't that literally the second place they'd look?"

"Logic hasn't existed since before the existence of Phineas and Ferb. Anyway we're only hiding out there until Goku recovers enough to fight the Androids, that's the best bet we've got right now as much as I hate to admit it."

"But I don't get it, couldn't you guys just team up without Goku and take on the Androids without too much of a problem?"

"Again, as much as I hate to admit it, that's not an option. Gohan, Piccolo, Nail and I teamed up on them and we couldn't even slow them down, and both of my arms got snapped like twigs by the dude among them. We were lucky to get out of there with our lives."

"Wow, so they're that good?"

"Yep, which means that if we're gonna find a way to beat them then we'll have to get seriously creative."

"So all of you are hiding out at Kame House?"

"All of us except Piccolo, he's trying to fuse with Kami in order to power up enough to take on the Androids. It's a lose-lose situation, even if he does power up we'll still be losing the Dragon Balls because of it-" Kai paused, then glanced over in another direction "Hey Gohan, are you feeling that?"

"Yeah, it's coming from over that way." Gohan started following Kai in a direction a short distance away until they came across something "Woah."

"Well hey there, what the hell do you know?"

"Looks like we found our first clue, hey guys I think you should come over here and take a look at this!"

"What is it, what did you guys find?" Future Gohan and Bulma rushed over to them, only to be left stunned by what they were seeing: the shedded skin of a large, insect-like creature sitting in front of them "What the heck is that thing, and why does it smell like that cheese mom used to make and leave out in the sun to make it smell worse?"

"Whatever it came from, it's just the molt."'

Bulma was seriously freaked out and hid behind Future Gohan "You mean something crawled out of that?"

"It's like with a cockroach, but a lot bigger."

"Whatever it is, I'm taking it home with me." Kai promptly pulled out a capsule, earning some odd and disturbed looks "How the hell could I not? This definitely didn't come off any overgrown cicada."

"If I had to guess then I'd say that came from the egg we found in the time machine, but what kind of creature comes out of skin that looks like that?"

"What kind of creature comes out of what looks like a purple egg with herpes? But more importantly how the hell did it end up here in the first place, what did someone put that egg in the time machine on purpose or did they travel back here along with it?"

"But why would they do that?"

"How the hell should I know, all I do know is that this is making Back to the Future look shitter by the second." Kai reached down inside the skin, only to pull his hand back out and found it covered in a foul smelling pink liquid "Hey Gohan do you still carry hand sanitizer on you?" he was promptly handed a small bottle, which he quickly emptied "Thanks. Putting aside how disgusting that felt, it felt fresh so that means whatever did this did so not too long ago, and that means that the thing is probably still somewhere nearby." that was when the sound of rustling nearby caused Bulma to run away screaming.

Gohan and his future self wasted no time in dropping into combat stances, only for them to relax when they saw a few groundhogs popping up a short distance away.

"Calm down you guys, if it was here we'd probably sense it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

That was when Bulma promptly climbed into her ship "Hey so be real with me, you guys think sticking around is a bad idea too right?"

"Without a doubt."

"Well in that case I'm gonna go ahead and get the hell out of here, since you guys are heading over to Kame House after this I'll go ahead and give you a call once I get home. Oh yeah and that reminds me, send Yamcha back home as fast as you can so at least I've got something to shield myself and Bulla!" and so she promptly blasted off into the skies.

' _Well at least she knows what's too dangerous even for her.'_

Kai looked down and sniffed his hand "Out of curiosity, how much hand sanitizer did you actually bring with you?"

"Less than what you need." was the simultaneous chorus.

"Just fucking perfect. _Still though, the egg in the second time machine and that molted skin that makes my hand smells like a whore hut, what the hell is going on?_ Hey future Spike, I don't suppose you have any idea what the hell that thing is?"

Future Gohan shook his head "I've never seen it before, without a doubt it didn't come from the future that I grew up in."

"Let's think about this, you showed up and wrecked both Frieza and his father and apprently this bug creature showed up a year before that, so that bug thing has been in this timeline for a total of about four years."

"That's right, at least what the console said inside the cockpit."

"So something from almost a decade the future has been slipping around in this timeline for about four years, how the hell could no one have ever even noticed that."

"But the question is, who sent it and why is it here in the first place?"

"And for that matter, what are the Androids up to right now?"

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What the Androids are up to right now…

18 was currently in a store trying on a new outfit, but she was… well let's just say she was less than impressed with their taste in fashion "Let me get this straight, you mean this is the best outfit you've got in stock?"

The shop clerk was oblivious to her opinion "Oh yeah that's our top of the line, gosh ma'am that looks right perdy on you. So how do you like it?"

"Like is a strong word, for that matter so is tolerate. Hate is actually looking a little bit weak right now."

"Oh but come on now darling, you look like the most beautiful rose in a rose garden. I'm sure that if I come home with you my daddy might even love me again."

"And just like that it's my cue to leave, see you later cowboy." and so she promptly walked out of the store.

"Uh, hey sweetheart you have to pay for those, either cash or credit. The register is on the inside you know!" he chased her outside even as she got in the van "You are getting into your car, you are driving away and I have been robbed. Dammit you blonde bimbo, you get back here this instant you hear me?!"

The van stopped, then started reversing back towards him.

"Oh no, nonononononono!" he promptly ran back inside.

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Meanwhile…

Bulma was flying her way back towards West City, still shaken by the discovery of the creature's molted skin "Well that was all kinds of unnerving."

" _We interrupt this program to bring you a late breaking update to one of our news stories from earlier today, approximately one hour ago all contact with Gingertown, an area located on the outskirts of West City, was lost all of a sudden. According to our team on the scene, if I'm reading this correctly, it seems all of the residents have vanished without so much as a trace as to where they've gone. Yes that is what it says, not a single person in Gingertown can be accounted for at this time. Our news team is currently investigating the cause of this mass disappearance, we'll be sure to update you with details when they report in."_

"Gingertown huh, but that isn't too far from where we descovered that creatue and the other time machine. I wonder… No, it couldn't be."

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

Yamcha was quick to pick up the phone when it started ringing "Kame House, where the beaches are fine and- Oh hey babe."

" _Hey listen Yamcha, you know how we were down by Gingertown right?"_

"Yeah checking out that other time machine, why?"

" _Turn on the TV to channel 872, from what I just heard there's some major shit going on down there right now."_

"Shit of what variety exactly?"

" _The not good kind, just turn it on!"_

"Alright alright, take it easy." Yamcha promptly snatched the remote and changed the channel "I can't tell you how much of a relief this is, I'm sick of having to listen to Roshi watching porn all the time. Not that I need it, I've got you."

" _Save it for later."_

"Right right."

" _This is Flash Stormwood reporting live for CQTV here on location in Gingertown, yeah you can suck on that one Jimmy Firecracker of ZTV!"_

" _Yes thank you Flash, what's the situation down there? Just moments ago, screams erupted through the streets, only for them to be followed by deafening silence. Now the place seems to be nothing but a ghost town, littered with the clothes of its former inhabitants. More than 15,000 people have disappeared, and we have yet to find out the reason as to why this development has taken place."_

" _Well do you currently have any speculations as to why this might be Flash?"_

" _Well Hal I can't say for certain, how recreational marijuana use was recently legalized in this region, so I believe we can all come to the same conclusion."_

" _And that is?"_

" _Most likely not camera friendly. Oh wait just a moment, it seems that someone else is approaching us. Excuse me you terrifying looking gentleman, would you mind giving your opinion on the legalization of- OH MY GOD NO!"_ and then the screen cut out, and when the camera came back online, the crew was nowhere in sight.

Yamcha and Krillin shared a nervous look "Yeah, I'm thinking one of us should probably go and check that out."

Master Roshi nodded "Yeah good call boys, my stash is running a little bit low."

"...Ignoring that, what do you think babe? Is this the Androids finally making their move?"

" _No it's definitely not them, and don't just take my word for it. When the boys get there and here about this I'm sure they'll agree."_

"But if it wasn't them, and I'm still going with if because I'm not really convinced, you're saying that it has something to do with the other time machine?"

" _Oh yeah definitely, there's no question about that. Kai and the others will be sure to fill you and the others in once they get there."_

"Yeah okay, but it better be one hell of a story because this is all really messed up."

"Hey Master Roshi, everybody it's us, can we come in?" that was when Gohan and the others entered the building, only to find everyone invested in "Hey Yamcha, Krillin, what's everyone looking at on there?"

"I'm just glad you guys are back, do you like mysteries?"

"Do I?! Wait what why, what's up?"

"Take a look at the news and then maybe you'll be able to tell us."

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

Kami looked down on the Earth below, his expression one of pure horror as he witnessed the events taking place ' _What… this monstrocity…'_

"What are you seeing?" asked Piccolo "Snap out of it already Kami, what the hell is going on down there? Say something dammit!"

"What… What matter of foul monstrocity has been unleashed?"

"What? What the hell are you talking about? Say something already you old fool, what monstrocity are you seeing? This is ridiculous Kami, just cut the crap and say something! There is no way I'm going to let you keep me in the dark any longer! You're going to tell me exactly what you saw down there, right now."

"...Fine, so be it."

"It's about time, so what is this monstrocity you're talking about and what the hell is going on down there?"

"Why should I need to go through the trouble of using words with Piccolo? After all, once you and I have merged into a single Namekian warrior you'll know exactly what I saw."

"So you've finally come to your senses then? Took you long enough, whatever is down there it must really be something else."

"Let's just get this over with, the longer we take the more victims succumb to the monster lurking down there."

"Alright, but let me make this clear. I have no intention of deferring to you, if either of us is in charge it's going to be me, you understand?"

"Of course I do, you are younger than I and your power has far exceeded anything that I would be able to muster now. It is only fair. My power will be at your disposal whenever you may needed it, and you shall have all of the knowledge I've amassed over the last 300 years. Now I'm sure you're already familiar with the technique, so since you are to be the foundation place your hand upon me."

"Right." Piccolo placed his hand on Kami's chest.

"Now come, let us become one again."

"No Kami please, you mustn't!" Mr Popo pleaded.

"You have no need to worry about me my loyal friend, I want this. It's not an overseer that the Earth and her people need right now, what it needs is a warrior capable of protecting the planet and its people. Piccolo is different now, for the evil that had previously tainted his heart has all but faded away. Once we have merged I doubt we shall ever be split again, he and I will at last be as once."

"Dear Kami… don't go…"

"I suppose this is goodbye then. Thank you for all of your years of service, Mr Popo." and with that, Kami let out a loud roar as he was engulfed in a white aura that surged high above the Lookout, engulfing the entire area in a massive white light.

' _Goodbye… Kami…'_

When the light subsided, Piccolo was the only one that remained, the white light that surrounded his body slowly subsiding ' _So this is who we were? It's strange, but now I feel everything that he felt. Being the guardian for over 300 years, seeing war, sickness, death and so much worse. All the while being trapped on this Lookout, unable to interact with the outside world for more than a few mere moments at a time. And the only chance he had to escape it is to give up his free will to me, as if he were just going from one prison to another. It's strange, something in me actually makes me feel sorry for him now. But it had to be done, if we didn't do it now then we would just lose everything. But now isn't the time for brooding, I have work to do.'_ so with that in mind, he slowly started walking towards the edge of the Lookout.

This was when Mr Popo finally found his voice "If you can hear me Kami, then please… take care of yourself."

"I'm neither Kami nor Piccolo now, I'm simply a Namekian warrior who's long since forgotten his true name." he stopped at the edge, then looked back at Mr Popo and grinned "Now then, I bid you farewell." and with that, he burst off the edge of the Lookout and soared across the skies at blinding levels of speed, only one objective on his mind ' _I hope you're ready monster, because I'm coming for you.'_

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

Kai looked at the screen and let out a loud snort "Well that's just classic, right when God is about to disappear suddenly the rapture starts happening."

" _Now now now now, now the Libs are surely going to get all bent out of shape about Racism over this, but this is just what happens when you elect a dog as king."_ that comment was the last one made before the TV was shut off.

"Hey if they get involved in political shit that's when it's time to draw the line."

Ignoring this, Krillin and the others glanced over at Future Gohan "So you guys think whatever it is that came out of that egg is what's causing all of this?"

Future Gohan nodded "Well that is what makes the most sense right now. Don't worry, I'll make sure that I get to the bottom of this no matter what it may take."

"Hold on a second, you're thinking of going alone?" asked Gohan.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Keep in mind that I can turn into a Super Saiyan if things end up going South, besides it's the Androids we have to worry about."

"We thought that whatever we had to face wouldn't be too much of a problem, and then we ended up meeting Frieza. There's no way you're going alone, I'm coming with you."

"Like heck you are!" Chichi rounded on him "Your poor father is still stuck in bed, this is no time for you to be off looking for a fight!"

"That's exactly why I have to do this mom, if dad can't fight then someone has to fill in until he gets better."

"Listen here, I don't care if that thing spits fire! I'm not letting you get dragged into some kind of war with a bunch of robots and bugs!"

"Mom that ship has sailed, that's my future self for crying out loud!" he pointed over in the direction of Future Gohan "He's here because no one else could stand up to the Androids, if we have to fight to keep everyone safe then so be it, even if it means disobeying you!" so with that in mind, he promptly flashed into Super Saiyan "In the meantime, you guys should stick around here and defend dad from the Androids in case they come here looking for him while we're over in Gingertown."

Tarble nodded "Don't worry Gohan, no matter what happens I'll protect sensei with my life. But in the meantime you should be careful out there, make sure you don't do anything too reckless. I have a feeling we're going to need all of the help we can get when the time comes that we have to fight against the Androids."

"Right, and Kai please don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." and so both Gohan's promptly blasted off into the skies.

"Wait a second, Kai you're not going with them?"

"Of course I am, I just have to pee first." and so Kai promptly slammed the bathroom door behind him.

"...He's an odd boy."

"He gets that from his mother." Yamcha told him flatly.

Chichi on the other hand, she was staring off into space out the window, her mind drifting as the wind did ' _That boy that came from the future… that was Gohan…?'_

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The scene in Gingertown was desolate and abandoned, with only the close of its former people littering the city.

Piccolo, now powered up more than ever before, touched down on the ground and started wandering through the streets ' _Come out monster, I know you're here somewhere, stalking me from the shadows and waiting for me to come to you.'_

Sure enough, as if on cue, a creepy humming started sounding from within the shadows, quickly catching his attention, followed by singing " **Mr Sandman… bring me a dream…"**

' _Well if this isn't creepy as hell then I don't know what is.'_

" **Make him the cutest, that I've ever seen… Give him two lips, like roses and clover… Then tell him that his lonesome nights. Are. Over."** and as the voice finished singing, a sinister looking green bug creature revealed himself to Piccolo while carrying the unconscious form of a fat guy in a suit, and he shot Piccolo a menacing grin "Hello… friend."

"Took you long enough, monster." Piccolo shot the creature a look of disdain, but then froze as he got a feel of the creature's Ki signature ' _That Ki, why does it feel like it's coming from… No it can't be, this doesn't make any sense…'_

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

Tarble and Chichi were busy taking care of Goku while he was sleeping "It's only been a day since the virus showed itself, but it looks like he's really taking a turn for the better." then he heard the sound of groaning "Sensei, are you awake? Sensei it's me, it's Tarble." the groaning was promptly replaced with snoring.

Chichi let out a sigh "And he's out again."

"But this is a good sign, he's definitely on the path to a full recovery, and I'll do whatever I can to help him get there."

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Meanwhile, back in Gingertown…

The fat guy in the creature's clutches slowly regained consciousness, only to find himself freaked out by the sight of the creature holding him, and then he tried to appeal to Piccolo "Hey you with the big pointy ears, help me! Don't just stand there you idiot do something, I'm in serious trouble here! Hey I'm begging you, come on man! Oh so you want to play hard ball do you, well if that's how it has to be then fine!" he pulled a big wad of cash out of his pocket "Look I'm the richest guy in Gingertown alright, you can have all the money you'll ever need and all you have to do is get rid of this thing! Come on you idiot don't just stand there, hurry up and rescue me!"

Ignoring the fat guy's rantings, Piccolo eyed the creature with clear distaste "I have no idea if you can even understand what I'm saying but just let the man go free, even if he is groveling in a way so pathetic his life does have value."

"...So be it." the creature released his hold on the fat guy, his voice deep and raspy "But before we proceed any further I do have one question."

"And what would that be?"

"You wanna see me drink this guy?!" he then proceeded to stab the fat guy in the back with his tail, and then he literally started drinking the man through his tail, causing him to cry out in pain as he slowly dissolved until only his clothes remained "And that makes a solid 15,000. So tell me something Piccolo, what brings you to my neighborhood?"

"I sensed a disturbance."

"Well I am pretty disturbing."

"Understatement of the year."

"I mean do you remember how I drank that guy right in front of you? Yeah that was fucking weird."

"So it seems I was right when I guessed that you were the one who exterminated this entire city then."

"Oh no, that was another guy. His name was Shit Sherlock, first name No."

"But why, just why?"

"Well there are four reasons. First of all, I'm fucking evil. Second of all, I was asleep for almost four years and I'm understandably hungry. Third of all, there's nothing more satisfying than the rush I get from watching a man disappear. And four, and this is something that I really need you to pay attention to." the creature dropped into a stance and started unleashing a quick surge of energy, blowing apart the ground beneath him as well as a large part of the now abandoned city surrounding them "And four: That is how I power the beautiful temple that is my body."

"Just what kind of creature are you, and how do you know to call me Piccolo?"

"What reason would I have to not know the name of my brother?"

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

Tarble and the others quickly bolted out onto the beach outside of Kame House."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah no doubt, I've never felt anything close to this powerful."

"And it feels like Frieza and his dad's power, along with sensei, Piccolo, Raditz and all of us rolled into one!"

"But what does that mean?"

"Whatever it is, I doubt it's anything good. Do you think Kai sensed it?"

Kai stumbled out of the bathroom as he finished tying his gi back together "Okay what the hell am I sensing? Is that Gohan? Is that me? Is that me stronger than me?! That's it, I'll fucking kill me!"

"...I think that's a yes then."

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Future Gohan soared across the skies alongside his present self at full speed, his mind racing ' _It feels like I can sense Piccolo, Frieza and Father, and even that of myself and Kai. Somehow it feels as if all of their Ki signatures are coming from one single source.'_

"You can sense it too right?" that was when Gohan got his attention "It's coming from the direction of Gingertown, not far from where we found that egg and shedded skin with the other time machine. You think they're connected?"

"If they're not connected in any way then I'll make my hair go flat and wear a green tracksuit to a showdown against Frieza." that was a jab at Gohan in Resurrection F if you didn't get it.

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Raditz's head snapped up from where he was training in a rocky mountain location as he sensed the creature's Ki signature "Myself and Frieza, Piccolo and Nail, and all of them rolled into a single source? But how can that be possible? _It doesn't make sense, Gohan travelled back from a decade in the future and he slaughtered Frieza and King Cold like lambs, and- Wait a second, is that Kakarot's energy as well? I don't understand, I know he's still resting back at Kame House with Nail and the others.'_

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Piccolo's eyes narrowed as he suppressed a growl "Now tell me just what kind of creature you are and make it quick, start giving me some answers."

The creature let out a hiss and a chuckle "That's on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know. I try to make a habit of not talking to my food."

"Start talking, I don't intend to ask you again."

"And I don't intend to answer you again, how's that for a rhetorical answer?" he was met wit only a smirk.

"It's a shame, I typically like to know who I've defeated but I guess for you I'll just have to make an exception."

"Oh the horror, the Jolly Green Giant intends to kill me. You're living in quite the fantasy aren't you?"

"I don't know how or where you encountered the name Piccolo, and frankly I don't care about that. But…" Piccolo suddenly sent out a massive surge of energy, leaving him standing in a large crater that left even the creature taken aback. When everything settled down, Piccolo was still standing where he was, though his body was now pulsating with energy "But unfortunately for you, I'm not him."

"What's that, you say you're not Piccolo? Alright I'll play along with what I'm assuming is a midlife crisis, if you're not Piccolo then who are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? You know all things considered I probably should thank you for wiping out all of the people here before I showed up, that will make it a hell of a lot easier for me to do what I need to do."

"And what would that be exactly?"

"It's simple, now I'm free to kill you without having to hold back." and so on that note, he promptly charged an fired an Explosive Demon Wave, causing the creature to cry out in pain as he was engulfed in the explosion that followed, which was more than enough to obliterate all that remained of Gingertown.

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Future Gohan continued flying alongside his present self towards the scene of Gingertown, his mind racing "Dammit, it doesn't make sense! A duplicate time machine, a monster on the loose, and now an entire city is either missing or dead, and we still don't know where the Androids are right now."

"Yeah tell me about it, sounds like a total fuster-cluck."

Future Gohan jumped and looked back to see Kai and Nail flying alonside him "What the-"

"Sup?"

"But how did you- I didn't even sense you."

"Namek-Ken wasn't the only trick I learned from Nail, that's one I affectionately refer to as Stealth Mode."

"...Yeah sure, let's go with that." Gohan let out a sigh.

"So what are we looking at?"

"I have absolutely no idea, it could be a giant cicada monster for all we know."

"Considering what we found with the time machine, that seems like a pretty good guess."

"Plus just now there was a power surge in Gingertown, so that creature isn't the only thing waiting for us over there." Future Gohan pointed out "The only question is, what's this other one waiting for us?"

"Pull your head out of your ass and think for a second Gohan, it's obviously Piccolo."

"Wait what? But that power is off the charts, and it's unlike anything I've sensed from Piccolo before now."

"Didn't you listen to what Nail told you? Piccolo and Kami merged back into the Namekian warrior they were in the first place, and since Piccolo was already almost on the level of me and a Super Saiyan before, now we've got a Super Namekian on our side."

"So that's what Piccolo is capable of at his maximum potential? It's incredible, it makes me wonder why Piccolo didn't fuse with Kami in my time?"

"Probably because he and Kami hate each other's guts and it would've cost you guys the Dragon Balls anyway."

"...Yeah that sounds about right-" the three of them stopped when they noticed the explosion in the distance "Woah."

Gohan breathed a sigh of amazement "I guess that's a taste of the new and improved Piccolo in action."

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Meanwhile, with the Androids…

18 shot a dirty look over at 17 "I can't believe you actually managed to screw up the van."

17 gave a shrug "Honestly I don't have a clue what you were expecting, I never even got a chance to get my license before Dr Gero went all Blade Runner on us."

"Yeah yeah, whatever excuse lets you sleep at night. Hey 16, how's that tranny coming along over there?"

"I don't believe that the car identifies as either male or female." 16 told him.

"...Yeah okay, I walked into that. So what do you think that explosion was over there anyway?"

"I don't know, and frankly who gives a damn." 17 gave a shrug "If I had to guess it's probably just that kid throwing a hissy fit or something-"

"Wait!" 16 cut into their conversation again "Did you mean the transmission? Because I fixed it 10 minutes ago." he started the van.

"...Yeah, works for me."

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As a result of the blast fired by Piccolo, the entire city of Gingertown had been reduced to nothing more than a wasteland.

Piccolo looked ahead of him, waiting for the creature to emerge ' _I know you're still in there, I may not know what you are but that doesn't mean I can't tell what my opponent can take.'_

" _Excellent."_ a voice echoed in his mind " _You're being sure not to underestimate your opponent, a wise choice."_

' _Cut the mysterious voice crap Kami, I know that's you in there."_

" _I suspected as much. Worry not, sooner or later I should fade into the depths of your subconscious. Eventually."_

Sure enough, the creature burst out from the rubble and took to the skies "Hey, do you wanna see something cool?" he placed two fingers to his forehead and started charging Ki into them.

' _Wait a second, what the hell is he doing?'_

" _That looks like your technique."_

' _Well it's not!'_

" _He's doing the finger thing."_

' _So what, Goku does that too when he teleports-'_

" **Special Beam Cannon!"** in a shocking move, the creature promptly unleashed a full power Special Beam Cannon.

Brushing off the shock for the moment, Piccolo deflected the attack with ease, causing it to detonate a great distance away from the battlefield.

The creature blitzed behind Piccolo and aimed a fist at the back of his head.

Piccolo spun around to avoid the attack and dealt the creature a spin kick to the spine ' _Yeah, I can get used to that.'_

" _Wait a second, did you just spin-kick him?"_

' _I know right, I've always wanted to do that.'_

" _Well please don't do it again."_

' _My body, my rules old man!'_ Piccolo aimed an elbow at the creature's head.

The creature dodged the attack and retreated away a fair distance ' _Great he's faster than me, that could be a slight pain in the ass, but-'_

"Gotcha!" Piccolo blitzed behind the creature and kicked him in the spine.

"Dammit my ass-butt!" the creature stopped himself and tried to deal Piccolo a quick kick to the chest.

Piccolo leapt over the attack and dealt the creature a solid fist to the face, sending him hurtling towards the ground, and then rushed to intercept him.

The creature stopped himself in mid air and tried to retreat, only to find Piccolo in mid air prepared to intercept him ' _He's gonna kick me again, isn't he?'_

Piccolo promptly dealt the creature a solid kick to the face, sending him crashing to the ground at full speed. He then promptly returned to the ground as the creature burst out from the rubble "So that's the best you can do? My senses and that annoying voice in my head told me you were a much bigger deal than this, are you holding back on me or something?"

The creature let out a chuckle "You are a formidable opponent I will admit, never mind the fact that I would be able to crush you with ease once my form has been perfected."

"Perfected how?" he was met with only a smirk, and then the realization hit him "Wait a second, you mean that's the reason why you wiped out and absorbed all of the people in Gingertown?"

"I already told you that before, absorbing people is how I power the beautiful temple that is my body."

"Son of a- Tell me something beast, whose idea was it to send you back to our time in the first place? Let me take a wild guess, another one of your disgusting kind?"

"So you know about that, well I hate to disappoint you but I came back to this time of my own accord. That puny time machine you're referring to was too small for this body, so I was forced to revert back to my egg form in order to travel. I have to admit I find it surprising you were able to deduce how I arrived here so easily, but with that being said I have many other secrets you know nothing about. But before we get to that, I'm gonna need you to do me a solid and not kick me anymore alright?"

"Start by telling me who and what you are, why you came to our time and how you know my technique, and maybe I'll consider it."

"Well what can I say? "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery."- Oscar Wilde. And adding onto that note…" he dropped into a stance and cupped his hands at his side, shocking Piccolo right to the core " **Ka…"**

' _That stance, no there's no way that should be possible! The only one who knows how to use that technique is Goku! And Gohan.'_

" **Me…"**

' _And Master Roshi. And Yamcha.'_

" **Ha…"**

' _And Krillin. And Tien.'_

" **Me…"**

' _And me that one time I tried it just to see if I could-'_

" **HAAAA!"** in another shocking move, the creature fired forward a full power Kamehameha wave, engulfing the entire area in an explosion.

Piccolo appeared above the cloud of smoke, having dodged the blast at the last second ' _Well that's just great, this thing is full of surprises.'_

"Surprise!" the creature suddenly grabbed Piccolo from behind.

' _Oh great, he's behind me.'_

"Howdy neighbor, you mind joining me for a feast?" the creature promptly stuck his tail directly into Piccolo's arm, causing him to scream in pain "Oh ho ho, it must be your first time because you are tight! And unfortunately for you, it's also your last." he started drinking the bioenergy out of Piccolo's arm.

' _Dammit dammit dammit!'_

" _You realize he's drinking your arm."_

' _I know!'_

" _Well then do something!"_

' _I am!'_ Piccolo gritted his teeth and dealt the creature a headbutt to the face, forcing him to release his grip while he (Piccolo) returned to the ground, his arm incredibly shriveled up as a result.

The creature recovered and returned to the ground in front of Piccolo "Wow, I guess you look more like Kami than I was led to believe."

" _Dick."_

"You sure you don't want me to do the other arm and even you out? Let's be real here, having to look at that is just distracting."

"Distracting or not, it doesn't change the fact that the tables have turned on me." Piccolo gritted his teeth "I can't even keep my balance in a battle stance while my arm is like this, not after what you just did to me. I'm no fool, I see that I don't have a chance in hell of beating you now."

"Ah submission, a second favorite to futile resistance. If it's any consolation though, with your current level of power absorbing you will bring me so close to my perfect form that you'll practically fuel my evolution."

"Before you finish off you at least have to tell me this, what sort of abomination are you? You have Goku and Frieza's, all of our Ki signatures, you even know the Special Beam Cannon and the Kamehameha."

"Oh, well…"

"Unless you don't have anything important to say."

"No no no, it's just that this is actually a first for me. You're the first person I've come across that even bothers to ask "Who?" or "What?" Normally they just ask… Why? Well for starters, you can call me Cell. I'm sure by now you're familiar with my father, Dr Gero."

"Oh god dammit, not another one."

"I was created by the computer in Dr Gero's secret laboratory, many years ago he began collecting cell samples from the greatest fighters the world had to offer in hopes of synthesizing their DNA into the creating into the creation of the ultimate Android. His research was successful, but due to the extreme length of time that would be required by the process he chose to abandon it in favor of more short-term alternatives. While the doctor took the time to turn his attention elsewhere, his computer was left to carry out the experiment, working day and night to create the perfect fightinig machine. Additional cells were collected and incorporated into the design, such as from you Piccolo, Son Goku, and even others such as Raditz and his Saiyan comrades. These samples were taken at the time of the Saiyan invasion, while you were all at the peak of your powers."

"From all the way back then, well I suppose that would explain why your Kamehameha technique was so pathetic."

"But wait there's more, we were also fortunate enough to gather cells from Frieza and his father when they had their brief stay on Earth, incorporating their powers as well. We could've easily acquired the cells of the boy who had travelled back in time, but it had already been determined by the computer that we had already taken enough Saiyan samples."

"Oh yeah, and how exactly did you come by these samples? We were the only ones there at the time when Frieza's ship landed, we would've noticed the presence of anyone else."

"It shouldn't be that hard for you to figure out, it's the same way Dr Gero collected the data he needed for all of his research, a fleat of tiny surveillance robots the size of a fly that are able to get in close without being detected. Take a look for yourself, even now every move you make is being watched and the stream of data is being relayed to the computer to be analyzed. Who knows, it may even try to take another cell sample from you."

"That little son of a-" Piccolo promptly annihilated the drone with a Ki blast.

"Hate to break it to you but it's too little too late, the computer already has plenty of samples as it is and the process is well underway. In a time span of only 12 years I will emerge, the final and greatest creation of Dr Gero."

"But that's impossible, we completely destroyed Dr Gero's lab and now it's nothing but a pile of rubble. Gohan made sure of it."

"Shot in the dark Green Man, you ever hear of having a basement?"

"...Oh."

"Yes, the computer is in an underground bunker beneath the lab."

"I see. So tell me something else, if you showed up from the future four years ago then why did you wait until now to show your ugly face?"

"It's quite simple, in order to fit inside the time machine I was forced to regress back to my larval state, and it took four years for my body to mature into the form standing before you now. After all, you can't rush perfection."

"Then one last question, you must have some reason for coming back in time in the first place, so what is it?"

"I was created to be the perfect fighting machine, but in order to achieve that status I require more than the bioenergy of mere humans. I cannot reach my true perfection until I have also absorbed two highly specialized lifeforms, without them the computer's data shows that I will never reach the full potential of my design. The ones I need are two of Dr Gero's other creations, I refer to Androids 17 and 18!"

"What?!"

"However, in the future I come from these Androids no longer exist. Son Gohan had somehow managed to defeat both, unknowingly thwarting my quest for perfection before it even had a chance to begin. But luckily for me, Gohan had a time machine ripe for the taking, and once that meddling wretch was out of the way my search could continue, and I used his time machine to travel back to the past where my pray was still thriving."

"But why would you choose to go back so far?"

"Who can say really? Son Gohan had already set the destination for the time machine, all I had to do was push a button. Which was really all that I could do, seeing how I had started to revert back to my egg form."

' _So that's it, the Gohan of that timeline must have succeeded in finding a way to destroy the Android, and he was planning to come back here to tell the rest of us the news. But then this monster threw a wrench into that plan.'_

"Oh and by the way, the computer showed me something else I believe you're going to find quite interesting."

"And that is?"

"Once I achieve my Perfect Form I'll be absolutely invincible, the greatest power the universe has ever known!"

"Oh yeah and what then, what kind of purpose will it serve you to gain that much power? What's your ultimate plan?"

"What do you mean my plan, who said anything about me having a plan? I want to become stronger because I want to become stronger, I seek power for the sake of power, it's what the computer designed me to do. Either that or perhaps it's simply the Saiyan DNA in my genetic infrastructure that drives me to test my limits, or Frieza's, or even yours Piccolo. Then again, there's a chance that the boy Kai's DNA has a large part of that."

"...Alright."

"Good, then if you've heard enough."

"I've heard plenty, everything I need to know."

"Well in that case, I'm gonna drink you now."

"Just one thing before that, do _you_ want to see something cool?"

"Now I know you're playing me, and I do."

"Cool." so Piccolo ripped off his shriveled arm, and with a quick roar he promptly regenerated it in an instant.

"Oh that is hardcore, and also not good for me. So you pretended to be down for the count to get me to talk."

"And now that I know what you are I know how to stop you, for someone who claims to share my DNA you should've realized that I have the ability to regenerate any damaged limbs. It's all over Cell, even with the energy you managed to drain from my arm your power is still no match for mine. You travelled to the wrong time in your quest for perfection, this is where your journey ends."

"Not a bad move Namekian, you sacrificed your arm because you knew it would cause me to lower my guard. A cunning strategy, I never expected anything of that sort from you."

"I wish I could take the credit for that, but I have Kami to thank for that bit of insight."

"What? I see, so that explains it. You really aren't just Piccolo anymore, you've merged your powers with those of Kami!"

"Now you've got it, it's about time you started catching on."

' _But at the same time, if the Guardian of Earth is gone then that means the Dragon Balls are gone as well, so if anyone dies now then there's no chance of wishing them back. That actually works to my advantage._ I was wondering how you managed to increase your power level so drastically, but now I understand."

"What you've seen has only been the tip of the iceberg, why don't I give you a glimpse of what I can really do. From here on out there's no more holding back."

' _This is also not good for me, I need to find an opportunity to make my escape.'_ then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye ' _And I think I just found it.'_

Sure enough, Kai and the cavalcade had arrived on the scene "Well looks like someone owes me some major Zeni, that's the new and improved Piccolo down there, but- What the hell is that supposed to be down there?"

"I think I know." Future Gohan muttered "That thing from the egg must have grown up to become this monster."

"I know that you dumbass, I was being rhetorical." they lowered themselves to the ground.

Cell's eyes narrowed as he studied the group ' _Son Gohan, one from this timeline, but also one from the future? So he's here as well. Interesting, this must be where he travelled back in the time machine before I came along and appropriated it. No matter, I've already killed him once so if it's true that history repeats itself then it seems that this time the future will as well.'_

"So start talking Jolly Green Godman, is this the thing responsible for turning Gingertown into the world's first mandatory nudist colony?"

Piccolo shot him a disturbed look "I'm going to assume you mean that he's responsible for all of the disappearances in Gingertown, and just say yes. Watch out for his tail, he uses the stinger to absorb people and steal their energy."

"But why does his Ki signature feel like dad, yours and everyone else all coming from a single point?" asked Gohan.

"We can save the explanations for later, right now we just need to deal with this pest."

Cell let out a chuckle "Well it would seem that someone is confident, sorry to disappoint you but I have no intention of making it that easy."

"Spare me the attempts to salvage the shattered remains of your ego Cell, you're outnumbered and outclassed. I'd say that the odds are stacked against you."

"I agree, it would seem that my best option is to retreat for the time being."

"Not a chance, it will take a lot more than another weak Kamehameha imitation to get past the four of us."

"Oh believe me Piccolo, I'm well aware of that. But I have much more than the Kamehameha at my disposal, I have every ability that Son Goku has in his arsenal, from the Kamehameha to even the Kaioken."

"This is getting more and more ridiculous by the second. I can imagine Goku won't be happy when he finds out that this thing stole his moves."

"Probably as happy as everyone else was when they found that that Goku stole their moves in the first place."

"...Alright that's a fair point."

"And Son Goku is alive you say? _So it would seem that he hasn't succumbed to the Heart Virus in this timeline, that makes things much more interesting. It would seem that events in this timeline are unfolding differently from the one I came from._ Now if you'll excuse me I have a couple of Androids that I need to track down." Cell promptly took to the air "I should also warn you not to make any attempts to stop me from reaching my Perfect Form, or the next time we meet will be the last moments you have in this plane of existence, especially not if Piccolo here is the best you have to offer. So until next time, let me leave all of you enlightened! **Solar Flare!"** he quickly unleashed a Solar Flare, leaving Piccolo and everyone else blinded while he disappeared across the horizon.

"That cowardly son of a-"

"Dammit…" Nail opened his eyes after a moment and looked around, only to find that Cell was nowhere in sight "Looking back, perhaps we should've anticipated that sooner."

"Hold on a second, that thing knew Goku's moves but I thought Tien was the one who used the Solar Flare."

"The same could be said for the Kamehameha." Kai pointed out dryly "Solar Flare is actually pretty simple to learn, I can use it and so can Goku, Krillin and Yamcha."

"That's just fucking perfect." the group took to the skies and looked around, only to find that there was no sign of Cell "He must be suppressing his Ki signature, if he knows that trick too then we'll never find him."

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Meanwhile, with another warrior that doesn't have hair…

Tien was bolting across the skies as fast as he could, his mind racing ' _I don't know what the hell is going on, but I have a bad feeling about this.'_

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Raditz bolted towards the scene of Gingetown in Super Saiyan form, his mind racing ' _One of those massive power levels I was sensing just vanished all of a sudden, but the second one is still there dead ahead. I can rule out the Androids, they don't give off any energy to track, and I know that Kakarot is still out of commission, so who the hell could it be?'_

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

With a mighty roar, Tarble threw a few punches along the beach in front of Kame House, the shockwaves rippling along the sea a short distance in front of him ' _Sensei is still out of commission, and there's no telling what the others are going to be dealing with or when they'll be back, so I have to be prepared to give it everything I've got if the Androids show up looking for him.'_

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By this point, Cell was in the clear and decided to pay a visit to the nearest city, Nicky Town, in order to increase his power, but was sidetracked by a battletball team in spiked shoulder pads that had come up behind him. Unfortunately for them, Cell was able to absorb them in a matter of moments, but once he caught a glimpse of Raditz flying overhead, he quickly finished up with the battletball team and made a beeline for Nicky Town.

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Meanwhile, back at what used to be Gingertown…

"Dammit dammit dammit dammit DAMMIT!" Piccolo's aura flared around his body, coinciding with his rage "What the hell have I done?! I could've easily beaten that freak, I should've taken him out instead of wasting time with questions!"

This was when Raditz finally arrived on the scene overhead and saw Piccolo powering up in his rage "What the hell, is that Piccolo? I don't believe this."

"I was wondering where you ran off too." Nail commented.

"You would too if you had to deal with the old man being a perv. Anyway start talking, tell me everything that happened."

"I can sense Tien's Ki signature heading in our direction, it'll be easier for all of us if I fill you in once he gets here." Piccolo told him.

"Then while we wait at least answer me this, how did you manage to increase your power level so drastically in just a matter of hours? Even your energy signature feels different, you might as well be a different person."

"That's because he technically is a different person." Nail told him "Apparently Piccolo and his other half Kami made the decision to merge back into the being they used to be, in order to tap into a greater reservoir of dormant power, which is why you weren't able to recognize him."

"I see. _But to think he's capable of producing that much power now, his level of strength is more than any of us put together, Super Saiyan or not.'_

Kai let out a loud scoff "It doesn't matter if he's fused with God or not, you've still got a trump card right here, yours truly!"

"...Do you really believe your own hype that much?"

"Bitch please, I am the hype!"

Piccolo ignored this exchange and started musing to himself ' _What's our next move? I might be able to hold my own against 17 and 18, but with 16 along with them there's no way I'd be able to defeat all three of them at once. No, in order to stop Cell from absorbing the Androids we'll have to go after him directly.'_

That was when Gohan noticed Tien flying towards them "Hey guys look up there, Tien is heading this way!"

Sure enough, at that moment Tien dropped to the ground next to them "Hey, I finally tracked you guys down. I just followed that massive Ki signature and equally massive amount of screaming in rage. So what did I miss?"

"Piccolo fused with Kami."

"Oh, so that finally came full circle."

"But more importantly, we have another threat to deal with." Piccolo told them "As in another Android created by Dr Gero!" he was met with a stunned silence.

And then Kai broke it "Do I hear five?!"

"Craze as it might sound, the monster who attacked this town is actually an Android from the future created by Dr Gero's computer 24 years from now."

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By this point, Cell had reached the outskirts of Nicky Town and wasted no time in making a beeline for the city, preparing to absorb the inhabitants and steal their energy in order to make himself more powerful.

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Meanwhile, back at Gingertown, or what's left of it…

Piccolo finished explaining everything to the others "Crazy as it sounds, that's basically it in a nutshell."

Raditz was the first one to find his voice "My DNA, and Kakarot's and all of us?"

"That's what we're up against right now, in order to prevent Cell from reaching his Perfect Form we'll either need to find him and take him out, or we'll have to figure out a way to kill the other Androids before he can absorb them. It's one or the other."

"So what do you think we should do?" asked Nail.

"I say we start tracking down Cell while we still have a chance against him, before he absorbs enough energy to become unstoppable."

Kai said nothing, he just gritted his teeth ' _Dammit, it's like they're throwing it in my face everywhere I look! After all of the training I've done to push myself to the absolute limit, every time I look ahead someone new has left my power in the dust, it's like the universe just doesn't want me to surpass them! No there's no way I'm going to stand for that, sorry Universe but I still have one or two tricks up my sleeve!'_

"So there you have it, Cell is here for the sake of absorbing 17 and 18 and he won't rest until he achieves his Perfect Form, and until he manages to do that he's going to keep wiping out more and more cities in order to make himself more powerful, so we have to stop him."

"We have to find him first." Future Gohan pointed out "Now that he knows that Piccolo is a threat to him in his current form he's bound to keep moving from one city to the next with his Ki signature hidden, so we'll only be left chasing his shadow, which means that unless we can find a way to get a step ahead of him before he can absorb the Androids, we're going to have a real problem on our hands. The entire planet will be nothing but a plaything to him."

"Yes and not just our planet either, in his Perfect Form Cell could pose a threat to the entire universe, so I assume that considering that he has Frieza's DNA in his makeup he's not lacking in ambition."

"He's not the only one with ambition." Kai pointed out flatly "You might see a threat but I see a challenge, his potential to wipe out the universe means that it is possible to get that much stronger, so now I know for a fact that it there are new heights for me to push myself."

"Even now you still have your biggest problem going for you, half the time you overestimate your own capabilities and the other half you completely brush off any threats to your own life just for the sake of proving your own strength. If Cell is able to absorb 17 and 18 then his power will be able to surpass both of theirs combined, and you remember damn well how you faired against only one of them."

"And don't think that just because you were my teacher and a Super Namekian I'm going to let you talk down to me, I already made it clear before that I believe that limitations are only a state of mind." he breathed a sigh filled with clear aggression "Look, I promise you that I'll get strong enough to take down Cell and the Androids, and I have some ideas of my own on just how to do that. Besides, I know that Goku is gonna try the same thing when he finally decides to pull his ass out of bed, that much you can count on. Go ahead, I fucking dare you guys to try and tell me that I'm wrong."

"...As clear his mental instability makes itself even now, he has a point." Future Gohan pointed out "As we are now, Piccolo is the only one who has the power to take out Cell, and who knows how long it's going to be before even he's outclassed. The only hope we have of winning is to get way stronger than we are right now, and as Kai would put it that means we're going to have to get creative. I actually tried to do something similar when I was training to face off with the Androids in my time."

"Which was what exactly?" asked Raditz.

"I tried to push myself and see if I could find a level beyond Super Saiyan."

"Beyond Super Saiyan, is that even possible?"

"If it is then I wasn't anywhere near close to finding it, but then the Kai of my timeline died fighting the Androids, and after that I just gave up on that idea."

"Well let's keep that in reserve for a moment, there's something else I need to confirm with you right now. These rules for time travel, you said that you couldn't go back further and destroy the Androids before they're activated right?"

"Exactly, we would be able to create a new timeline where the Androids don't exist along with who knows what other changes but it wouldn't help us get rid of the ones in this timeline."

"So does that mean it would be a waste of time if I suggested that we go back to Dr Gero's lab in North City, find his basement and then go blow up the mini Cell still in that birthing pod or whatever it's called?"

"...No you're right, changes to the timeline or not we should still do it anyway. At the very least we should be able to make sure that another version of Cell doesn't show up a decade in the future of this timeline."

"So then it's settled." Piccolo noted "All of you head for the lab, I'll search around the area here to see if I can pick up on Cell's trail."

"I'd rather stick around, you need the extra eyes." Tien pointed out, with Nail and Kai nodding in agreement.

"...Fine."

"If you think that's for the best then okay, but if you haven't found him in the next few hours just meet us back at Kame House." Gohan told him "If we keep an eye on the news then we should be able to get at least a general idea of where and when Cell is going to pop up next. So are you guys ready."

"Ready." Future Gohan and Raditz both gave simultaneous nods, and the three of them headed off in the direction of North City.

"So tell me future me, do you really think it's going to be possible for you to find a level beyond the likes of a Super Saiyan? That sounds pretty crazy, neither me or dad or any of us ever bothered to look that far."

"I know that the idea itself sounds insane, but when it comes to the Saiyan genes I'm pretty sure the word "impossible" has about as much meaning as "limitations", as in none at all.

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Kai and the others looked around at the scene of where Cell had encountered the battleball team bus, only to find no sign of him "Nothing but clothes with stab marks, if I had to guess then I would say that Cell came here through here not too long ago."

"Aw dammit." Tien muttered "He killed my star battleback too, my entire fantasy team just went straight to hell."

"...Are you for real right now?"

"What? I have hobbies." he was met with a scoff.

"No you don't.

"Are you done?" Nail asked dryly.

"As long as he doesn't pretent to have any more hobbies."

"Anyway he'll need a far greater amount of energy than this if we wishes to gain enough power to absorb the Androids, he'll have to aim for an area with a larger population."

"He couldn't have gotten too far in such a short amount of time, if we hurry we might be able to track him down before then."

"Right." and so the four of them promptly took to the skies.

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Meanwhile, outside of North City…

Gohan threw aside a piece of rubble and shuddered as a cold wind blew through the area "Oh man, was it always this cold around here? We were here at noon, there's no way it could've been this cold."

"If you're looking for a way to warm up, I suggest you start looking." Future Gohan told him, his tone flat.

"Well what do we do now? If there is some kind of basement down there then we'll have a pretty hard time getting to it underneath all of this rubble."

"I have one idea in mind for that, take my advice and stand back." Raditz promptly started firing a few Ki blasts to clear out the rubble, with the others soon following.

"You know there are times when I question our lifestyle, but shooting lasers like this can be fun sometimes."

"Just don't start making laser noises like something out of Star Wars."

"I wasn't going to do that!"

"Really?"

"...Maybe."

"He's lying, I used to do this in secret until I was ten." Future Gohan fired a few Ki blasts of his own at the rubble "And seriously, anyone who denies making laser noises as a kid is lying through their teeth."

"Adding onto that point, not really, come take a look at this." Raditz called them over to where he had found a ladder leading underground "Either Dr Gero had an underground stripjoint, or I found the entrance to his secret lab."

"So should we go have a look?"

"We might as well." so the three of them leapt down the ladder and into the underground cavern, and they started walking.

"Before we actually find something down here, I need to ask both of you for a favor."

"Which is what exactly?"

"If we actually do find any more Androids down here… please don't let Kai find out or he'll never let me live it down."

"I make no such promises when it comes to that kid."

"Well I had to try." they soon ended up coming across a large metal door, and once they pushed the door open the lights flashed on, revealing the secret underground lab in all of its glory.

"Wow, danger Will Robinson." Gohan muttered.

"Who's Will Robinson?"

"...The future is no fun."

"It's really not." Future Gohan looked up at the computer in the center of the room "Dammit, so it really is here. That definitely looks like the computer an evil genius would use."

"And that's not all, check this out." Raditz motioned for them to check out a large tank filled with green fluid "So if I were a gambling man, I would say that this has to be the Cell from our timeline, still in his tank just like we thought."

"If that's the case then there's no point in waiting around, we should hurry and destroy this place while we can." Gohan suggested.

"Makes sense to me."

"No wait you two, hold off on that for just a minute." Future Gohan walked over to a nearby desk holding some schematics "No way…"

"What's the matter?"

"From the looks of it, I think we just found the blueprints for Android 17. This is incredible, do either of you two realize what this means? If we bring these back to Bulma then we could use them to find a way to turn the Androids off before Cell can find them!"

' _Don't ask how to turn them on, don't ask her to turn them on, don't ask how to turn Android 18 on!_ How do you turn Android 17 on? _Shit!'_

"Plus there's a lot more here, just take a look! It lists their real names, 17 and 18 are apparently named Lapiz and Lazuli. And take a look here, apparently Android 16 was actually modeled after Dr Gero's dead son."

"...Are you making that up? It sounds to me like you're making that up."

"Well okay then, grab those things and let's kill Cell and get the hell out of here."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

"Actually about that, I've been thinking." Gohan cut in "Technically this version of Cell has never done anything wrong, so doesn't it have a right to life just like the rest of us?"

"This is about a lot more than just a right to life. This is about making a choice, a choice that three of us all need to make. A choice between making a terrible mistake that could ruin millions of lives and- Okay you know what fuck it, I'm just going to drop the pretences and say it in a way that Kai would. We're aborting Cell, end of discussion."

"...Fine, I guess that makes sense." so with that in mind, the three of them started blasting different parts of the lab, making sure that nothing was left standing.

Future Gohan looked up at Cell's tube, the only thing remaining of the lab, and he gritted his teeth furiously ' _Damn monster, I'm not going to let another world be ruined by you and the rest of your kind! I won't let anyone else go through that kind of hell, never again, whether it be my world or this one or any other!'_ he fired a quick Ki blast at the tube, obliterating it on the spot and leaving nothing behind.

"Looks like someone got some much needed catharsis." Raditz patted him on the shoulder "Why don't you try destroying the real deal next time, see how that turns out."

"Only time will tell."

"I guess so. Anyway come on, we'd better get back to the surface before this place comes down on our heads."

"Right." and so the three of them bolted back up to the surface before they were caught in the ensuing explosion.

"And here's one more for the road!" on that note, Raditz promptly a Saturday Crush down at the remains of the lab, leaving no traces behind in the massive explosion that followed.

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A few minutes later…

Soon enough, Future Gohan and the others were flying away from North City with the blueprints in hand "Not going to lie, that actually felt pretty good."

"Try taking out one of the real deals, then we get to talk." Raditz told him dryly. "But either way, finding those blueprints was definitely a stroke of luck."

"No arguments here." then Future Gohan suddenly frowned "Hey Raditz, do you think you could take these blueprints back to Capsule Corp on your own? I feel like me and my future self should head back to Kame House and keep an eye on Father while he's recovering from the Heart Virus over there. Besides, if it really is possible for us to find a way to go beyond Super Saiyan then I should try, and I should run it by him too."

"I see, that makes sense. Go ahead and do what you have to do, I'll take these blueprints and get them back to Bulma." so he was handed the blueprints by Future Gohan "And for that matter don't count me out either, the first chance I get I'll be looking for a way to go beyond Super Saiyan myself. Just be sure to watch yourself."

"The same could be said for you."

"Duly noted." and so they promptly blasted off in different directions.

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Kai pulled out his phone and raised an eyebrow at what he was hearing "Hey guys, call it a hunch but I have a feeling you're going to want to hear this."

"What is it?" asked Nail.

"See for yourself." he put it on speaker.

" _Hey there, welcome back to 98.5, the Cell. We have another caller making a request…"_

" _Please don't kill me!"_

" _Sorry my friend, that's not in the lineup."_ cue the squelching sound and screams of agony " _And unfortunately, neither is Another One Bites the Dust for that matter. Speaking of the lineup, for the next half hour we've got Hungry like the Wolf by Duran Duran, Killing Me Softly With His Song by Lauren Hill, followed by All By Myself by Eric Carmen. Now don't touch that dial."_ and on that incredibly menacing warning, the radio suddenly shut off.

Kai stuffed his phone back in his gi pocket "So yeah, call it a hunch but I think I know where we should be searching next."

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Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp…

Bulma looked over the blueprints intently for a moment "So you're saying that if we use these blueprints to find a weakness in Android 17, then we should be able to prevent this Cell from absorbing him and the other Androids and destroying the universe. Does that about cover everything?"

Raditz nodded "That's about the sum of it, so can you do it or not?"

"Well it's easier said than done, these look like they're based off of technology I've never even seen before. It's a real shame too, if Dr Gero hadn't been so hellbent on revenge and just applied his genius and used it for good then we could've had a major advantage going for us."

"Not the time for that."

"I know I know. Anyway from the looks of it, he started with a human basis and converted their organic tissue on a cellular level, and the polarized nuclei would make it possible for his body and cells too fuse together. I'm going to have to study this a little bit more, but from the looks of it there are a few synthetic components in the design that might be our best hope for finding a weak spot."

"I hate to ask though, but is taking them out really the only way?"

"Why do you care exactly? They're mostly machinery at this point, well except for the girl that is. From the looks of it she still has some areas that Dr Gero probably had plans for, that sick old bastard."

"So you're saying that she still has a-"

"Vagina yeah, call it a hunch but I have a feeling there are some other things Gero was keeping to himself."

"...And just like that, she went from a 9 to a 10."

"Don't know, don't want to know. Anyway, how's everyone else holding up?"

"Well from what I know, Nail, Piccolo, the Triclops and the psycho runt are out right now looking for Cell, so hopefully that's going well. Kakarot is still recovering from that Heart Virus over at Kame House, and both versions of his son went back to oversee his recovery. Speaking of which, if there's nothing I can do to help you here then I should head over and check up on him myself."

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

Future Gohan sat on the shores of Kame House, his mind drifting with the wind ' _Even after everything I've been through, I still remember the peaceful times when I could just sit on this beach with my best friend, without a care in the world.'_

"Well your father is still sleeping."

Future Gohan spared a quick glance back to see Chichi coming up behind him "Better him sleeping than dead, and considering in my world that alternative actually happened I would call that progress."

"That makes some sense." Chichi sat down next to him and noticed the cybernetic leg where his original left leg used to be "Does it hurt having that?"

"Considering I was once blown to pieces by an intergalatic warlord in order for my father to fulfill an ancient alien prophecy, not really no. Sure it's not the same as having actual flesh and bone down there, but it's better than nothing."

"You've changed a lot from the boy that you are in this time, haven't you?"

"The future hasn't been kind to you, has it?"

"I thought I already established that beforehand."

"You did, but I never saw how much pain your held in your heart, but when I see that look in your eyes."

"...It never stops hurting you know, when I think about how everyone I love is dead, either because of the Androids or that damn heart virus."

"Do you want to talk about it? It could help."

"Talking with Bulma never helped."

"Yeah well, do you know the difference? I'm your mother." Chichi pulled Future Gohan into a tight hug.

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Meanwhile, in some city with a population getting smaller by the second…

Cell was making his way through an airport hanger, chasing after a young woman and a little boy that was running for their lives ' _You see, life sure has a way of working itself out. I find a time machine, I kill its pilot and take it back in time by about a decade and a half. I burow underground for four years, I come out and find a highly populated city only a few miles away. I get a surprise in Piccolo being the strongest of Goku's allies, I still manage to slip away so I can gain enough bioenergy to surpass him undoubtedly. Let's see what else I can get to work in my favor.'_ when he saw the woman and the boy trip over a steel gurder, he pounced and thursted his tail towards them, only for them to disappear in a flash, and he looked up and smirked "Well this is unexpected, to think I would be discovered by you of all people… Raditz."

Sure enough, Raditz appeared before him holding the woman and the child "So this is where you were stalking innocents like a predator."

"That's the idea, but I have to say I'm impressed you were able to find me."

"Yeah well that's what I get for trying to find a shortcut back to Kame House, I guess fate just decided to be an asshole."

"Um, excuse me sir?" the woman looked up at Raditz "Thank you for saving us."

"Forget it, just take my advice and get the hell out of here while you can."

"Right, come on we'd better go." and so the woman and the boy quickly rushed off.

' _Great, it's always the attractive ones that slip through your fingers.'_

"Well well." Cell let out a chuckle "Believe it or not, you've actually made this a great deal easier on me, your bioenergy will be far more efficient than that of either of those pathetic specimens would be when I absorb it."

"The real question is, will you be able to get it from me?"

"Give me a moment and we'll find out."

"I suppose so." Raditz flashed into Super Saiyan just in time to avoid a charge from Cell and dealt him a kick to the head, sending him skidding backwards a short distance.

Cell quickly stopped himself and thrusted his tail forward at full speed.

Raditz quickly dodged every thrust of the tail and hit Cell with a Ki blast that forced him to retreat a short distance "Hey Cell, get a load of this!"

"Hm?"

" **Solar Flare!"** Raditz was quick to blind Cell with a Solar Flare, causing him to cry out in pain from the light.

When Cell finally regained his vision, he looked around only to find that Raditz was nowhere to be seen "Well, it would seem he's more slippery than I gave him credit for."

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Raditz was hiding behind the walls of one of the hanger buildings, his mind racing' _I'd better not take any unnecessary risks, I can't beat him on my own right now so I'll have to play this one safe until the others can get here.'_

"Surprise!" Cell's tail suddenly thrusted through the wall behind him.

"Not today you ugly serpent!" Raditz whipped around and hit Cell at point blank range with a quick Saturday Crush blast, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

When the explosion cleared, it revealed that Cell had sustained some minor damage in the form of having lost one of his arms and one of his wings, and he spat out some blood "Most impressive, I suppose I should expect no less from the brother of Son Goku. However…" he quickly regenerated his missing body parts "You'll have to do far better than that if you wish to defeat me." he suddenly blitzed forward and slugged Raditz straight across the face, sending him crashing through the building "I'm going to enjoy absorbing your energy and adding it onto my own."

"Raditz hold on!" that was when Nail and Piccolo showed up on the scene, with Kai and Tien both right behind them.

"Such a shame, I suppose I'll have to absorb your energy another time then." so with a quick flash, Cell disappeared from the scene.

Piccolo let out a growl as he touched the ground "Dammit, he's already hiding his energy so we can't track him."

"Nevermind that, are you alright Raditz?" asked Nail.

"Don't worry about me." Raditz pulled himself to his feet "I've been a hell of a lot worse."

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

Future Gohan gritted his teeth and forced himself not to cry as he relayed to Chichi the events that took place in his timeline "There were a few bits and pieces over there… and Kai's body was over there… I knew that I was too late… Kai was all I had left… I was all alone… I could only break down then and there… some half-blooded Super Saiyan with a metal leg, I was just a joke."

"Don't be like that sweetie, we both know you're not a joke." Chichi pulled him into a hug "I mean you're here now aren't you, talking to the best person to help you when you're at your lowest, your mother."

"Yeah, yeah I guess so."

"A joke, no. A failure, well of course."

"That… That's honestly a little bit harsh mom, even for you."

"But do you know what your failures make you? It makes you just like everyone else."

"But I'm not supposed to be like everyone else am I?"

"Gohan everyone fails at who they're supposed to be. The measure of any person, an alien or a hero or anyone… it comes from how well they succeed at just being who they are."

"...You know I've really missed you mom. I still feel like maybe there was something that I could've done to help you and Grandpa back in my time."

"You can't control everything and you can't save everyone, but the reason you're here in the first place is that you know that just because you can't save everyone, that doesn't mean you're not supposed to try." Chichi pulled him into a tight hug "Maybe sometimes fate just decides to throw us a bone, to put us back on the right path."

"I love you mom."

"I love you too son, now promise me that the next time you go out there, you'll go and be the man you're meant to be."

"I… I will, I promise."

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3 days came and went in the blink of an eye, and despite the efforts of Piccolo and the others, the terror spree brought on by Cell's actions continued.

" _We're receiving reports that the monster from Gingertown is now moving through the urban areas of section 48 South. According to initial estimates, it appears that half of the population in that area has already vanished.'_

"Dammit!" Piccolo let out a snarl "There's no way we'll get there in time to stop him, he'll see us coming from miles away!"

"Hold that thought you guys, we might have one way of getting there." Launch pulled out a capsule and threw it, revealing a submarine floating on the shores of Kame House, and she quickly ushered everyone inside "Let me introduce all of you to the USS M'Tits, if we travel in this bad boy then there isn't a chance in hell of him sensing any of us coming until we land right on top of him."

"That area isn't near the ocean." Upa pointed out.

"Then just go on foot from where we dock, it can't be that far and at least he can't sense any of us coming."

"We'll still have to make it fast before he's able to absorb enough people that he's even more powerful than Piccolo, but at least this way we have a chance. All we have to do is get there without Cell sensing us coming and then Piccolo can take care of the rest, after all he still does have a lot more power than what we've seen so far."

"Hate to break it to you Upa, but it's not going to be that simple." Piccolo told him flatly "Unless we actually do land right on top of Cell, we're still going to have a chase on our hands."

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Meanwhile, with the Androids…

18 wasn't exactly keen about the thought of offroading in the pink van they had appropriated a few days prior "I can't believe you actually took this piece of crap offroading, this thing barely even handled on the freeway!"

"Oh come on 18, where the hell is your sense of adventure?" 17 waved her off.

"About 15 miles back, just like the shocks!"

16 let out a sigh "I personally enjoy this alternate route, it is decked with foliage and wildlifie and-" he was cut off by 18 firing a Ki blast that levelled most of the forest in front of them "-and spending time with you, but clearly you disagree."

"Dial it back a few notches fire-crotch."

"Not gonna lie sis, that was kind of a dick move." 17 noted dryly.

"Oh come on, we can just take him to a zoo after this. How's that 16, do you want to hit up a zoo after this?"

"...I want to see the parrots." was all 16 said.

"And there we go."

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

Chichi was in the middle of filling up a pan of water to bring to Goku, when she was suddenly knocked over by a sudden blast of the earth shaking "Oh my god, what the hell was that? Did the androids find us, are we under attack?! Well I say bring it on, there's no way I'm letting you get my husband you robotic sons of-" she bolted to the upstairs bedroom, only to find that Goku was nowhere to be seen "Oh no Goku, they already got him!" she looked out the window and her jaw nearly dropped.

"Hey now, what's with all of the commotion?" Master Roshi made his way into the room and looked out the window, only to see a massive shockwave of water spraying everywhere "Huh, well either Goku is awake or Moses has brought the Jews. Either way, my pantry isn't full enough for this.

Chichi looked down and her face lit up at what she saw "Goku!"

Sure enough, Goku was down on the beach, wide awake and firing a barrage of Kamehamehas after the ocean " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he quickly fired another one, dividing the ocean to the point where the mainland was visible, at least for the trained eye "Yes, now to see if I can make the walls go higher."

"Goku!" Chichi wasted no time as she jumped from the window down onto the beach and rushed towards him, throwing her arms around him.

"Hey." Goku gently wraped his arms around her "I'm sorry I gave you such a big scare, but you don't have to worry anymore. I'm all better now, I promise."

"Are you, you really promise?"

"Hey come on, if I was still sick then could I do this?" he picked her up and started spinning her around with glee.

"Goku come on, stop it you're being silly!"

"Hey you're the one who wanted to see that I was feeling better." he kept spinning her until she was suddenly flung high into the air "Oh boy, I guess I overdid it a little bit there." he quickly caught Chichi in his arms as she came back down.

"You're being so crazy!"

"It's alright I've got you honey, it's really good to see you Chichi."

"Goku!" that was when Master Roshi came up to him with a gigantic bruise on his head.

"Hey Master Roshi."

"It seems like you're back to your old self, you've missed one hell of a day."

"Yeah and I'm fired up and ready to go, and just in time by the looks of it. I heard about everything that was happening while I was asleep, you'd be surprised what you can hear in the middle of a pirate dream. Plus I had dreams about me being a ninja, a superhero, a guild wizard, a hunter, a half demon dog man with a gigantic sword, and a Shinigami, whatever that is, but a lot of them ended. My point is I know what we're up against, I guess we're gonna have a real fight on our hands this time around."

"Wait a second, you've gotta be kidding me!" Chichi rounded on him "You can't start fighting right when you get out of bed, you just got better."

"No need to get worked up so soon Chichi, I know I'm not ready. After all, Kai and Piccolo are both stronger than Super Saiyans, if they can't stand up to the Androids then I doubt I stand a chance either. I guess Gohan, the future one I mean, had the right idea when he brought up taking things to the next level."

"What?"

"Yep." Goku looked out at the ocean "If we're gonna win this fight, then I'll have to find a way to go beyond Super Saiyan… But first, I should probably go get some proper clothes on. These ones smell like I've been wearing them for a week. Which I have."

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About 20 minutes later…

Soon enough, Goku had changed into a fresh new gi, his body and resolve now restored to full capacity "Alright then, I'm going to train until I can go even higher than Super Saiyan."

"What?!" Master Roshi broke the doorknob off in shock "You're serious, do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?! How do you know that it's even possible?"

"Truth be told I have no idea if it actually is possible, but I do know that it's the only way we have any chance of winning this fight. I don't think we can afford not to at least try. I'll give it a full year, if I can't do it by then I'll just have to try something else."

"A year?! But we don't have anywhere near that long!"

"It's gonna be alright, in the place where I'm going to train you can get a year's worth of training in a day."

"...Huh?"

"It'll make sense later. And by the way Chichi, I was thinking that it would be a good idea if I brought Gohan to train with me too."

"You… mean… my… boy?" Chichi's teeth were grinding furiously "Well, not on your life mister!" but then she gave him a smirk "At least that's what I would say if I thought it would make any sort of difference, it's not like I have a choice now do I? So let me go ahead and tell you now that you damn well better beat those Androids okay?"

"You've got yourself a deal."

"But afterwards when all of this is finished and the world is safe again, I'm not going to let anything else get in the way of Gohan's studies. Got it?"

"Got it. _I knew that no matter how much she might try to deny it, even Chichi knows when you've gotta put aside what you want and focus on the bigger picture.'_

"As for you, two things I have in mind for you. One, you're going to stay at home for awhile and help me out with some housework. Two, I have something else I want to talk to you about, how some big changes are coming."

"I gotcha, thanks Chichi." they gently pecked each other on the lips "Well I'm off, but I promise I'll be back soon." then he placed two fingers to his forehead and disappeared via Instant Transmission.

' _You'd better keep that promise, if you die out there on me I'll never forgive you.'_

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Meanwhile, with the crew of misfits…

Tien was quick growing impatient "Hey is this as fast as this thing can go? We have to make it before Cell can run off again!"

"Hey dial it back hotstuff." blonde Launch blew him off "Sorry if this thing can't go at the speed of light like all of you freaks."

"Oh sure." Kai rolled his eyes "You change personalities when you sneeze and for some reason your hair turns color, but apparently we're the freaks."

Gohan let out a sigh "If only dad were here…" he failed to notice Goku pop in behind him, startling everyone else. Well, everyone except Kai.

"He's right there."

"Yeah when we need him, we could really use him right now."

"Yeah, I mean he could use his Instant Transmission and then we could be on top of Cell faster than he can blink."

"He's right behind you."

"And then we could just- Wait what?" Gohan looked back and his jaw nearly dropped "No way… Dad?"

"Hey guys." Goku waved at them "So did you guys miss me or what?"

"Dad!" Gohan suddenly launched forward and pulled Goku into a tight hug "Dad you're here, I can't believe you're really here!"

"Hey take it easy son, but yeah it's really me."

"Man it's so good to see you dad! So when did you wake up, does this mean you're cured, you don't look sick anymore, so you're really all better?"

"Yeah I got up a little while ago, your mother and I took a shower (see who catches that little hint) and I got into some new clothes, all things considered I'm back to 100%. Well make that about 75%, I haven't eaten in days."

"Hungry huh? Yeah, it sounds like you're back to your old self again."

"Yep, I've never felt better, really."

"Father…" Future Gohan pulled himself to his feet and locked eyes with Goku, trying to hold back his tears, only to be pulled into a hug by Goku.

"You've really grown up haven't you son? I'm proud of you. Oh wait, hang on just a quick second okay?" so he went over to Piccolo with a huge shit-eating grin "Hey there, so how's it going Kamiccolo?"

"Oh for the love of-" Piccolo took a moment to calm himself "Look we combined our powers and our bodies, not our names. From now on just stick with Piccolo, that is if you know what's best for you."

"Would've been good to hear about three days ago." Kai grumbled as he made his way out of another room in the submarine.

"What do you think I think of when we're trying to track down Cell and I fall silent? I have my own thoughts to ponder."

"And I pray to the God living inside your head that we never have to hear them."

"Hey everybody has a few skeletons in the closet right?" Goku patted Kai on the shoulder and gave him a grin "Nice work finishing that fat Android by the way Kai, I'm pretty impressed by how strong you've gotten. I heard you lost that other fight pretty bad though."

"You're treading over dangerous waters palm tree, if you don't want to lose an arm then take that hand off my shoulder right now." that was enough to get him to retract the hand.

"But you know what they say: Whenever you fall off that horse, you get right back up and you eat that horse. I say you come and eat that horse with me."

"What the fuck are you saying?"

"I'll get to that." Goku let out a sigh "Look, as much as I hate to say it I don't think I'll be able to beat this Cell or any of the other Androids as I am right now. They're just way too strong for me or for any of us."

"For now maybe, but I have a plan of my own to get strong enough to bring them all down once and for all. All it takes is a cup of water."

"I think I have an idea of where you're going with this, but in the meantime I was planning to take Gohan and do some training. I was thinking we would go to that place where you can do a year's worth of training in a day."

Piccolo was quick to figure out what he was getting at "I see, so you want to take Gohan and go inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. A clever idea, but to think you can last an entire year inside that place is pretty risky in itself. As I recall, the last time you went in there you barely lasted for a month."

"Yeah I know, but the way I see it this is the best option we have at the moment. I'm planning to take Gohan, both versions of him, and frankly I'm pretty confident we can handle it as we are right now."

"Fine then hurry up and go, Cell is out there absorbing whole cities and his power level is growing by the minute and if we let him find 17 and 18 and reach his Perfect Form then we don't stand a chance in hell."

"Right." Goku turned back to the others "Raditz, Tarble, I hate to say it but I think at least a few of us should stay behind and help Piccolo and the others with the search. Separately you wouldn't win, but together you could at least hold your own."

Raditz looked down at Tarble, then over at Goku "Just do what you have to do, we can go beyond Super Saiyan when we're not in imminent mortal danger."

"Right." Goku gripped both Gohan and Future Gohan by the shoulders, and then he quickly motioned for Gohan to grab onto Kai "Alright, are you ready to go guys?"

"If I may, I wish to accompany you as well." Nail gripped Goku by the shoulder "I have a theory that I wish to test."

"If you think you can help then I say go for it."

"Sensei, just one moment." Tarble quickly stopped him "We're up against enemies that could oneshot the likes of Frieza, what is it that makes it seem like you're happy about it. Aren't you scared, even a little bit?"

"I think it's too soon to tell." and on that note, Goku, Gohan, Kai, Future Gohan and Nail all disappeared in a flash.

"Sensei…"

"Well that must be nice." Tien muttered "I wish I could be so nonchalant about the planet being on the verge of imminent annihilation."

"I don't think that's it. This works out well for us, Sensei might not know that he can win but he also doesn't know that he can't win either. As long as Sensei hasn't given up, that means we still have a chance of winning."

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Soon enough, Goku and the others materialized on Kami's Lookout, or rather just the Lookout as it would now be called "Alright, so before we get to the chamber there are a few things you guys should know."

"Such as what exactly?" asked Nail.

"Well like I told you guys, one year in there is only one day out there, but at the same time it only has enough supplies inside to accomodate two people at a time, and it can only be used for a total of 48 hours. Anyway, to save time I was figuring that I could take the Gohan from this timeline, and since you insisted on coming would you mind going with the Gohan that came from the future."

"So be it. However, just to be safe and considering you have Instant Transmission at your disposal, perhaps it would be for the best if myself and the future Gohan went first."

"Yeah, that's a good idea, especially considering we don't have Dragon Balls anymore."

"Big whoop, you guys have a whole planet of people waiting to make you more." Kai let out a loud scoff "Face it, as long as Dragon Balls are a thing death doesn't have any consequences for any of us. Anyway have fun giving the middle finger to Back to the Future, I've got my own thing to do that puts Super Saiyans to shame." and he blasted off the Lookout and soared downwards.

"The boy has promise, and he seems to have a plan."

"Yeah he's got a plan alright, a pretty risky one though." Goku commented "He knows that we don't have the Grand Elder Namekian here to give him a power up, and he can't rely on the Hyperbolic Time Chamber like we do because humans ages a lot faster than Saiyans and Namekians do, so he's aiming for something that I used when I was a kid to power up enough to defeat Piccolo's father when I was a kid. He's going to drink the Ultra Divine Water."

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Meanwhile, at Mount Paozu…

17 blasted a nearby rock out of boredom and glanced over at the inside of the house "So what's the deal 18, what does it look like in there?"

"It looks like Goku is married to some kind of Chinese princess." 18 told him flatly "I mean seriously, I'm glad that she's the same size as me, but who wears crap like this?"

"I mean, is Goku in there?"

"Oh no, the place is empty." 18 made her way back outside "And by that, I mean devoid of both people and taste."

"6/10 on the burn. So what about 16, anything on that radar of yours?"

16 shook his head "I do not detect the presence of Son Goku. However, the two most logical places for him to hide would be the Capsule Corporation in West City, or the island of Kame House, where his Master Roshi can be found."

"Okay then, so which one is closest?"

"The island is closer, approximately 1,600 miles to the Southeast."

"Well okay then, let's start flying."

"It's about time." 18 muttered as the three of them took to the air."

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Mr Popo was waiting for Goku and the others when they entered the building "Welcome my friends, this way please. I've been expecting you, so I've prepared the chamber for all of you in advance. You'll find everything you need to sustain you during your training."

Gohan glanced up at Goku as they followed Mr Popo "I'm not sure about this dad, are you sure this is the key to going beyond Super Saiyan?"

Goku gave a shrug "Even if we do power up it's possible that I won't be able to defeat the Androids and Cell on my own, but then again that's why you're coming with me. Who knows, maybe we'll even get to fight them together."

"I never thought you liked fighting in teams."

"I usually prefer fighting on my own, but I'll do it when I need to. There were a few times like before when I teamed up with Tien and Yamcha back when we fought Vegeta, or back when they fought Frieza. Now it's father and son time."

"Here we are." Mr Popo led them to a large wooden door at the end of the hallway.

Nail frowned slightly "So this is the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that Goku spoke of."

"Indeed it is. Inside the chamber, time moves 365.24 times the speed of this dimension. So which of you will be going first?"

"Myself and the Gohan of the future will be going first."

"Alright it's time then, the best of luck you guys."

Future Gohan and Nail shared a look and nodded "We'll be as quick as we can Father, with any luck we'll be more than powerful enough to defeat the Androids by the time we come out."

"Don't worry about us Gohan, just make sure you guys do what you have to do."

"Right." and on that note, Future Gohan and Nail entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, with the door shutting behind them.

"And now it's up to them."

"Hey dad, I just thought of something." Gohan looked up at him "How long have you know about this?"

"Since before you were born."

"And we never used it to train against the Saiyans or the Androids, why exactly?"

"Becuase if we did then we probably wouldn't have survied, Kami and Mr Popo threw me in there once when I was a kid and I barely lasted a month in there."

"And out here that would be?"

"About two hours."

"...Huh."

"Yeah."

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Future Gohan looked around the inside of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber "It's strange, this heat feels suffocating and the gravity feels a lot stronger in here too." he walked further into the chamber and nearly froze at the sight of the empty white void "What… What the hell is all of this?"

Nail looked around himself "Remarkable…"

"It's nothing but pure empty white space, there's no end to it! So this is the place where Father claimed that he was barely able to last for a month, now I'm beginning to understand why."

"The conditions do appear to take a toll on the unexperienced, but with that being said, the fact that we don't have to hold back due to the endless void makes it ideal for training."

' _So me and Nail are supposed to spend an entire year in this place? Honestly, what did I get myself into?'_

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Meanwhile, further down Korin Tower…

Korin didn't even have to turn his gaze away from the ledge to know that Kai was standing right behind him "I figured that you were going to come sooner or later."

"Then I'm right to assume that you know why I'm here?" Kai guessed.

"I do. I understand you a lot better than you realize kid, why you're so passionate about martial arts and why you keep pushing yourself to test your limits and push beyond them."

"Don't even think about spewing about any of that Whiskers the Wonder Cat, I don't care if you are a mystical master or whatever."

"Relax kid, I don't make a habit of getting into people's personal lives when they don't want it, and when I don't want it."

"Goku and the others are going somewhere they can do a year's worth of training in a year, I absolutely refuse to fall behind them. Upa did it while we were off on Namek, and now I say it's my turn."

"...So you know what I've got with me here."

"It's not exactly a well guarded secret, I want you to let me have a crack at the Ultra Divine Water while Gohan and the others are training."

"Looks like you've done your research. The Ultra Divine Water is packed with mystical properties and magical zing, it will greatly enhance the abilities of the one who drinks it but first you're going to have to track it down in order to drink it and enjoy its benefits. It's a perilous journey, far to the North there is a maze made entirely of ice. You're first going to have to navigate through this icy labyrinth in order to obtain this special water, it's hidden somewhere in a cave at the end of the maze. Many brave explorers have attempted to to navigate through this maze in an attempt to reach the Ultra Divine Water only for none of them to ever be heard from again."

"And Goku and Upa were the only ones that actually survived drinking it."

"Yep, so now that you know the peril involved what are you going to do? Do you still wish to seek it out?"

"You're damn right I do. It's like I said to Gohan, limitations are only a state of mind, just like how this water is only a stepping stone on my path to the top."

"I see, well you've got guts I'll give you that much. Come with me, I'll show you how to get to the start of the maze." he led him into another room.

"So how long is it going to take me to get to this icy labyrinth or whatever?"

"As long as it takes you to hop into that pot." Korin pointed to a loan pot sitting in the corner of the room "It's a sort of portal that will take you there almost instantly, now before you go I have one word of advice."

"What would that be?"

"If you're dead set on going then there's one thing that you absolutely must avoid no matter what."

"What?"

"Darkness, a Darkness blacker than the night itself. It shields the Ultra Divine Water with an illusion so cunning and mind breaking that you may never be able to escape its empty void once you become ensnared in it."

"I'll keep that in mind." and with that, Kai leapt into the pot.

' _Your kid has serious guts Scarlet, just like you did when you first drank the Ultra Divine Water all those years ago. Now then, let's see if he's got the grit to back up all of the talk.'_

 **A/N:**

 **And with this highly anticipated chapter we see the rebith of the Super Namekian, the introduction of Cell, Goku's recovery from the supposedly fatal Heart Virus, and we see a showdown between Piccolo and 17 about to begin in earnest while our Saiyan characters (with the exception of Raditz) are heading into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.**

 **As I'm sure you guys noticed, I'm doing what TFS did and keeping Kami in the story as a voice in Piccolo's head, but to a less comical extent than they did for obvious reasons. I know I haven't included the original King Piccolo as a voice just yet, but for good reason. That will work out soon, I promise.**

 **In this fic, Cell is meant to be a mix of lines from the DBZ Kai dub and the TFS dub, which I think blend together very nicely. Plus most of the TFS references in this story come from Kai, and considering how Cell has Kai's DNA in this fic, I think it makes sense.**

 **For those that hadn't noticed, the scene between Chichi and Future Gohan was inspired by the scene between Thor and his mother Frigga from Avengers: Endgame. That movie is by far the best of the MCU, at least in my opinion, and when I was watching it awhile ago, I realized that if I wanted to have a moment between Future Gohan and his deceased mother, then that was the best way to go about it.**

 **I decided to have Nail go in the time chamber with Future Gohan in order to give him something else to do in this arc. That, and I need Raditz around for my shipping of him and 18, and I have something in mind for Tarble to do in the next chapter, since I haven't really had him do anything in this arc since I had him go Super Saiyan.**

 **As I planned out this chapter, I was struggling to come up with a way to keep the human characters (particularly Kai) relevant to the story, and to make sure they can keep up with the likes of the Saiyans and the Namekians. I was initially thinking about having the human characters go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but considering how they age far faster than Saiyans and Namekians, I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. But then I realized that I had forgotten about what I had Upa do in chapter 8, and how I could have the others do the same: Drink the Ultra Divine Water. Kai is the first one to go at it, and he'll be bringing it back to Korin to spare the others the trip when their time comes.**

 **Power levels:**

Weighted Piccolo: 360 million

Raditz: 10.4 million

Super Saiyan Raditz: 260 million

Goku (Zenkai from Heart Virus): 14 million

Imperfect Cell: 290 million


	24. Cell on the Prowl, Z Fighters Struggle

_**(Kami speak)**_

 **Ericsofly2:** Thanks, glad to see you enjoyed it.

 **Guest:** As interesting an idea as that would be, I explained before that the Kaioken requires such extreme Ki control that it puts a massive strain on the body. The Namek-Ken is derived from focus on willpower, which makes it easier for someone like Kai to use.

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There had been little to no progress in the search for Cell.

Launch let out a sigh as she piloted the submarine back towards Kame House, following another failed attempt at catching Cell "Well that could've gone a hell of a lot better, should we go back and scour another city?"

"It won't do much good." Krillin muttered "If we can't sense Cell's Ki signature then that just makes it way too easy for him to slip away before we even get there."

"Dammit!" Piccolo let out a growl of frustration "There's no way of telling just how much stronger he is now, and if he's started hunting 17 and 18 he could reach his Perfect Form at any time he wishes! The way things are going, the only hope we have is that Goku and the others really can find a level beyond Super Saiyan, and then we'll hope it's enough to deal with whatever Cell may still have in store for us."

"And if not?" asked Raditz.

"Then we're doomed, plain and simple."

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Kai opened his eyes and found himself in the icy labyrinth "So this is it."

"Hey kid, up here!" Korin called from above "Listen to me Kai, if you manage to find the Ultra Divine Water then be sure to return here to this exact spot and I'll be sure to pull you back out again."

"Got it Korin, thanks." and he walked off into the maze "It's cold in here, I'll have to be careful so I don't freeze to death or anything. I doubt I'd be able to explain that one to Dad." he then continued onwards only to stop when he saw something.

A frozen corpse laid on the side of the path.

"Poor guy, he must've gotten lost in the maze I'd better hurry before I end up like him." he then started to walk forward, only to stop when he heard a crash and looked back to see the path behind him disappear "Okay that's not good, I think it's safe to say now that there's something coming."

That was when a large snow cyclone emerged from the cracks in the ground and took on the form of a massive ice monster, which promptly unleashed a monstrous blizzard.

"I don't have time for this. **Nail Gun!"** he fired a quick Nail Gun at the ice monster, only for it to regenerate "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, it's like I didn't even hit him at all!"

The ice monster lunged at him, but suddenly stopped as the head evaporated into nothing.

"Okay scratch that, I guess it just had a delayed effect. Now then, down the hatch!" he slid down an ice slide on the side of the path until he reached the end and found himself at the bottom of a deep ravine "Well that was fun, now I'd better get moving." he continued walking "I'm gonna have to hurry or I'll end up freezing to death."

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Morning came, and while training was progressing more or less, the hunt for Cell was making very little progress, or any at all.

" _...find a cabin in the woods, and if anyone comes knocking make sure you let the right one in, or you'll be dead by dawn."_

"Dammit!" Piccolo gritted his teeth in frustration "Come on Cell, show yourself!"

" _The death toll continues rising as the unknown creature continues its terrifying siege across our nation."_

"I get it, he's absorbing people! I'm trying to stop him dammit!" Piccolo fired a Ki blast out the window out of pure frustration.

"Maybe you should get some sleep like the others." Raditz told him.

"I'll sleep when I'm dead!"

"I can help with that." that was when 17 and the others touched down on the beach, catching the attention of Piccolo and Raditz right away "So can Goku come out and play or what?"

"...Son of a bitch, I have no idea if this is good timing or the worst."

"I say it depends on who you're talking to." Raditz glanced over at 18 and smirked slightly, earning a look of disgust from Piccolo "Yeah I might have a problem."

"No shit. Go get the others up, I'll greet out visitors." he made his way outside.

16 looked around "I do not detect the presence of Son Goku in this location."

"Yeah you heard the ginger Android, Goku isn't here so I'm going to ask you only once to leave quietly."

"Somebody's trying out the tough guy act." 17 let out a chuckle "Tell you what, once you tell us where we can find Son Goku then we'll be on our way." this was followed by Raditz and the others rushing out to join them.

"So it's just like that, you think we're going to talk so easily?"

"Well yeah actually, this kind of thing can either be very easy or very painful for you. You see we came all the way out here to kill somebody, so you guys have two choices. You can either tell us where Goku is or, well…"

"Or what?"

"What else, we kill all of you and go find him anyway."

"Fine by me, if it's a fight you want then it's a fight you'll get."

"I preferred that option anyway."

"Hey, excuse me Androids?" Master Roshi spoke up from the second story window "If you guys are going to fight it then could you please move it off the island? It's quite literally the only thing I own."

"That's fine by me, but after I win I'm blowing it up for funsies."

"Alright then, follow me." Piccolo pointed to a series of islands a fair distance away "There's a series of uninhabited."

"Why the hell do you know that?"

"Because of reasons." Piccolo turned back to Raditz and the others "The rest of you stay behind, no offense but if you do come then you'll only get in the way." and so he promptly took off along with the Androids.

Krillin looked over at Raditz "So to put it simply, if Piccolo fails then we're all going to die right?"

"That's one way of looking at it, but keep in mind that we don't have any Dragon Balls right now." Raditz pointed out "But still all he has to do is stall them, Kakarot and the others should be finishing their first day of training soon so if Piccolo can hold out until then, or maybe he could actually manage to defeat one of the Androids, preferably not the blonde."

"What?"

"Huh?"

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It didn't take long for Piccolo and the Androids to reach the island "Alright, this should be a good spot. We'll have more room here."

"Works for me." 17 shot a glance over at 18 "Hey sis, since you look bored as fuck just being here, why don't you go ahead and sit this one out?"

"Already on it." 18 promptly sat down on a nearby rock "Too bad the Saiyan with the Sonic hair didn't come, at least with him things wouldn't be so stupid and boring."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"...Okay then. So just out of curiosity Green Man, are you trying to buy time or are you just looking to throw your life away? Because if I remember correctly, the last time you and your friends tried to square off against us it didn't exactly end very well."

"Oh believe me I know, and I'm not the same Namekian you faced before." Piccolo promptly threw off his weighted gi and turban.

"Oh. Oh shit, are you talking metaphorically? Because if not then I'm going to start feeling like a racist, you know because you look exactly the same as you did before."

"I might look the same on the outside, but what counts is what's on the inside."

"Well alright then, if you really do have a death wish then go ahead and show me what you've got already."

"If that's what you want." Piccolo glanced between him and the other Androids "So you're saying you intend to fight me one on one, is that about right?"

"It would just be overkill if all three of us came at once, besides in case you hadn't noticed I'm the only one of us who gives enough of a damn to fight you right now."

"Looks that way. _This is good, if I only have to take them on one at a time then I might actually be able to get somewhere. Even if I don't win, if I manage to take one of these two down with me I'll at least be able to stop Cell from reaching his Perfect Form.'_

" _But you haven't seen the full extent of their powers yet, you can't rush into this."_

' _But I can't play it slow either, the way I see it it's worth a shot.'_ Piccolo dropped into a stance, gritted his teeth and let out a roar as he began powering up, a milky white aura surrounding his body and shaking the entire island with the shockwave that followed.

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Kai looked back and let out a low whistle "Okay I'm feeling a hell of a lot of Piccolo right about now, either he's showing off or he's about to fight one of the Androids. Dammit, he hasn't even started fighting yet and I can already feel the shockwaves from here. Looks like I'd better pick up the pace."

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Mr Popo's head snapped up as he felt Piccolo's Ki soaring to new heights "Oh no, Kami…"

"So you can feel it too, it's starting." Goku muttered "Piccolo's getting ready to fight, either that or he's showing off."

"Yeah but who, do you think it's Cell?" asked Gohan.

"No I doubt it, whoever it is I can't sense any Ki from them. It has to be the other Androids he's fighting right now."

"What?! He can't fight them alone, we have to help him somehow!"

"No Gohan we can't help him, you know as well as I do that even if we go Super Saiyan we'd do more harm than good by being there. Nail and your future self are going to come out of there any minute powered up to the max, and then they can join the fight and help, so please just hold on until then. Piccolo is more than twice as strong as he was before, he can definitely at least hold his own until then."

"I know, but…"

"Besides, if he does need some kind of backup he has Raditz and Tarble there."

"...Fine, I get it but I don't like it."

"We don't have to like it, we just have to wait. _Come on Gohan, where are you? If it really is possible to go beyond Super Saiyan, I know you've done it by now, so what the hell is taking you guys so long?!'_

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17 grew bored as he watched Piccolo continue to power up "Dammit, our Jolley Green Giant here has been at this for like 20 hours."

"It has been 5 minutes." 16 pointed out.

"It's called hyperbole big guy."

"...Something is wrong."

"What are you talking about?"

"This Namekian is not Piccolo."

"Who is he then?"

"DODGE!" Piccolo blitzed forward and elbowed 17 in the back of the neck, followed by dealing him a fierce rapid barrage of punches and kicks that ended with Piccolo slamming his fist straight into 17's face.

17 caught the fist and dealt Piccolo a kick to the jaw, sending him flying backwards "But seriously, if you're not Piccolo then who the hell are you?"

"You really wanna know?" Piccolo recovered and charged at 17, resulting in the two of them clashing in mid air, though neither one of them could get a hit in.

"Okay you know what, that does it!" 17 charged at Piccolo and aimed an elbow straight at his spine.

"You're finished!" Piccolo dealt 17 an elbow to the spine, sending him crashing to the ground with massive levels of speed and force "And to answer your question, I am Piccolo, but after reuniting with my other half Kami."

"Kami?" 17 spat out some dirt "Okay so follow up question, what the hell is a Kami?"

"It means God, now bow." Piccolo promptly extended one hand and fired an Explosive Demon Wave at 17, engulfing him and the entire island in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, 17 was revealed to be alive and well, hovering above the crater left by the blast "Too bad Jolly Green Giant, looks like you missed."

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Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp…

Yamcha knelt down next to where Bulla was sleeping in her crib "Okay there, it took about three hours but she's finally asleep."

"What? Oh good, thanks." Bulma barely glanced back from where she was hard at work at her computer.

"So out of curiosity, how's that shutdown device for the Androids coming along?"

"It's coming, but did you look at Dr Gero's notes? As it turns out he only attributes models to his successful projects, the crazy bastard was kidnapping dozens of orphaned teenagers and experimenting on them. Though it is pretty interesting that he set explosives in their chests the way he did, it must have been some kind of fail safe, in case they went rogue.

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Meanwhile, back at the fight…

17 wiped the blood from his lip and shot a smirk at Piccolo "Alright then Namekian, I say no more screwing around." he blitzed out of view.

"I couldn't agree more." Piccolo blitzed out of view herself, resulting in the two of them clashing throughout the skies trading even blows, only for the clash to end when Piccolo ran out of patience upon seeing 17 floating upside down mocking him "Let's see you dodge this!" he fired a quick Ki blast.

"Dodge." 17 promptly dodged it with ease "You know it's weird, I find that people yelling dodge is more distracting than helpful. Anyway looks like you missed, you wanna try again for a quick Zeni?"

"Does this answer your question?!" Piccolo fired a barrage of Ki blasts at full speed and with very little accuracy apparently.

17 just nonchalantly dodged every Ki blast being thrown at him with ease and deflected a larger one, causing it to explode a short distance away "Well isn't this quite the surprise? I have to admit you really are good, a hell of a lot stronger than before. I think I can have some real fun with you, at least for a few minutes or so." and so he charged.

Piccolo met 17 in a fierce and blinding collision that caused an uproar with the seas large enough to create a rainbow.

"So what gives, why did you stop? Was it too much for you?"

"Oh for crying out loud, would you just finish it already?" 18 called up to him "Stop screwing around with him and do something already, or do I have to just come up there and do your job for you?"

"Not a chance, this is the most fun I've had since I woke up and I plan to enjoy it!" 17 glanced over at Piccolo "You want to keep going too right?"

"You'd better believe it." Piccolo shot him a smirk.

"Well then as long as you're game that's good enough for me, so how about I start working my way up to full power and we see how that goes?"

"That suits me just fine, so bring it on then!" Piccolo blitzed forward and fired a barrage of Ki blasts at full speed.

"Oh come on, you're not even trying anymore are you?" 17 nonchalantly dodged and weaved around every Ki blast being thrown at him.

' _Yes that's right you cocky little bastard, go ahead and take the bait.'_

17 eventually got bored and just stopped dodging, the Ki blasts flying right past him "For the record I stopped dodging. No seriously, are you even trying to hit me?"

"NO!"

"What the hell do you mean no?" 17 looked around and noticed all of the Ki blasts scattered and hovering around him, surrounding him "Oh. Ooooh. Ooooh… shit."

"Looks to me like you're out of tricks to show and places to go Android, I guess you won't be getting the chance to impress me with that full power of yours that you were bragging about. Say hi to Dr Gero for me when you see him on the other side! **Hellzone Grenade!"** with a wave of his arms he made the Ki blasts swarm towards their target.

' _Oh god dammit, it's even got a cool name!'_ 17 was promptly engulfed by the blasts, resulting in an explosion that levelled the island.

Piccolo waited for a few tense moments for everything to settle down, only to freeze in shock at the sight that awaited him within the smoke "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, he has a forcefield too!"

"The technical name is Android Barrier." the smoke cleared to reveal 17 alive and well, having protected himself with his Android Barrier "Nice try, pretty creative idea but it's still not enough to beat me."

"Just wait and see, I'm still just getting started."

"Good then follow me, we'll need a new island now that someone's blown this one to hell worse than Sokovia in Age of Ultron. Some people just have no respect for nature."

"Fine by me."

"And you know something I just don't get? You try to kill Goku and that's fine, but when we try to kill Goku and suddenly you get all uppity."

"True, but when I did it I did it for revenge. You're just doing it for shits and giggles."

"Tell you what, you try living for a couple of years in stasis with your creator repeating the words "kill Son Goku" over and over again in your subconscious, then you can ride that high horse all day long."

"...Wow."

"What?"

"Nothing, just… nostalgia…"

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Meanwhile, in some random city on the other side of the world…

Cell was in the middle of absorbing the citizens of some other city, when he sensed the Ki being put out by the battle "No doubt this incredible energy I'm sensing is coming from the Namekian, he must havve quite the fight on his hands to power up to this level." he dropped his next victim in shock as the realization dawned on him "It can only be 17 and 18, he's found them, and now so have I! 17 and 18, my brother and sister, I'm coming for both of you, and with the power I've gained you'll have no way of resisting me!" and on that note he bolted out the window and soared off into the skies in the direction of the battle.

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

Piccolo touched down on another island not far away "This should be a good spot for us to keep the battle going."

"Good a spot as any, as long as you don't torch it like the last one." 17 and the others promptly touched down in front of him "You have gained a surprising amount of power in such a short amount of time, you really aren't the same old Piccolo anymore are you? Not that it really matters, I really don't care whoever or whatever the hell you're supposed to be. As fun as this has been, and I've already established that it has, but I'm going to give you one last chance to tell me where Son Goku is, or I'm going to have to start taking this seriously."

"It would be a nice change of pace. You can forget finding out where Goku is, the only way I'd help you is over my cold dead corpse."

"So be it then, what do you say we pick up where we left off." both of them promptly dropped into combat stances "Don't expect me to go easy on you this time."

"I won't expect anything less."

"That's what I'm counting on." 17 floated towards Piccolo and shot him a smirk "Hi."

"Uh, hi-"

"DODGE!" 17 dealt Piccolo a blow to the face and aimed a kick at his side.

Piccolo leapt over the kick and retreated from 17 with a series of backflips in order to gain some distance, and he shot 17 a smirk "You might have a slight edge over me in speed, but speed alone won't do you much good if you can't punch worth a damn."

"You're just determined to piss me off aren't you? Well get this, I was built to be the ultimate fighter and there's no one in the world stronger than me." he blitzed past Piccolo and elbowed him square in the spine.

Piccolo spun around and kicked 17 square in the face, then aimed a kick at the side of his head.

17 leapt under the kick and slugged Piccolo across the face, sending him crashing to the ground with a thud.

Piccolo burst back up to his feet and headbutted 17 square in the face, sending him skidding backwards.

17 pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood ' _Okay, so Green Man is doing a little bit better than I thought he would.'_ he burst forward and smacked Piccolo straight to the ground with a loud thud.

Piccolo recovered, blitzed above 17 and dealt him a smash attack to the back of the head, which sent him crashing to the ground in the middle of a large crater.

17 recovered and met Piccolo in the middle of a clash that let out a shockwave powerful enough to rip apart the ground of the island, the clash continuing as the two continued trading even blows with each other, until the two of them caught each other in a power struggle that unleashed a shockwave so powerful it caused a volcano to erupt and destroy the entire island as a result.

18 was less than amused with the chaos being brought on by the battle "For crying out loud, these two morons are going to run out of islands before they're finished."

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

Raditz let out a low whistle as he observed the chaos from his place with the others "From the looks of it I'd say Piccolo is still giving the Androids one hell of a fight."

"Dammit…" Tien gritted his teeth and clenched his fists "We shouldn't just be sitting here like a bunch of cowards, we need to help him!"

"How the hell are we supposed to do that, us going up against the Androids is like trying to watch a chihuahua fight a horse. The most we would do is-" Raditz cut himself short and looked in a certain direction "-curse out whoever is trying to screw us over by making events unfold like this."

"What do you mean, what's the matter?" asked Krillin.

"You can feel that can't you? Cell is coming and he's getting closer by the second."

"Dammit, Piccolo must be pulling him towards the Androids with all of the energy he's putting off in the fight!"

"...Well Triclops it looks like you're about to get your wish, we're gonna have to get involved sooner or later."

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Meanwhile, up at the Lookout…

Gohan gritted his teeth as he forced himself to stay on the ground ' _Piccolo please hang in there, I know you can do this. If you can take at least one of the Androids down that will stop Cell from reaching his Perfect Form, and even if you can't my future self and Nail shouldn't be in there for too much longer, so if you can just hold on until then. Dammit, I hate feeling so helpless like this, it's sickening!'_

"Gohan, listen." Goku got his attention "I know what you're feeling, I get it, I really do, but there's nothing we can do to help him right now.

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Meanwhile, back at the fight…

"You think I'm gonna go down that easily?!" Piccolo burst downwards from above and dealt 17 a sharp fist to the gut.

"You don't have a choice in the matter!" 17 attempted to hit Piccolo with a quick Ki blast at point blank range.

Piccolo countered the Ki blast with one of his own and dealt 17 a fist to the gut and a brutal smash attack, sending him crashing into the sea below. Moments later, both of them resurfaced following an underewater explosion, trading even blows as they soared away towards another island.

"Yeah it's official, this fight is just annoying now." 18 and 16 promptly followed after the two of them.

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

Raditz gritted his teeth "Dammit this is bad, you guys can all feel how powerful Cell is right now can't you?"

"So what do we do?" asked Upa.

"All I know is we have to come up with something fast, we've got maybe a few minutes at the most before Cell gets there, and if he manages to absorb the Androids then we're all as good as dead."

"Hey guys!" that was when Chichi rushed out of the house with a phone in hand "Bulma's on the phone and she says it's urgent, she told me to tell you she's figured out a way for us to turn off the Androids."

"She did what now?" Raditz snatched the phone away "Talk woman, you'd better not be fucking with us right now."

" _Why would I fuck with you at a time like this, especially when it comes to me showing just how brilliant I truly am? Anyway thanks to those blueprints you gave me I figured out that both 17 and 18 have an emergency shutdown circuit wired into their neural network, I was able to hack the frequency so all we have to do is push the button and they'll be as harmless as a couple of mannequins in a department store!"_

"Well is it done or can you give us the ETA?"

" _Relax it's already finished, I have the controller in my hand right now."_

"Your timing couldn't have been better. Listen Bulma, we need you to bring the shutdown thing to us right away. Piccolo is fighting the Androids as we speak, if Cell shows up in the middle of it there's no guarantee he'll be able to win!"

" _Right, I'm on my way. I just have to make sure Yamcha and Yajirobe don't end up sumo wrestling for the fridge again."_ and then she hung up.

"Okay, she's on her way and she should be here soon."

Tien breathed a sigh of relief "Okay that's good, now we can finally destroy those Androids once and for all and keep Cell from becoming an even bigger problem."

"Yeah, and all we have to do is blow them sky fucking high."

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just brooding about my boner that will most likely never be satisfied."

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Gohan's head snapped up as he detected a certain Ki signature "Dad this isn't good, you feel that don't you? It's Cell's Ki, it feels like he's heading right for Piccolo and the others!"

Goku nodded "Yeah I know, and Piccolo is so caught up in the battle he probably has no idea that Cell is even coming. Dammit, we could really use future you and Nail right now."

"Shouldn't they have finished their training a long time ago?"

"Exactly, so they should be out here by now. _Come on you guys hurry up, pretty soon it's going to be too late to undo the damage!'_

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The battle in the islands raged on furiously.

"Oh that is IT!" 17 dealt Piccolo a palm strike to the face that sent him flying into a nearby plateau, and then he unleashed a shockwave that caused the plateau to erupt in flames "I have had it up to HERE with your BS!"

"The feeling is mutual!" Piccolo burst out from within the smoke and slugged 17 clear across the face, sending him flying into a mountain behind him, and then he fired a quick Explosive Demon Wave.

17 blitzed in front of Piccolo and aimed a kick at his torso.

Piccolo blocked it, as well as a few oncoming blows, grabbed 17 by the face and attempted to throw him to the ground.

17 quickly leapt over Piccolo and instead flipped him straight into the ground.

Piccolo responded by grabbing 17 by the shirt and hurling him into the ground.

17 grabbed Piccolo by the arm, hurled him into the air, then burst forward and slugged Piccolo square in the gut as hard as he could.

Piccolo mustered up just enough strength to slug 17 straight in the gut, causing him to gasp in pain as the two of them began exchanging painful blows to the gut, which ended with two simultaneous kicks to the face that sent both of them rolling away from each other.

17 burst towards Piccolo and dealt him a kick to the face.

" **Masenko!"** Piccolo recovered and quickly 17 with a full power Masenko, sending him hurtling down to the Earth below.

17 rebounded before hit the ground, panting slightly, and locked eyes with Piccolo as the latter returned to the ground "Dammit Green Man, I've gotta give it to you, you're proving to be pretty hard to put down."

"Yeah… Not gonna lie, I'm actually beginning to enjoy myself."

" _ **As entertaining as this battle is Piccolo, I'm afraid we have a problem."**_

' _Yeah I know, I'm bluffing. I'm starting to reach the limit on my Ki, but his energy supposedly never runs out.'_

" _ **Make that two problems."**_

' _What, the other Androids?'_

" _ **Okay make that three problems."**_

' _What else is there-'_ Piccolo glanced over to the side and nearly froze in shock ' _Oh, that's the problem you were talking about. Shit.'_

17 blinked at the sight standing before them "What the fuck is that thing supposed to be?"

"Something I was never planning for you to see, he calls himself Cell."

Sure enough, Cell was standing on the edge of the coastline looking down on them a malicious smirk plastered across his face "Hello boys, room for one more?"

' _Dammit, I was so caught up in my battle with 17 I didn't sense hom coming!'_

"So who's this spearmint, your inbred mutant cousin or something?" asked 17.

' _Wait a second, the Androids don't know about Cell? Then that means they don't know that they're his target!'_

Cell let out a chuckle "At long last, a feast for the eyes, the two key components I require to complete my design and realize my Perfect Form! Androids 17 and 18, my dearst brother and sister." then he set his eyes on 16 ' _And who do we have here? Considering he wears the mark of the Red Ribbon Army I can only assume he is also an Android created by Dr Gero, but if that is the case then he must be an older model, so he's of no concern to me.'_ he lowered himself to the ground and his malicious grin widened "I do owe you my sincerest gratitude Piccolo, without any power levels to track I would've been left searching for them blindly. But thanks to your little skirmish, I have at last been reunited with my family, and let me tell you just how much catching up we have to do!" he dropped into a stance and began powering up, his yellow aura reeking with the souls and cries of anguish of the people he had previously absorbed, and he let out a shockwave that left Piccolo too stunned to even move "Is it hard to bear Piccolo, my overwhelming power? It's weight… it's girth…? Well considering this little piece of advice my way of thanking you to guiding me towards perfection, this time stay out of my way if you want to live until I reach perfection."

"You… You managed to power up to a greater extent than I had imagined. How many thousands of innocent lives did you have to sacrifice?"

"Oh a few give or take, though I say they should be honored. Thanks to me they will become one with perfection."

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Krillin gritted his teeth as his aura flared slightly from the frustration he was feeling "Dammit this just keeps getting worse, how the hell are they supposed to hold off Cell when he has power like that?!"

"It's simple, they can't." Raditz told him flatly "The most Piccolo can do at this point is just stall for time."

"Is that the only choice we have?"

"There is that shutdown device that Bulma has, that could still help but even if she's flying at top speed there's no way she's going to make it in time to make a difference. Frankly the best thing any of us could do is for one of us to meet her halfway, it's better than standing around out here like a bunch of stooges. Look, the fact is that I'm the strongest and fastest out of the five of us so I'll go and meet Bulma and grab the shutdown device, and I'll be back as soon as I can." so with that in mind, Raditz flashed into Super Saiyan and blasted off away from Kame House at full speed.

"Well at least one of us gets to do something. Honestly, I miss the days when we actually meant something in the grand scheme of things, now all we can do is wait until Goku and the others get back-"

"ENOUGH! I AM NOT A SPECTATOR, I AM A WARRIOR!" Tien suddenly exploded and blasted off in the direction of the battle.

"Seriously, I don't think any of us can ever get a read on that guy."

"I'm going to help them too." Tarble suddenly flashed into Super Saiyan "I may not be able to compete with any of them or offer any significant contributions, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself or face my wife again if I didn't at least try!" and so he blasted off after Tien at full speed.

"Dammit guys, they're throwing their lives away!"

"I know, but I do get it." Master Roshi let out a sigh "If I was a few years younger then chances are I would probably do the same thing, at least if I thought it would make a difference. It's hard to believe this helpless old man used to be the greatest Martial Artist in the world. Goku it's up to you and the others now son, you have to hurry back. Even if you can do a year's worth of training in a single day, I'm afraid a day might be more time than we have to spare."

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

17 shot Cell an overconfident smirk "You know we're kind of in the middle of something here, so whoever the hell you're supposed to be you'll just have to sit back and wait your turn until I'm done with him."

"No 17 don't underestimate him, he's dangerous!" Piccolo barked at the top of his lungs "He came here in order to absorb you, get the hell out of here now!"

"Wait what?" 17 quickly dodged a thrust of Cell's tail, as well of the series of thrusts that followed that one, only to end up getting flung to the ground "Come again?"

"If you insist." Cell stomped down on 17's arm and prepared to absorb him, when…

"DODGE!" Piccolo suddenly burst onto the scene and deatl Cell a swift kick to the face, sending him.

"A surprise attack huh, now that's just rude." 17 pulled himself to his feet and promptly stood side by side next to Piccolo "Who the hell is this freak, and what do you mean he came here to absorb me?"

"I don't have time to give you the full story so here's the short version, what we're looking at now is another one of Dr Gero's creations built by a computer back in the basement of his lab back in North City. The only thing is he's not complete yet, in order to reach his final form he needs to absorb both you and Android 18 into his body."

"And so you fight me in order to try and take me out before that could happen."

"Yes it's all true." Cell shot them a smirk "Once I've completed my design I will become the ultimate being of unimaginable power, the likes of which the universe has never seen. Take this opportunity to join me and together we can fulfill the lifelong ambition of our father, to create the ultimate warrior."

"Yeah you know what, I think I've heard more than enough of this crap. Dr Gero has already created the ultimate warrior, he's standing right in front of you, so why the hell would I want to join with you?"

"What you want really doesn't matter at this point, whether you want to or not you're going to be absorbed."

"I think we'll just have to see about that, I say bring it on."

"No 17, you must retreat!" 16 barked at him "His power is much greater than yours, you cannot win against him! If we allow this Cell to reach his Perfect Form he will not be satisfied with simply destroying Son Goku, he will destroy the entire universe!"

"...Well how about that, you finally decide to open that big metal trap of yours and its to tell me to run away? Yeah, fuck that." and so he charged at Cell at full speed "I won't run from anyone, especially not some overgrown bugman!"

"Not a wise decision." Cell blitzed above 17 and elbowed him in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground.

"Get the hell away from him!" Piccolo charged at Cell at full speed.

Cell easily blocked both of his attacks and smashed him square on the skull, sending him tumbling backwards, and then he dealt Piccolo a brutal kick to the face that sent him tumbling across the island in a bruised heap.

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18 blinked at the sight of Piccolo and 17 getting pummeled "What the hell is this, are 17 and the Namekian holding back for some reason?"

"Negative." 16 slowly shook his head "You should leave."

"What, why the hell would I do that?"

"Neither of them have the power necessary to stand up to this Cell, and if he defeats them then you will not be safe."

"There's no way in hell I could do that, I'm way too curious to see how this plays out."

"I believe that is a poor decision."

"Maybe, but it's mine to make."

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Piccolo pulled himself to his feet and spat out some blood "Dammit…"

" _ **I believe this is what the young people refer to as, getting rekt."**_

' _Yeah, thanks for the commentary.'_

" _ **But seriously, if you have any other techniques you've been hiding up your metaphorical sleeve then now would be the time to use them."**_

' _Yeah, actually I think I've got one.'_

" _ **Really, since when?"**_

' _About now-ish.'_ so with a roar, Piccolo pressed his hands together and began charging a ball of Ki in between his palms, his aura flaring wildly as Cell continued advancing ever closer with each passing second.

"...Nope!" 17 didn't hesitate in running out of the line of fire.

" **LIGHT GRENADE!"** using every ounce of Ki he could muster, Piccolo fired the Light Grenade forward at maximum speed, engulfing Cell and about ⅔ of the island in the absolutely massive explosion that followed, which resulted in seawater and debris raining down over the island, or what was left of it. When everything settled, Piccolo fell to one knee from the exhaustion he felt ' _Did… Did I get him?'_

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16 looked on at the scene and let out a sigh "He never stood a chance."

"Yeah, you see?" 18 shot him a smirk "And to think you were so afraid of the big bad bug all this time."

"That is not what I was referring to. Cell did not take any damage in that attack."

"What?!"

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Piccolo shared the exact same thought as 17 as he watched Cell emerge from the bottom of the ocean without even a scratch on him ' _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!'_

" _ **Okay, so the last-ditch effort didn't work. I don't suppose you have any last, last-ditch efforts in store?"**_

' _Just one._ **NAIL GUN-"** Piccolo's would be last, last-ditch effort was promptly cut short on the spot by Cell slugging him across the face so hard, it broke his neck on contact and sent him crashing to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Tarble and Tien could only look on in horror at the sight "He broke his neck, if Piccolo couldn't stand up to Cell then what chance do we have?"

Cell made his way over to Piccolo's form and picked him up by the collar "I guess I just don't know my own strength, I was having such a fun time absorbing people that I didn't realize I had taken so much more energy than I actually needed. So then, do you have any last words by big green friend?" he was met with only the sound of pained gurgling "Well said, good game." he promptly fired a See Ya blast through Piccolo's chest, blowing a hole clear through what used to be his stomach, and then he proceeded to nonchalantly throw Piccolo's unconscious body into the sea, leaving it to sink to the bottom."

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Kai's head snapped in the direction of the battlefield as he felt Piccolo's Ki vanish "Oh boy, that's not good, and the painful part of it is that either way, we still wouldn't have any Dragon Balls. I can't waste anymore time with this, if I'm gonna get to this Ultra Divine Water I'll have to do it fast." and so he promptly took off running through the icy maze as fast as he could.

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Goku's head snapped up as he felt Piccolo's Ki signature vanish into nothing "Piccolo… No, we were too late. Dammit!"

"Piccolo… no… not again… I WON'T LET HIM DIE AGAIN!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and burst forward at full speed.

"Gohan don't!" Goku flashed into Super Saiyan just to hold him back from speeding off the Lookout in a berserk rage.

"Let me go dad, there's no way I'm letting Piccolo die again! He needs me, I can still save him, LET ME GO!"

"Stop it Gohan, it's too late for Piccolo, we both know that!" Goku's grip held tightly "Even if there was a chance Piccolo was still alive, if you went down there now Cell would wipe you out before you could even blink!"

"But I… I can't just…" Gohan powered down and fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face.

"I know it hurts, but if there's one thing I learned when I was out in Space, it's that you can't save everyone." Goku looked over at the door to the Chamber ' _What the hell is taking you two so long? You should've been there.'_

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Krillin gritted his teeth "Piccolo… dammit…" with little more he could actually do, he dashed towards the nearest phone and dialed the number "Come on Bulma, pick up dammit!"

" _Hey guys."_

"Bulma listen, hate to drop formalities but we don't have much time, or really any. Have you seen Raditz yet?"

" _Raditz? No I think I'd see a guy with Sonic the Hedgehog hair flying around me, why?"_

"Just make sure you keep an eye out, he's heading towards you to get the controller for the Androids any second."

" _Oh really, good that should be a big help. Especially since I had to leave Yamcha alone with our daughter. Don't get me wrong, I love him but he's kind of an idiot at times.'_

"That's not really the biggest issue right now, Cell is about to get his hands on 17 and 18 and if we can't shut them down right away then I think it's safe to say we're all good as dead!"

" _I gotcha, in that case I'll pick up the pace until I spot Raditz. I'll be sure to find him, looks like it's Bulma's turn to save the day!"_

"Great just what we need, another boost to her ego."

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

Cell watched as Piccolo sank beneath the surface of the sea, then turned back to 17 with a malice filled smirk "So much for the mighty Super Namekian, but what about you? Well no matter, we might as well just get on with it. I hope you're not still planning to resist me, you're going to be absorbed no matter what you do, so you might as well make it easy on yourself. I'll be sure to be with your sister shortly after I make you part of my perfection." and so he promptly began to close in.

"Fine go ahead and come and get me, but if you think I'm going down without a fight then you've got another thing coming! You can go to hell!" 17 promptly charged into the fray himself and attempted to deal Cell a full force kick from mid air.

Cell blitzed above the attack and attempted to smack 17 with his tail.

17 dodged the attack and the follow up, and he started dodging Cell's next barrage of attacks "If you think I'm just gonna roll over and die like a dog then you're in for a rude awakening!"

"I think you don't have a choice in the matter!" Cell smacked 17 to the ground with his tail, then dealt him a brutal barrage of attacks that caused him to drop to his knees in agony "Now what was it you were saying before? Because it seems to me that you rolled over fairly easily. I tried to warn you before, there's no point in resisting."

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18 gritted her teeth as she watched 17 get the crap beaten out of him by Cell "You know you're right 16, maybe it would be a good idea to run."

16 nodded "Yes, you should go now, but I will stay behind."

"Wait what?"

"If both you and 17 are absorbed, there will be no way to stop Cell from destroying this world, and he will win."

"So what are you going to do?"

"There is only one thing I can do. I will destroy Cell. The time for me to fight has come. My search for Son Goku will have to wait." he started advancing forward.

"Have you lost your mind 16? You can't go out there, Cell will kill you!"

16 stopped, then looked back at 18 and gave a small smile "I am glad to have met you. Thanks to you and 17, I have seen that the world is a good place worth protecting. I enjoyed the time we spent together."

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Tarble and Tien shared an uncertain look "Now the big one is going to fight. Does that mean that he'll be able to defeat Cell?"

Tien sighed and shook his head "I honestly have no idea, but just in case we have to be prepared to do anything we can."

"Right."

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Cell dealt 17 another brutal barrage of attacks that drove him into the ground, causing him to cough up blood "Well what do you say 17, are you ready to be absorbed?"

17 looked up at Cell and spat in his face "There's no way in hell I'd ever join a hideous freak like you, just looking at that slimy shriveled up face of yours makes me want to puke!"

"You know you really should let up on the harsh words, after all in a few moments this is about to be your face too. You have nothing to fear, once you're part of me you'll be reunited with our sister in about… I dunno give me 5 minutes, 10 tops. And once I've achieved my perfection I'll take my time killing every last person on this planet, even the mighty Son Goku!" then he felt a hand on his shoulder "Hm?"

"Would you care to repeat that you son of a bitch?" that was when 16 dealt Cell a brutal fist across the face, causing him to retreat and release his hold on 17.

"Got another one in you?"

"Stop. It. I have no intention of warning you a second time."

17 spat out some blood and looked up at 16 "Dammit 16, where the hell did that come from, and what took you so long?!"

"I was waiting to see how things played out."

"Wait a second, was that sarcasm?"

"I am not programmed for sarcasm."

"I'm proud of you. But in all seriousness, don't tell me you're planning to fight him!"

"Affirmative, there is no other choice."

"But that's suicide, you don't have a chance in hell!"

"According to my calculations, Cell and I are almost equal in power."

"Wait what?"

"Retreat to a safe distance." 16 promptly charged at Cell.

"Oh okay, I guess we're doing _this_ now!" Cell promptly charged at 16 as they began trading even blows, the two taking their clash to the sky and then back to the ground, in which they charged each other at full speed and clashed headbutts, but Cell took the opportunity to slug 16 across the face and stab him in the neck using his tail "Oh such a shame, it was such an admirable attempt by the read-headed stepchild! But don't feel too disappointed, for now you shall soon become a part of me!" he tried to absorb 16's energy, but nothing happened "Of me!" he tried again, same result "OF ME!" again, same result "God dammit, what the hell are you made of, pure metal or what?!"

"Affirmative." 16 smirked and grabbed the end of Cell's tail "I am ANDROID 16."

"...Oh. Errors have been made."

"Yes." 16 swung Cell around by the tail and hurled him to the ground, then stomped down on Cell's tail, causing him to cry out in pain as he grabbed hold of it.

"Okay okay, now I know what you're thinking; Should I rip off his tail? And the answer might surprise-" he was cut off by 16 ripping his tail clean off, causing him to shriek in agony.

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17 just blinked at what he was seeing "I was not ready for today."

"I don't think any of us were." 18 told him flatly.

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16 promptly threw aside Cell's discarded tail "And with the absence of your tail, there is no longer any danger of you absorbing 17 and 18. You no longer have the means to achieve your Perfect Form."

"You little…" Cell pulled himself to his feet and let out a snarl "Do you… have any idea… how long it will take me… to regrow my tail?!"

"...Pardon me-"

"Boop." in a split second Cell had regrown his tail with ease "I have Piccolo's Namekian DNA as part of my genetic makeup, I can easily regenerate something so minor as a tail. However, if it is any consolation, that hurt like hell."

"Then in order to prevent you from absorbing 17 and 18 and reaching your Perfect Form, I will have to destroy you completely."

"That right there is your mistake, assuming you'll be getting a chance to do such a thing." so on that note, 16 charged into the fray.

"Perhaps not, but even so I must still try." Cell's aura flared slightly as he leapt over 16's charge and dealt him a kick to the face, followed by a fist to the face sending him flying backwards and crashing to the ground "And here comes Cell, closing in for the kill!" he promptly charged forward in order to finish 16 off.

" **Rocket Punch!"** 16 suddenly bolted upright and fired off one of his fists like a rocket, the fist slamming straight into Cell's face, with 16 then slamming Cell into the ground so hard that it left a deep crater, leaving everyone else present stunned.

"Oh what is happening right now?! Where the fuck am I?!"

"In your grave." 16 removed his wrists, tucked them under his arms and started charging energy in both of his arms.

"Wait, what's that noise? Hold on, now I see a light."

"Walk towards it! **Hell Flash!"** 16 promptly fired his Hell Flash down into the crater at point blank range.

"WHAT THE HEEEEEELLLLL?!" Cell could only scream in comical agony as the explosion detonated beneath the surface of the island, leaving dozens of energy beams to burst up from beneath the ground all over the island.

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Raditz stopped flying in mid air when he noticed the explosion in the distance that was left by the Hell Flash ' _God dammit, that's one hell of an explosion. What in the hell is going on back there? It can't be Piccolo, I felt his energy disappear awhile ago. I can only sense Cell in that direction, so that means it must be him and one of the other Androids.'_

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Gohan looked up and then turned towards Goku "Hey dad, you felt that too right?"

Goku nodded "Yeah no doubt about it, Cell's Ki is dropping but we have no idea who he's fighting right now. _Whoever you are, please keep it up for just a little bit longer, until Nail and the future Gohan get out and get there.'_

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Kai continued running as fast as his legs would carry him, only to skid to a stop, his eyes wide with shock, a single tear falling from his cheek as he tried to keep himself composed "M-Mom?"

Sure enough, Scarlet stood before him with a gentle smile on her lips "Yes that is right Kai, I am here in the flesh."

"But you're supposed to be… I saw you… Oh wait I get it, this is one of the traps this Darkness guy set up in order to stop anyone from reaching the Ultra Divine Water."

"What are you talking about Kai?"

"The fact that you died from whatever the hell happened to you when I was three, the only difference being that unlike with Goku, we didn't have a miracle cure from the future to save you. Plus there's the fact that you're pronouncing every syllable of every word you speak like some kind of Transformer reject, and the fact that your accent is different. Nice try asshole, I'm not falling for it."

"So you noticed." the fake Scarlet's expression darkened "The Ultra Divine Water is sacred, it is not meant for the likes of humans. Your presence defiles it, you must leave this place or your life will be forfeit."

"If you were really my mother then you would know that isn't an option, I haven't gone to hell and back pushing myself to surpass my limits since I was three and there's no way in hell I'm turning back now."

"...I see, so your resolve rings true after all." that was when the fake Scarlet disappeared in a white light, followed by the entire cavern shaking, and the figure of a large black creature emerged in front of him.

"So you've shown your true self at last, now who are you?"

" **I am Darkness, the guardian of the Ultra Divine Water, and you have proven yourself to be worthy. Look ahead."**

Kai looked ahead and saw a pot and a cup on a small table "Is this it? Is this the Ultra Divine Water?"

" **Yes. The sacred liquid is very dangerous, one must be both mentally and physically strong in order to survive its effects. For those who are unsuited, it means certain death."**

"But it will make the one who drinks it stronger just like Korin told me right?"

" **There is no guarantee. The Ultra Divine Water takes advantage of special powers held deep within you, if you have no special power within you then nothing will change and only those who carry a special power will become stronger. The others, if too weak, will die."**

"Just like Korin said. So tell me Darkness, how many people have drank the Ultra Divine Water before me?"

" **15 people in total."**

"I'm guessing that includes Goku and Upa. So out of curiosity how many have survived the effects of drinking it?"

" **Only 3 have survived."**

"Goku and Upa would have to be pretty obvious, so who's the last one? You know what it doesn't matter, you don't get anywhere without saying fuck you to all safety procotions and taking a few life threatening risks."

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17 and the others could only look on in awe at the devastation left by 16's Hell Flash "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, there's no way he's that strong!"

"Oh my god, he actually did it." 18 muttered.

16 promptly rounded on both of them "What are you still doing here? You must run, you are not safe here!"

"What the heck are you worried about? You just took care of Cell from the looks of it."

"Negative, it will take much more than that in order to defeat Cell! My Hell Flash has only succeeded in momentarily slowing him down, you must escape from here while you still have the chance to!"

"Are you kidding me?" 17 shot him a smirk "After all of the crap he put me through before, you really think I would just up and run before I got a chance to score some payback on him? You messed him up pretty good I'll give you that, but I'm going to be the one to finish him off, you got it? You hear that you hideous freak, you're mine now! If you still want to absorb me then I say come and get me, the only way I'm leaving this place is after I squash you like the overgrown cockroach you are!" he failed to notice Cell rising up from the crater behind him.

"17 look out, he's right behind you!" Tien barked.

"What?!" 17 whipped around, but too late.

"So sorry to keep you waiting!" Cell wasted no time in absorbing 17 into the tunnel of his tail without any noteworthy resistance.

"Oh god this is totally disgusting, this isn't how this is supposed to work! I'm not supposed to die like this, I'm too cool! Someone pull off his tail! I'm too cool for this, I'm too cool-" and on that desperate note, 17 was fully absorbed into Cell's body.

Cell was left struggling and grasping as his body began glowing, and within a matter of moments he had transformed from his Imperfect form to his taller, more unappealing and more powerful Semi Perfect form.

16 wasted no time in making a straight beeline away from Cell "Hurry 18, we must get as far away from here as we can!" he shot a glance over at Tarble and Tien "The two of you would be wise to do the same."

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Meanwhile, up at the Lookout…

Goku bolted to his feet as he sensed the situation change for the worse "Cell's power level is rising like crazy, that's definitely not a good sign. They couldn't hold him off, he must have been able to absorb one of the other Androids!"

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Cell's transformation into his Semi Perfect form was complete, and with a triumphant smirk he set his sights on 16 and 18 ' _And then there was one.'_

"Come with me if you want to live!" without missing a single beat, 16 grabbed 18 and started running at full speed.

Cell suddenly blitzed in front of them "Wrong sci-fi, if you're going to do it then at least do it right."

"It would seem that running is no longer an option."

"You say that like it ever was in the first place."

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Tien gritted his teeth as he slowly and subtly flared his aura around his body ' _I'm sorry about this Chiaotzu, it looks like I might not make it out of this one alive.'_

Tarble slowly and subtly flashed into his Super Saiyan form ' _I'm sorry Sensei, I never wanted to waste your time training me over the past three years. But at least this way, I'll get a chance to see my wife Gure again.'_

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Cell knelt down and looked at his reflection in the water "On one hand, I'm kind of enjoying knowing what it feels like to have lips. On the other hand, I'm almost as enraptured by my new speed as you are. It would seem that absorbing 17 was well worth all of the trouble I got from all of you. I wonder what other abilities I've gained." he was met with a fist to the face from 16, but it didn't even faze him, and instead he blasted 16 in the face with a Masenko, sending him flying across the battlefield and severely damaging part of his head "Yes, it would seem that my raw power has been given a substantial increase as well. Now then 18, I believe you and I have some unfinished business to attend to."

"You son of a-!" 18 rounded on him in a rage "Give me back my brother you fish lipped son of a bitch!"

"Oh come on now, being hurtful isn't going to bring him back. Punching me in the stomach on the other hand, well we might get a chance to prove that in the future."

"You're a monster!"

"And he was delicious."

"And you honestly think I'd let you do the same to me?"

"To be honest, your compliance isn't a factor."

"Well if that's the case, then I guess I'll just have to do this." 18 placed a hand on her chest defiantly.

"...Give yourself a boob exam?"

"No! Explode my bomb."

"In your boob?"

"No! In my chest-"

"Booby bomb!"

"I'm serious! Take one step closer and I'll self destruct, I'm guessing that would prove to be pretty inconvenient for you."

Cell frowned, then smirked as he started using a very familiar sounding voice "Please don't do anything foolish 18, I promise you everything will be okay."

18 froze at the voice she was hearing "17…?"

"I didn't like the idea of joining Cell either at first, but I was so wrong. You should let him absorb you right away! Trust me, you won't believe how incredible it feels to have this kind of power!"

"Is… Is that really you 17?"

"No 18 don't listen to him, it's a trick!" 16 pulled himself upright despite the damage he had sustained "Do not listen to him, Cell is only using 17's voice in order to manipulate you!"

"I…"

"Silence toaster, unless you want me to turn you into a can opener!" Cell snarled at him "I think our dear sister here is more than capable of recognizing the voice of her own brother. You know this as well as I do 18, hear him out." he switched back to 17's voice "It's good in here now, but will you it will be just perfect! We would be the ultimate android, the most powerful being in the universe, and we could fulfill all of the wishes our father had for us! We could defeat Son Goku and then turn this entire world into our playground!"

"...Alright cut the crap, I've heard enough to know that's not 17! We hated Dr Gero for stealing our lives away from us and turning us into his pet Androids, fulfilling his wishes was the absolute last thing 17 cared about!"

"So you saw through that, well if you refuse to come to me willingly then I will simply take you by force! And don't bother trying to self destruct, it will take you at least a second or two to power up the blast, which will be more than enough time for me. With my newfound speed I can close the distance between us before you even lift a finger. Frankly it's like a game of tag, only for keeps, and now that Piccolo and 16 are out of the way, we're free to play." he prepared to make his move, only to stop and look around, and his expression dulled "Oh you've gotta be kidding me."

As it turns out, it was Tien floating a short distance above him, his arms crossed over his body in order to perform a certain technique "What, are you that surprised? You have the cells of all of us, including me, so you knew this was coming. **Multi Form!"** he promptly divided himself into four copies, each eyeing Cell from one different side in mid air.

"What I know is that the universe prefers to send me worthless punching bags who like to run their mouth too much, but apparently Kai was too busy. I mean come on, you just can't be serious. With your power level? You're no Android, you're no Namekian, and you're sure as hell no Super Saiyan. You're just human."

"Yeah, well you know what? Fuck power levels!" each Tien's body bulked up slightly, the crimson aura of the Kaioken surging around them "Fuck Super Saiyans!" each one formed a triangle with their hands aimed down at Cell "And fuck you! **Shin KIKOHO!"** each Tien fired a full power Kikoho at Cell at full speed.

"Oh that's just adora- SHIT!" yeah, Cell underestimated the power of Tien's assault and got blasted down into a deep crater left as a result.

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"What the hell?!" Goku's head snapped up as he sensed this new development "Is that Tien's Ki down there, don't tell me he's trying to take on Cell by himself!"

"Actually he isn't, but I don't know if that's better or worse." Gohan told him slowly "I think I can sense Tarble down there too."

"What the hell are those two doing?! At this rate all they're gonna end up doing is throwing their lives away!"

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18 opened her eyes and looked down at the crater left by Tien's assault "Okay, that's honestly kind of terrifying."

"UPSTART TRICLOPS BITCH!" Cell soared back up towards the surface at full speed, the only thought on his mind being ripping Tien's head off, when…

" **GALICK GUN!"** that was when Tarble soared down from above and slammed a full power Galick Gun directly into Cell's face, sending him hurtling down into the crater below, and then his head quickly snapped towards 18 "Go now's your chance, we'll hold him off for as long as we can but we can't make any promises!"

"DIE!"

" **Kikoho!"** one of the Tien's fired another Kikoho at Cell, sending him hurtling down into the crater yet again.

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Kai slowly stopped squirming and got back to his feet "What… Did I…? Yeah I did. I did it, I survived! Booyah mother f*ckers!" then he looked down "It's weird though, I don't feel any stronger. I mean sure I feel a little bit different, but I can't really explain it."

" **It is done."**

"So it is, I owe you one Darkness."

" **You have been granted this new power, use it wisely."** and with that, Darkness disappeared.

"I'd better hurry back too." he looked up "It's so clear now, I can see it plain as day." and he flew off into the sky, taking the pot of the Ultra Divine Water with him.

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Krillin, Upa and the others looked on at the scene from afar from their place at Kame House "I think I can hear that all the way from here, and the Ki they're putting out is incredible. Looks like a few people are putting up a fight." he looked back at a certain figure "Hey there, are you alright?"

As it turns out, the figure in question was none other than Chiaotzu "It's Tien you guys… and that Saiyan, Goku's student… they're giving up everything…"

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"NOW YOU DIE!" Cell soared back up towards the surface and fired a quick Masenko at one of the copies of Tien, when…

" **Galick Gun!"** Tarble slammed a Galick Gun into the side of Cell's head, sending him soaring across the island, and then he snapped his head back towards 18 "GO GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

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Gohan gritted his teeth "Wow, it feels like Tarble and Tien are both hanging in there, but even so… Tien's Ki is fading and fast, and who knows how long they'll last out their on their own like that."

"Dammit…" Goku gritted his teeth furiously "Tien knows that he can't keep up the Kikoho that long and use it that many times at once, and Tarble doesn't stand a chance in hell of being able to match Cell's power! What in the name of hell do those two think they're trying to prove out there?!"

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

18 looked up to see Tien firing one Kikoho after another, and combinig it with Tarble's barrage of Galick Guns, blowing Cell all over the archipelago, and in the meantime she quickly turned her attention to 16 "Can you still fly?"

16 gave a weak nod "Yes, more or less…"

"LOOK OUT!" Tarble burst towards them and kicked Cell in the face hard and fast enough to knock him away a short distance and disorient him "Don't waste anymore time, we'll be fine dealing with him here so GET MOVING!"

"Right, and… thanks." and so on that semi touching note, 18 slung 16's arm over her should and she carried him away from the island as fast as she was able to.

"NO YOU DON'T!" Cell burst up from within the crater and attempted to chase after them, only to find Tarble barring his way and attempting to hit him with a rapid barrage of punches and kicks, only for Cell to grab him by the neck "Your death is going to be slow and painful for that, so do you have any last words?"

"Just… a few… **Super… Galick… GUN!"** using every ounce of Ki he could muster, as well as drawing on a certain other source, Tarble hit Cell square in the upper part of his head with a very well timed Galick Gun far more powerful than its normal variant, the force hitting Cell square in the head and slowly ripping away of his face, causing him to howl in pain and agony as blood, guts and gore splattered all over the place, splattering across Tarble's face as well. Having no more Ki left, and with his life force fading, Tarble dropped to the ground as the Super Saiyan faded from him "I'm sorry… Sensei… Tien… the rest… is up… to you…" and he collapsed forward, the life fading from his eyes.

Cell took a moment to regenerate the damaged parts of his head and looked over to see the fading forms of 18 and 16 in the distance "No you won't-"

" **Kikoho!"** each Tien fired one Kikoho after another, blowing Cell into another crater in the ground ' _Tarble knew that a normal Galick Gun wouldn't even slow Cell down, he channeled his life force into that blast! Tarble… you did what you had to do, and I promise I'll make sure it wasn't in vain!'_ he gave up on the Kikoho assault from all directions and calmly lowered himself to the ground ' _I know what I have to do.'_

Cell slowly floated out of the crater looking mad as hell "You know, if you want my personal opinion on the matter, Kikoho is a pretty sad choice of last words. But to be fair, it's far from the worst decision you or that other Saiyan brat have made today."

"I know full well I can't beat you Cell, but you're in for one hell of a rude awakening if you think I'm going to go down without a fight!" one Tien charged at him at full speed, Kaioken 20x flaring wildly.

Cell cranked his neck to the side to dodge the attack and elbowed the Tien square on the center of his skull, sending him crashing to the ground.

A second Tien attempted to attack Cell from behind with a Dodon Ray.

Cell stopped the Dodon Ray with his bare hand, then blocked a kick to the side and smashed the second Tien square on the skull and threw him to the ground, causing those two Tien's to merge back together.

The third and fourth Tien's both attemped to charge Cell from different sides.

Cell leapt over the attacks and slammed them both into each other, causing them to merge back together, and then he grabbed both remaining Tien's, kicked one in the gut and slammed his fist into the other one's face, sending both of them tumbling backwards in a heap, causing them to merge back together "And then there was one."

"I'm not… giving up…" Tien pulled himself back to his feet, his Kaioken 20x aura barely holding on "I have… one last trick… up my sleeve…" he slammed his hands together and formed a triangle, his arms crackling with energy as Cell continued advancing ever closer without a care in the world "It's just like Kai says… Fuck power levels… Fuck Super Saiyans… and FUCK YOU! **SPIRIT KIKOHO!"** using every ounce of Ki he could muster, Tien fired a full power Kikoho blast at Cell, engulfing him in the massive explosion that followed, which decimated the island, or what was left of it.

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Goku slammed his fist into a nearby pillar, unable to contain his frustration "This is just perfect dammit, first Tarble's Ki gets snuffed out and now Tien's just sank like the quality of Game of Thrones!" he was met with odd looks from Gohan and Mr Popo "What? Raditz and I had to do something when we weren't training or driving cars, especially after they banned us from the roads for life. You know what that's it, I can't take this anymore! Gohan wait here, I'll be right back." and so he disappeared via Instant Transmission.

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As debris and water rained down from the skies above, Tien fell to his knees in exhaustion, unable to even stand ' _I hope that was enough… I hope she was able to get away…'_

From within the shores emerged Cell, missing one of his arms and part of his head, and he had some significant burns across his body, and he looked mad as hell "Like I said, Kikoho is a pretty bad choice for last words, but it's far from being the worst decision you've made today."

"How… about this… Ki… Ko… fuck yourself…"

"Okay you see, that's the spirit." and so on that note, Cell unleashed a quick Masenko, the blast engulfing Tien instantly and vaporizing him on the spot "Good game."

"And the game is just getting started."

Cell's head snapped up and his eyes widened in disbelief "No, is that… Goku?"

Sure enough, Goku was standing a short distance away, his expression deadly serious and filled with suppressed rage "So we finally meet Cell, I have to admit you're every bit the monster I was expecting you to be."

' _But this doesn't make any sense, how did he just appear before me?'_

"As much as I'd love to settle things right now, considering you indirectly killed one of my closets friends and my own student, I think we both know for a fact that I don't have a chance in hell of defeating you. But I only need one more day, then I'm coming back and I promise you're going down."

Cell paused, then barked out a laugh "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, you're too weak to beat me today but tomorrow you're going to magically wipe the floor with me?"

"It might be me, it might not be me, that's the question."

"...Did you seriously just quite Shakespeare?"

"Yep."

"Okay. Anyway that's nonsense, what difference could a day possibly make?"

"Why don't you give me that day and we'll find out." Goku tensed slightly, then he looked around "I can still sense Piccolo's Ki, he's in bad shape but he is still alive."

"What?"

Goku looked down at Tien's body, only to see it vanish, and then he looked over to see the same thing happen to Tarble's body ' _I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you guys, I promise I'll find a way to bring you back when all of this is over.'_ his head snapped in a certain direction, and in a fraction of a second he was by the shore helping the badly wounded form of Piccolo out of the water "Hey take it easy Piccolo, I just need you to hang in there a little bit longer."

' _What the hell is this, how did he get all the way over there now? I couldn't even see him move, is this some new technique I wasn't aware of?'_

"Alright Piccolo just hang in there for a little while, as soon as I get you back to the Lookout I'll head down to Korin and ask him for a Senzu Bean." he placed two fingers on his forehead.

"What a fool, does he really believe I'm going to let him get away that easily?" Cell promptly charged at Goku at full speed, only for him to disappear in a flash ' _He's done it again, it has to be some new technique I wasn't aware of! But when did he learn to do that, and how? You know what that can wait, right now I need to focus on finding 18. Knowing her she's probably still flying around with that piece of junk 16, if that is the case then they couldn't have gotten too far from here.'_ so on that note, he promptly soared off the island in search of Android 18.

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Meanwhile, with the other Super Saiyan…

Raditz continued soaring through the skies at full speed, until he finally came across a hovercraft flying towards "Well it's about time Bulma!"

Sure enough, Bulma was flying towards him but screeched to a halt right before she ended up hitting him "For crying out loud don't just jump out at me like that, what the hell would've happened if I ended up running into you?"

"My guess is a meme would've come out of it, either that or a series of Vines on YouTube or some other crap."

"...Yeah that's probably true."

"It is without a doubt. Anyway we don't have time for meme talk, I need that controller you made to shut down the Androids right now!"

"Yeah I've been expecting you, Krillin called me a little while ago so here it is." she handed him the remote, a small remote with a single red button.

"Earth technology is something I'm probably never understand, this little thing will be enough to take them out."

"You just have to push the button but you should know that the signal is pretty weak, so you'll have to be within 30 feet for it to work on them."

"Just 30 feet, that's cutting it a little bit close for my liking."

"Hey that's how it is, if you don't like it just make your own controller!"

"No no it's fine, thanks. I just have to play my cards right then."

"Yeah, and before I forget do you remember when you asked me to make those new battle suits awhile back? Here I left them with Yamcha back in Capsule Corp and I made few extras too, one for everyone just to be on the safe side Would you mind running over and grabbing them so you can take them with you, believe me when I say they're pretty awesome."

"I know, I've worn them since I was two. For the record Kakarot and the others will probably need them more than I do, they're all training at the Lookout so go ahead and fly them up there yourself while I go search for the Androids."

"The Lookout, as in Kami's place right?"

"Not anymore."

"Oh yeah, that's pretty sad but we've been so caught up in all of the chaos."

"Welcome to my world."

"Well anyway I'll have Yamcha head over there now, you focus on shutting down the Androids, and don't forget what I said about the range, 30 feet."

"Yeah I know, thanks."

"Well okay then, I guess I'll be seeing you later!" and on that note, Bulma blasted off at full speed.

Raditz looked down at the shutdown remote in his hand "It's weird, but… this little thing feels a lot heavier than I expected. Huh…"

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Soon enough, Kai found himself back where he had started "Hey Korin it's me, are you still up there?"

Korin poked his head out in the sky "Hey Kai is that you?"

"Yeah it's me alright, mission accomplished."

' _So the kid didn't die after all, he really is impressive.'_

"So you mind letting me back up? My nipples are rigid right now."

"Alright, just hold on a second." Korin whisked him back up and out through the jug, where he landed safely on the ground "Welcome back, I take it your mission was a success?"

"You tell me." Kai flared his aura slightly "I do feel different though, somehow my whole body feels different. I feel this huge reservoir of power bubbling up inside of me, I feel really at peace too even more than I had ever thought possible."

' _Yamcha and Scarlet both said that he would survive no problem but I never considered just what it would mean, could this boy truly be the one?_ Well done Kai, I'm impressed. I'd like to give you a little something to reward you for all the trouble you went through but it looks like we don't have time for that, Gohan and the others are on their way up to the Lookout. You might wanna hurry up and meet them up there."

"Duly noted." so Kai set down the Ultra Divine Water and blasted up towards the Lookout at full speed.

' _I've gotta admit I'm actually pretty amazed, Scarlet mentioned the kid had potential but to get the Ultra Divine Water all by himself at his age was something even not Goku could pull off. Is it possible that he'll surpass even Goku? Well I guess only time will tell.'_

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Meanwhile, up at the Lookout…

Gohan looked up at Piccolo and breathed a sigh of relief "I have to admit Piccolo, you really had me worried for awhile there. I mean you were putting up such a great fight, but then Cell showed up and I was really worried you weren't going to make it."

"I did what I could." Piccolo let out a sigh "But in the end it wasn't enough, Tien and Tarble were the ones who did the heavy lifting."

"You guys all did your part, and in the end that was enough to hold Cell off long enough so that at least Android 18 was able to escape."

"Their sacrifices weren't in vain, but even so it was only a temporary victory at best. As powerful as Cell has become, right now I doubt we have anyone who could actually beat him in a head on battle. Even your father wouldn't stand a chance, he's just too much for all of us right now."

"Maybe, but after we train inside the time chamber-"

"It wouldn't make a difference before the awesomeness I'm radiating."

Gohan whipped around and his face lit up at the sight "Kai!"

Sure enough, Kai dropped down onto the floors of the Lookout, his body radiating pure white energy around him, and he shot them a confident smirk "So what do you think, do you like what you see?"

"Your power level is amazing, it's like you're a totally different person!"

"I might as well be, while I was travelling through the depths of that icy maze, I had to look within myself and confront my own greatest fears, and only then was I able to pass the test and awaken a new level of power." he flared his own aura slightly "You like that Green Man, already over 1/10 of your full power and I'm not even using the Namek-Ken. Which raises the question, how high can I push that now?"

"Everyone!" that was when Mr Popo rushed out towards them "Everyone you must come quickly, I believe that Nail and the boy from the future are about to exit the Hyperbolic Time Chamber!"

"And just like that your future self and Nail just stole my thunder."

"Let's just go." Piccolo told him dryly.

"Whatever green man."

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Cell was searching through one island after another for 18 and 16, his mind racing alongside his frustration ' _So I'm a hair's breadth from Perfection, and the Triclops and Junior just show up out of nowhere and decides, "We're just gonna turn triangles into fucking squares and then blast the ever loving hell out of Cell!" Then Goku shows up, apparently he can teleport, I'll have to look into that later! But at the very top of this long list of stupid questions is:_ WHERE! ARE YOU! ANDROID 18?!"

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As it turns out, 18 and 16 had chosen to hide on one of the various islands "Looks like we got pretty lucky, with all of these islands it will be tough for him to find us."

"Technically it is an archipelago." 16 noted "Noun. A group of islands."

"Thank you 16."

"You are welcome."

"Well we could sneak away if we could get underwater, hey 16 are you waterproof?"

"I was. Not anymore."

"Shit. Well in that case, all we can do is wait and hope he moves on."

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Cell had now resorted to trying to convince 18 to come out willingly "Do you understand what we could be together?! We could be perfect!"

That was when some dude called up to him from one of the islands "Dude! I know you're having your issues with your girl- trust me, I get it- but you're making a scene man!"

"Can I help you, uh…?"

"My name's Tom!"

"Oh well hi Tom, I'll try to make less of a scene while I liquify your insides and proceed to drink you!"

"Hey, no need to be hostile man!"

"Do you people mind?" some other woman got into the conversation "My child is trying to nap!"

"I'm just trying to help this guy out with his lady problems!"

"I don't need your help Tom, but thank you-" Cell was cut off by the sound of a baby crying.

"Well now you've done it!" the woman rounded on Cell.

"Okay ma'am, first of all…" yeah, this is going to take awhile.

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Gohan and the others rushed towards the Hyperbolic Time chamber in anticipation ' _I just hope they got strong enough to make a differernce.'_

The door creaked opened, and out stepped Future Gohan, his hair considerably longer than before, and his clothing was ripped and scorched in numerous areas "Hey everyone, we're sorry we kept you waiting for so long."

"So how did it go in there son?" asked Goku "We all thought you would be out a lot sooner than this."

"Sorry about that, but I had to make sure that I maximized my training time as much as I could. I was able to surpass the barrier of the initial Super Saiyan form, that happened about three months after I went in, but I had to consider the possibility of Cell absorbing either one or both of the Androids while I was in there with Nail, so for the rest of the time I've focused on improving the efficiency of this new form and making sure I could regulate the Ki output properly."

"So what you're saying is then, it went well."

"I could explain all of it, but it will make more sense when you actually see it in action. But just to be safe, even if we did get considerably stronger in there, it's a chance I'm not willing to take with this kind of threat."

"That's definitely for the best." Piccolo told him "Things have changed since you two were inside there, and they've definitely changed for the worst, so if you were underestimate these opponents it would be a mistake you wouldn't live to regret. Myself and the Androids fought against Cell with everything we had but it did next to nothing, he managed to absorb one of the Androids and his power is off the charts compared to before. The only reason the other Android managed to get away is because Tien and Tarble sacrificed themselves."

"Is it really that bad?"

Goku nodded grimly "Yeah it's that bad, I just had a chance to take a look at Cell myslef upclose and personal, and he's not like any monster any of us have ever faced.'

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Not like it will do you much good." Kai shot him a smirk "I know damn well what's been going on and I'm more than prepared for it."

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Meanwhile, with our happy family of three…

Yamcha was flying alongside Bulma (who was flying in a capsule plane with Bulla) in the direction of the Lookout "Yeah see there's Korin Tower right there, now all we have to do is go all the way up! But be sure you take care when you get up there, the air is definitely a lot more thin!"

"Got it, I know what I'm doing babe!" Bulma soared up alongside the tower, leaving Korin to be considerably startled and earning a large string of yelling from him as a result "Well what do you know, it sounds like Korin is happy to see us, but who could blame him?"

"Happy to see you at least, I never got on his bad side." it didn't take them long before they reached the top of the Lookout "Wow, so this is the Lookout huh? Nice place, but to think it just kind of floats there."

"This never would've happened before Raditz showed up, it's kind of hard to believe how much has changed in all these years." they touched down on the ground of the Lookout as Yamcha then proceeded to help Bulma and Bulla out the plane.

"Hey guys is there anyone still here, in case you hadn't noticed you have a few visitors!"

"Give them a minute, like I told you they're in the middle of training."

"Not any cause to be a dick."

"Not like that ever stopped me." that was when Kai came out first, with Goku and the others soon following "So what the hell are you guys doing up here?"

"I heard from Raditz where you guys ended up, so I figured we'd pay you guys a little visit and see how it's going."

"Oh joy, note the sarcasm."

"Yeah, we pretty much noted it." Yamcha looked down at Kai and studied him for a moment "So your little plan to surpass Goku actually worked?"

"You tell me Sherlock, you liking what you see?"

"Yeah, if only your mom could see you know." Yamcha knelt down and ruffled Kai's hair as he gave him a small smile "She'd be so proud of you."

"Don't go there man, not now."

"Right, right, sorry." then Yamcha set his sights on Future Gohan and Nail "What the hell happened to you guys, you look like you just walked off the set of Terminator. And what's with the hair, I don't remember it being that long, and you seem taller too."

"I can assure you Yamcha, it's all natural." Future Gohan gave a sheepish smile "I don't know if you were here for this, but there's this special room in the Lookout that has the ability to compress time. To put it simply when you're in there you can do a year's worth of training in a single day, so I was in there with Nail until a little while ago."

"Well that explains why you look so ragged up and shaggy." Bulma noted "But how come Nail looks exactly the same?"

"Keep in mind that the Namekian people have a much longer lifespand than Humans or even Saiyans have." Nail pointed out "Although I'm not sure if you noticed, the reason this young man's appearance has changed so much is that he's only half Saiyan, Saiyans do maintain the same style of hair from the day they are born, but that only happens with full blooded Saiyans, not halfbreeds."

"Huh, I never noticed. Come to think of it, aside from his hair looking like a mix between permanent bedhead and a palmtree it never really changed since the day I met Goku."

"As entertaining as it is to talk about Goku's hair, I doubt anyone would disagree with me pointing out that we've got bigger shit to deal with." Kai pointed out flatly "Seriously get on with it, I've got a bug monster to slaughter."

"Yeah yeah I know, awhile back Raditz asked me to make him a new battle suit, so I got it done and it turned out so well that I figured I would just go ahead and make one for everyone." she pulled out a capsule and opened it, revealing numerous battle suits inside "Well go ahead, give them a try."

Gohan was the first one try it on, with Goku soon following "You know it's kind of funny, I never thought I would be putting on one of these things but they just fit so well, and they're lighter too."

"Yeah I'm pretty proud of that myself, it wasn't easy to get the material just right."

"Thanks a ton for these Bulma, they're perfect."

"Well what can I say, I do what I can." Bulma glanced over at Kai and the others "So what about you guys, aren't you going to try them on?"

Piccolo let out a low growl "If that armor is based on the same technology as that of the Saiyans and of Frieza's organization, then I want nothing to do with it. I wouldn't be caught dead in the same outfit as them."

"Suit yourself, any more rejections?"

"You know damn well why." Kai pointed at the crimson gi he was wearing.

"I do. Gohan, what about you?"

Future Gohan slowly shook his head "I think I'd rather stick with my Father's colors if it's all the same to you."

"Suit yourself."

"Hey come on you guys, don't be so picky." Goku finished putting on his armor "If it's going to help us beat Cell then I'll take it."

"Something about that does suit you." Kai tightened the belt on the waist of his gi "Something about that armor does suit you, it's a damn shame you're not going to get a chance to use it. Let me make this clear, Cell and the Androids are mine."

"Hey think of it this way Kai, if you actually can handle them all by yourself then I say you go for it. This is one fight I'm definitely hoping you win."

"You said it not me, but in the meantime I say I go down there and get a look at the new and improved Bugman Alpha."

"Just say the word and I'll take you to him with Instant Transmission."

"As if, where the hell would the fun be in that? I'd rather go the old fashioned way and break in the new power." and with his Namek-Ken activated, Kai promptly blasted off the Lookout and into the open sky.

"Looks like he got his confidence back."

"We should probably get moving too." Future Gohan and Nail stepped forward.

"Yeah that's probably for the best, but before you do just wait a second." Goku handed them a few Senzu Beans he had been keeping in his gi pocket "You'd better take a couple of Senzu Beans with you too just to be safe."

"Good idea, thank you Father."

"Good luck guys, but if things get too out of control then promise me you'll get out of there as fast as you can."

"Believe me Father, I have no intention of dying until every last one of Dr Gero's evil creations is sent to hell where they belong, and I wish the best of luck to you and my younger self with your training."

"I'll be holding you to that from here on out."

"Duly noted." and so Future Gohan blasted off as well.

"Nail, I hate to ask but please, just keep them safe."

"You have my word, even if I die, I will ensure they return alive and well." and Nail promptly blasted of after Kai and Future Gohan.

"And that just leaves us Gohan, are you ready to do some hardcore father and son training with your old man?"

Gohan nodded eagerly "Yeah you bet dad, let's do this."

"Right! We've gotta hurry though, who knows what kind of atrocities Cell is committing even as we speak."

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Meanwhile, back with Cell and his so called atrocities…

"My husband and I go to couples counseling every Tuesday, and it's really helped us!"

Cell let out a groan "Yes and I'm happy to hear that Sally, but my situation isn't exactly-"

"Look bro, if you've love something then you have to set it free!" Tom told him.

"Okay listen, that's not exactly-"

"You can't be so clingy, it's kind of creepy!" the third guy, Harry told him.

"But it's-"

"Do you think it's inadequacies in the bedroom?" asked Sally.

"And we're done. 18! You have until the count of five, show yourself now or I'm wiping out these islands one by one until I find you!"

"Don't you think that's a little extreme?!" asked Harry.

"You're not involved in this anymore Harry!"

"I think I'm pretty inolved!"

"FIVE!"

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18 was growing nervous at the sound of Cell counting "This is bad, this is really bad!"

"Do not fret." 16 assured her "You are too valuable. He would not risk destroying you."

"And you're absolutely sure about that?"

"Trust me."

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"One." with a malicious grin, Cell fired a quick Masenko down at the island where he had been receiving his therapy from the natives.

"Can we please go back to talking about this?!" Tom received his answer in the form of the island exploding and killing everyone present.

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18 shot a pissed off look over at 16 "You were saying exactly?"

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 **Even with Kai, Nail, and the Son Gohan from the future through with their training and ready for action, Cell has already made it perfectly clear that his ruthlessness knows no bounds! Do our heroes even have of chance of preventing the monster from finally absorbing Android 18 and achieing his Perfect Form? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And while Goku and the others aim for even greater heights, Cell takes the opportunity to get one step closer to reaching his Perfect Form. The situation is even more grim this time around, seeing how the Z fighters. But at the same time, we got to see Piccolo's best and final real fight in Z, which was glorious.**

 **One thing that I noticed during the Cell saga was that Goku was the only one of the Z fighters who actually died, so I decided to change that by having Tien and Tarble get killed off by Cell while trying to stall for time for 16 and 18 to get away. Plus keep in mind that both of them have never been wished back by the Dragon Balls before, so they actually can afford to die once.**

 **Power levels:**

Weighted Piccolo: 360 million

Unweighted Piccolo: 468 million

Piccolo (Hellzone Grenade): 475 million

Piccolo (Light Grenade): 500 million

Tarble: 6.2 million

Super Saiyan Tarble: 248 million

Super Saiyan Tarble (Life force Galick Gun): 620 million

Upa: 3 million

Upa (Kaioken 10x): 30 million

Tien: 4.8 million

Tien (Multi-Forms): 1.2 million each

Tien (Multi-Form, Kaioken 20x): 24 million each

Tien (Multi Form, Kaioken 20x, Shin Kikoho): 720 million

Tien (Spirit Kikoho): 960 million

Android 17: 450 million

Android 18: 440 million

Android 16: 510 million

Imperfect Cell: 535 million

Semi Perfect Cell: 750 million


	25. Surpass Super Saiyan, Path to Perfection

**xSonallyGirl129x:** Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. I plan on exploring Kai's character on a deeper level throughout this arc, as I did back in chapter 15. Yamcha and Bulma with their daughter, yeah it's those kinds of scenes that warm the heart, which is especially appropriate considering the time of year. Bulla looks the same as in canon, since Yamcha has the same color of hair and eyes as Vegeta. As for Kami still existing in Piccolo's head as a disembodied voice, that was one of the narrative decisions TFS kept in that I personally found to be absolutely genius. As for my decision to have both Tien and Tarble die, it definitely upped the suspense for the arc, which was my intention all along. Android 16 fighting Cell the way he did was pretty straight forward like how he did in the manga, I didn't really change anything there except add a few lines from the TFS version. As for Raditz and 18's relationship, I'll be exploring that a little bit during this chapter. Overall, I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter and I hope I continue to satisfy you in the future.

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The time to begin their training had come at last, and Goku and Gohan were soon being led towards the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

"Goku hold up!" the rest of those present (Yamcha, Piccolo and Bulma) rushed towards them before they could go in "We just wanted to say good luck with training in there. I hate having to leave everything up to you, but I doubt any of us would be of much use in there with you. Just make sure you're at least 10 times stronger when you get out!"

"Sure thing, Cell is going down on way or anothere." Goku caught Yamcha in a fist bump and gave the classic Son grin.

Mr Popo was quick to address them "Goku, Gohan, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber can be a very harsh place. I hope you are both ready."

"We have to be, if we don't then the whole world is doomed. So you know, a typical Thursday for us."

"Of course. I wish you both the best of luck in there." Mr Popo promptly opened the door to the chamber and let them inside, then shut the door behind them.

Bulma glanced over at Yamcha and Piccolo "So what do you guys think, can they do it?"

"They have to babe, for all of our sakes." Yamcha told her, then grinned "But what the heck are we worrying about? This is Goku, he's always found a way."

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Meanwhile, inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber…

Gohan looked around at their surroundings inside the chamber in slight awe "Wow, it looks amazing in here. It's so bright in here, and my body feels a lot heavier in here, and it's kind of hard to breathe."

Goku nodded "Yeah and not only that, but now that the door is closed we're completely cut off from contact with the outside world. Go ahead and try sensing Cell's Ki, or Kai's or anyone else's for that matter and I think you'll see what I mean."

"Okay." he tried, but nothing happened "Wow you're right, I can't feel anything!"

"Now the bathroom is through that door on the left, and most importantly our food supply is on the right. From the looks of it that should be enough to get us by for an entire year."

"Yeah it looks like that will be more than enough, even taking into consideration how much you eat."

"So that's it, we have everything we could possibly need."

"I don't know what I was worried about, this place doesn't seem so bad."

"Yeah well go take a look out back, that's the area where we're supposed to train and you'll see why I was barely able to make it in here for a month when I was a kid."

Gohan cautiously made his way into the back area, and his jaw nearly dropped at the sight of the endless white void within the chamber "No way, this is crazy! I don't see how this could be inside one room, it's bigger than the entire Lookout! It's just a huge empty space!"

"And it keeps going on like that in every direction, there's no end to it. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. You'd better be careful though, you don't want to go too far and end up losing your barings out there or you might end up getting yourself killed before you find your way back."

"Yeah, good to know."

"The temperature swings in here can be pretty crazy, from over 100 degrees down to below 0 in an instant, the air is about twice as thin as it is outside, and the gravity is 10 times stronger in here. It's an extreme place for extreme training, but you have to make sure that you're prepared for that."

"And… so we have to stay in here for an entire year on our own huh?" Gohan felt a firm yet comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Come on son, I think we should get to work on training right away. Keep in mind that this is why we're here."

"Right." so they made their way out into the white training area, where Gohan really started to feel the effects of the increased gravity.

"Yeah it's just like I told you, it can be pretty intense at first. Gravity training can take some getting used to if you've never done it before, but your body should adjust before too long if you just keep at it."

"Right." Gohan slowly pulled himself to his feet and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"So since you're already a Super Saiyan, we don't have to worry about that and we can just get to the actual training."

"Yeah, you already know how I became a Super Saiyan when Lord Slug attacked while you were still in Space. It was kind of in the spur of the moment."

"That was pretty much what happened to me when I transformed back on Namek, I did it and you're my son so it makes a lot of sense."

"I guess, but I'm not so sure if I'd really be a lot of help to you dad. Are you sure I'm not going to hold you back by being here? I mean I don't exactly have that warrior's edge like you have, or like Kai or any of the others."

"Hey come on, don't be like that." Goku knelt down and put his hands on Gohan's shoulder "Just listen to me Gohan, you being in here with me is really going to speed things up. I can already imagine how hard you're going to be able to push me as my sparring partner, it's like how you and Kai do for each other. Trust me, you've got what it takes. You just have to believe in yourself a little."

"I… okay Dad, I'm with you."

"Great. So we have a year to train in here, and I'm going to find a way to go beyond Super Saiyan, so that I can make myself stronger than Cell or Kai or any of them. As for you, by the time we get out of here, you're going to be even stronger than me."

"Wait what? You've gotta be kidding me, that's crazy, there's no way!"

"I say it's anything but crazy, that's my dream for you Gohan, and I'm going to make sure that it comes true one day."

"I don't know, I just don't think I really have that in me. I mean you and Kai are the ones who have that passion for fighting, and just look at my future self. He became a Super Saiyan just like me, but he tried taking out the Androids and he just ended up losing a leg."

"What does that have to do with it? Our timeline is already way different from the timeline that your future self came from. I mean just look at me, I managed to beat that Heart Virus before didn't I? I say that's more than enough reason, if I can change my future then so can you. You already are by coming with me to this place."

"...Yeah you've got a point dad."

"Now you just have to put in the work."

"Okay, now let's get started."

"Good, but I should warn you now that I'm going to be a lot tougher on you than Piccolo was, so be ready."

"I train with Kai on almost a daily basis, I think I can handle it."

"Looks like someone's got his confidence back."

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Meanwhile, in the outside world…

Cell looked down at the remains of the island where he had been undergoing couples counseling against his will ' _If 18 had been on that island then I'm sure that she would've surfaced by now, well perhaps she'll be on the next one._ Don't bother Android 18, there is no use in hiding from me! The next island I destroy may be yours, you can either come out now or you can take your chances!" he fired a Ki blast at another island, incinerating it on the spot, followed by one after another.

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Kai was blasting through the skies at full speed, his Namek-Ken aura blazing at the same level as his newfound confidence ' _If those blasts in the distance are any indication of the level of power that Cell is packing, then I'd say that I already have this one in the bag.'_

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18 was growing restless as she watched Cell downsize the number of islands "I'm pretty sure that was the last island, he's almost right on top of us!"

"Please 18, you must stay calm." 16 assured her "Cell will be on the Lookout for anyone attempting to flee from the island, we must stay here and endure his attacks. Brace yourself and you will surive!"

"But-"

"You must stay down, he has not seen us yet! If you go out there now then it will mean the end of everything!

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Cell looked down at the sole suriving island of his rampage ' _That's the last island, which means that she's either there or I've killed her. Well, I suppose there's only one way to find out now. This is it 18, either you're mine or you're dead.'_ he prepared to fire another Ki blast with a menacing grin, only to stop as he sensed something and whipped around "What the-?"

Sure enough, that was when Kai burst onto the scene, his Namek-Ken aura clamly surging around his body "Oh I gotcha, warming yourself up by destroying some islands huh? Yeah I guess I can dig that, although I'd probably get off more by blowing Pluto to hell. I mean it's not like anyone would miss it, it's not even a planet."

"Oh for- People all day today, hello Kai."

"You have no fucking clue, and hello ugly."

"...And now we're doing this." the two of them lowered themselves to the ground "So can I help you with something, because if you're looking for another broken arm I should warn you that I've already absorbed Android 17."

"No, I just heard how ugly you are now and I had to come and get a look for myself upclose and personal."

"Cute. So what's the actual deal with this exactly Kai, are you going to start spouting some nonsense about how you're here to defeat me?"

"I don't know about that, try replacing "defeat" with "send to hell" and then we might actually get somewhere."

"That's rich, do you actually believe that you can? Why don't you come and try it."

"You know for an Android that has my blood running through its veins you're proving to be one hell of a disappointment, I was expecting you to be much more impressive considering you're halfway to your Perfect Form and all."

"Oh really, more impressive than the most powerful being in the Universe? You should consider it an honor to be a part of me."

"Why the hell would I do that? You're basically just a cheap knockoff like something some sucker got off Ebay, you've got nothing on the original."

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18 had to restrain herself from letting her jaw drop "Is this kid out of his mind, what the hell is he thinking? He was barely able to put up a decent fight against 17 before, what could he possibly hope to do against a monster like Cell?"

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"You shouldn't have flown off without us Kai." that was when Future Gohan and Nail dropped down onto the scene, earning a middle finger from Kai as a result.

"So you both came as well." Cell eyed both of them intently "One of you looks almost exactly the same, no surprise there, although it would seem that you yourself have changed a great deal haven't you Son Gohan? But it won't matter if there are three of you or hundreds, feel free to bring as many fools as you like, I'll slaughter them all."

"Don't get the wrong idea." Kai shot him a smirk "I owe these two for helping me get as strong as I have but right now they're only spectators, if they do get involved then I plan on blowing holes through their guts so gorey you'd only see it in Beserker or Attack on Titan. If we're doing this then it's going to be 1 on 1."

"Riveting. Listen kid, I'm in the middle of something more important than whatever the hell this is supposed to be. So if you wanted to just run along and bring back someone more substantial, say… I dunno, Son Goku… that would be great. But then again, if you're so eager to die then I say go for it."

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"Dammit, Cell is right on every account." 18 gritted her teeth "Kai is either way too confident or he's just delusional, he won't last 5 seconds against Cell. Listen 16, if we're going to make a break for it then I think we should do it now while they're both still distracted by their petty conversation."

16 shook his head "Wait a moment 18, we will be able to make our escape once their battle begins. Kai has changed, as have the other two. All of their power levels have increased a significant extent since the last encounter with them, none of them are the same fighters as they were before."

"You can't be serious, there's no way any of them could get that much stronger in only a few days, and I'm sure they weren't holding back the last time we fought them."

"They were not."

"So what the hell?"

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Kai dropped into a stance "I hope you're ready Cell, I'm about to wipe that disgusting smirk like you'd see on a Porn star right off your face."

Cell simply rolled his eyes "Well if you say so, feel free to try."

"You asked for it." Kai's Namek-Ken aura began flaring higher by the second.

Future Gohan and Nail both took the opportunity to retreat back a short sitance ' _Looks like Kai is going full force right from the start, either he wants to show off or he wants to test how far he can push himself. From what Father told me, not only does the Ultra Divine Water unlock the potential of whoever drinks it like the Grand Elder did, but apparenlty it increases the durability and endurance capabilities of the body, so a technique like the Kaioken wouldn't effect them anywhere near as much, so they could probably push it up to at least 40, maybe 50, rather than only 20.'_

"I hope you're ready Cell, so far I haven't been able to push my Namek-Ken past 20, but now let's see what happens when I push it to the next level… **Namek-Ken… times… THIRTY!"** so with a might roar, Kai's green aura exploded exponentially higher and more potently than before, becoming a darker shade of green.

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Yamcha and Piccolo both sensed Kai's power level surging higher with the Namek-Ken "That Ki signature, it's coming from Kai, there's no doubt about it."

"It's as unbelievable as it is infuriating." Piccolo promptly rematerialized his weighted turban and cape "Alright Kai this is it, time to see if you going out of your way to drink the Ultra Divine Water was really worth it."

"It's still rising, it's like there's no end to it…" try as he might, Yamcha couldn't hide the smile coming across his face ' _If only you could see him now Scarlet, I can only imagine just how proud you would be.'_

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18 looked on in awe as Kai's aura surged and began leaving marks all across the island "What the hell is this, there's no way that kid would be able to gain this kind of power! It shouldn't be possible!"

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Even Cell was taken aback by the sudden burst of power ' _You can't be serious…'_

When the smoke cleared, Kai was standing where he was before, only now his aura was a deeper shade of green, he had bulked up slightly, and his body was crackling with green colored bio electricity ' _To think this is only level thirty, looks like the Ultra Divine Water did a hell of a lot more than just increase my power.'_ he relaxed himself, causing him to de-bulk slightly, then burst forward and buried his fist in Cell's gut "So do I live up to the hype or what? What's the matter, do I have to say go before I start like a game of fucking Mario Kart?" he yanked out his fist, causing Cell to stumble back in pain, then dealt Cell a brutal uppercut fist to the jaw, an elbow in the gut, a knee to the back of the head, grabbed Cell by the foot and hurled him downwards, sending him crashing to the ground with a bang, shattering the ground beneath him as a result of the impact.

Future Gohan and Nail were forced to take to the air as a result of the cliff they were standing on being shattered by the impact ' _Looks like Kai's newfound speed and power are incredible, it's all that Cell can do to keep track of his movements, let alone counter them.'_

Kai lowered himself to the ground and his smirk widened "Oh yeah, I'm enjoying this way more than I thought I would.

Cell on the other hand, he was complaining about the turn of events through the use of rather… unconventional means "Okay it's official, this is an unfortunate turn of events."

"...Did you seriously just talk out your ass? Okay that's genuinely disturbing."

"Well to be fair Kai, you are part of my DNA."

"Hot damn, that's the closest thing you've done to damage since I've gotten here."

"Give me a minute, I'll be sure to fix that." Cell pulled himself to his feet and wiped the blood from his lip.

"So does that mean you're going to start fighting for real, or are you going to be an even bigger disappointment than the finale of the Voltron: Legendary Defender?"

"I suppose I'll have to start taking you seriously after all?" with a quick surge of enegy, Cell then charged forward at full speed.

Kai cranked his neck to the side to dodge each desperate punch being thrown at him ' _Looks like he's really trying now, but he still isn't pushing me to take this seriously. Okay, this is even more awesome than I imagined._

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Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away…

Raditz was flying through the skies at full speed, but screeded to a halt in mid air when he sensed the levels of Ki being put out by the battle ' _You've gotta be kidding me, is that Kai's energy I'm sensing? Somehow the power he's putting out is even more massive than Cell's. Plus I think I can sense Nail and the kid from the future too, if I had to guess I'd say Kai's plan works and the others must have been the first to come out of that room where you can do a year's worth of training in a day that Kakarot was talking about before. Just in time by the looks of it, let's just hope none of them screw it up. I can't waste any time either, I have to keep going and find the Androids before Cell can get to them.'_

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

It had only taken Kai one blow to send Cell flying across the island and crashing into a nearby plateau "Oh come on, this is starting to get boring."

"THAT'S IT, NOW YOU DIE!" Cell burst up from beneath the rubble in a rage "I think I've humored you long enough."

"So you say." Kai blitzed towards Cell at full speed, sending him flying away, then cranked his neck to the side to dodge Cell's tail, used it to pull Cell towards him, and then dealt him a brutal barrage of attacks that caused him to cry out in pain.

Cell lowered his guard as a malicious smirk formed across his face "It's official, by the time I'm through with you, you're going to be begging for me to send you to the deoths of hell." with a roar he breathed out a large Ki blast.

Kai blocked the Ki blast and avoided sustaining any damage, only to instantly be met with a fist to the face from Cell and another Ki blast, engulfing him in an explosion.

Cell barked out a maniacal laughter, only to smirk at the sight of Future Gohan and Nail both scowling at him "Don't worry, you two will join him soon enough."

"Wrong!" that was when Kai blitzed forward and slugged Cell clear in the gut, sending him crashing to the ground with a loud thud "Was that it? For crying out loud I even went out of my way to give you a freeshot, it's not my fault you went and wasted it."

"You little wretch…" Cell pulled himself to his feet and spat out some blood "You've mocked me for the last time boy, from now on I have no intention of holding back against you."

"Oh so you've been holding back, is that the problem? Go ahead and do your worst then, I doubt it's going to make much of a difference."

"You'll regret talking so big after I'm done with you." so with a mighty roar, Cell powered up to his maximum, bathing the entire island in a green light.

' _So he does have more power than he was letting on, too bad for him it's still not enough for him to beat me. Cell doesn't have a chance in hell of winning this fight.'_

"There we are, now do you understand boy?"

"What I understand is that I'm about to pound you so hard chances are every Waifu in anime history is going to be jealous. But if it makes you feel better I'm willing to give you one free shot, but I'm warning you now, if you waste it-" he was cut off by a fist to the face full force, but he simply let out a chuckle and wiped the blood from his lip "You're going to regret it."

"You… YOU!" Cell stumbled back in a mix of fear and denial "How? How?! How the hell did you get this strong?"

"Nothing too special, I just went through a maze and drank some water yesterday."

"Oh, you think you're being cute?!"

"Bitch, I'm adorable."

"This isn't possible, you can't be this strong, you're just Kai!"

"I'll have you know I'm a hell of a lot more than the kid I used to be, now you can refer to me as the Crimson Dragon." he dropped into a combat stance.

"Dammit you little… the Crimson Dragon, that sounds ridiculous! What the hell is that even supposed to mean?"

"If you have my DNA as part of you then it's something I shouldn't have to spell it out for you, I guess your power and your brains are about on the same level."

"You think giving yourself some absurd name changes who you are? In the future I came from you sacrificed yourself in a suicide attack that killed one of the Androids in the process, but now I've absorbed one of the Androids of this timeline and added their power onto my own, so even a child could deduce which one of us is stronger!"

"Well if it weren't for Back to the Future being a bunch of bullshit, I would say that future is about to be rewritten. You would be smart to forget about whatever it is you think you know and start focusing on the here and now, not that you're going to be here for much longer."

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Meanwhile, above the island…

Raditz let out a low whistle as he observed the battle from above ' _There they are, Kai and Cell going at it, but from the looks of it Kai is dominating the battle. Cell on the other hand looks a lot different than he did the last time I saw him, but what does that mean? Did he reach his Perfect Form, did he already absorb the Androids?'_ he quickly cleared his mind of the visions he was having of 18 ' _Dammit, after all of the trouble Bulma went through to make this thing it all turned out to be for nothing!'_

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Kai's smirk grew ever wider as he watched Cell getting more and more frustrated "Face it, you don't have a chance in hell of beating me. Your efforts are pathetic, whereas I'm adorable bitch, as previously stated."

"Oh yeah, well how about this?!" Cell leapt back a short distance and cupped his hands at his side, purple Ki flaring in between his palms " **Galick Gun…"**

"And that's just precious."

" **FIRE!"** Cell fired the Galick Gun at Kai at full speed, blinding everyone with the explosion that followed. When everything settled down, Cell dug himself out from beneath the rubble and smirked with triumph ' _Look at me, I'm Kai, I'm an arrogant little bastard who talks way too much for my own good, but look at me now, I'm fucking dead!'_

"So that's the famous Galick Gun that Vegeta used against Goku when they went at it a few years ago." the smoke cleared to reveal Kai alive and well, much to Cell's horror and rage "I don't see what the hype was about though, so is there any other imitations you want to show me, or can we just get your shit together and get down to business."

"You're still mocking me?! I WILL END YOU!" Cell's aura flared higher than ever before, and he pounced forward in a rage.

"You'll die trying." Kai blitzed through Cell's attack with ease, then dealt Cell a kick to the back of the neck, a knee to the spine and a full force knee to the gut, sending him crashing to the ground in a heap ' _I wonder if I can hit him hard enough to make him play a song.'_

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Raditz watched the battle escalate from afar and cringed slightly ' _The kid's new power is unlike anything I've ever seen before, I don't know what the hell he did to make himself so much stronger, but it's definitely working.'_ he looked over at the others ' _I'm guessing that over there we have Nail and the Gohan from the future, from the looks of it they've both grown a hell of a lot more powerful as well.'_

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Cell pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out some blood, his mind racing ' _I can't believe this, some little brat like him shouldn't even pose the slightest challenge to me! This has to be a trick of some kind, it has to be! There's no way he could've gained this much power! Damn you you little brat, damn you to hell!_ You won't get away with this, do you hear me?! I won't let you get away with this! I AM CELL!" he soared upwards in a rage.

"Nope." Kai promptly fired a quick Masenko at Cell, sending him hurtling down into the seas below, and then he followed with a rapid barrage of Ki blasts, bombarding Cell with the series of explosions that followed. Kai then dropped down on top of a rock in the middle of the water "I know I blasted him into the water somewere. Dammit, he's trying to hide his Ki again so I can't find him. Okay think, if I were a disgusting bug man, where would I-"

"SURPRISE!" Cell burst out of the water behind him and tried to sneak attack him, catching both of his arms and legs "Look at what I caught, a walking talking Napolean complex!" he thrusted his tail forward.

Kai caught it in his armpit, leaving it squirming around desperately "And look at what I caught, whatever the hell it is."

"Oh no, not again!"

"So what do you do with this thing?"

"I drink people!"

"Were you trying to drink me!"

"No… Yes."

"Okay then." Kai kneed him in the gut HARD, causing him to gasp in pain and hunch over in agony "So do you feel that? That's what honestly feels like." so he promptly kicked Cell clear through a mountain, sending him tumbling to a halt "So how's it looking Cell, you up for facing the reality of the situation yet? You're outclassed in every way, just face it."

"This… This is all wrong! You can't be this strong! Nothing about this makes sense!"

"Well if that's wracking your brain then try drinking this in, as much as I hate to admit it, the fact is that Nail and the big Gohan over there have almost as much power tucked away as I do. I hate to say it slightly less because I actually respect Nail and Gohan is my best friend, even if they're slightly behind me the fact is that they both put you to shame. So not only are you not the most powerful being in the universe as you so desperately want to believe, you're not even in the top three. You really do disappoint me, I was hoping for a real challenge so I could test how far I could push myself, and yet instead I get stuck with a fight barely even worth a warmup."

"DAMMIT!" Cell let out a roar of rage and fury and unleashed a shockwave that shattered the ground beaneath him "I WANT TO BE PERFECT! I WANNA! I WANNA I WANNA I WANNA!"

"Nope." Kai blitzed behind Cell and dealt him a blow to the back of the head, sending him crashing into the dirt "Well that sounds like enough to me, considering I've successfully broken both your body and your spirit. Time to die."

Cell picked himself up as his aura flared with his unyielding fury "If only you and those other fools had shown up just a minute later, then I would've had Android 18, and I would've been able to achieve my Perfect Form, and no one would've been able to stop me!"

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Raditz's head snapped up at what he was hearing ' _So he only absorbed Android 17, but 18 is still around here somewhere? That means we still have a chance to stop him from reaching his Perfect Form, which means I still have a chance to use the shutdown remote Bulma made, but the only question is where the hell do I look? I guess I'll have to start searching throughout the entire island until I find her.'_

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Cell was still venting over his defeat "Why the hell do I have to suffer this humiliation?! If only I had been able to absorb 18 before this idiot showed himself, then I would be more than capable of making all of them suffer!"

"Is that a fact?" Kai lowered himself to the ground in front of Cell "You actually think this Perfect Form would give you the edge that you need?"

"Of course it would, I know that for a fact! In my Perfect Form I would be able to destroy you without so much as a second thought! My power would be unrivalled in this universe or in any other! My strength, speed and intellect would be without equal, all I would need to do is find and absorb 18 and I would become perfect in every way one could imagine, just as Dr Gero and his computer designed me to be!" he was promptly kicked into the side of a mountain..

"Think about it boy, I know you! You seek a challenge just as much as any other Saiyan would, you want to see what my Perfect Form is capable of! Please stop, just listen to me!"

"Oh I'm listening, I just don't care." Kai kicked him into the dirt.

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Meanwhile, in hiding…

18 was still in awe at the display of Kai's newfound power "Okay that is amazing, but I still don't get it. Was that kid only pretending to be weak when he and 17 fought?"

16 shook his head "Negative, there would be no reason for the boy to hold back. Since he fought against 17 mere days ago, the boy has gained a significant increase in his power level."

"But how is that possible, how the hell could anyone have changed that much in a few days?"

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Meanwhile…

' _Come on, where the hell are you?'_ Raditz was still searching across the island, his mind racing until he finally found where 18 and 16 were hiding ' _And I found them, well at least I'm still better at this than Krillin is. From the looks of things nobody has seen me yet, they're too wrapped up in the fight. So all I have to do is push this button to shut down Android 18, and then I have to destroy her, and that will stop Cell from reaching his Perfect Form, save the world and that means we don't even have to fight. But then again there is what Bulma said, I have to be within 30 feet of her for it to work.'_ so with a deep breath, he promptly lowered himself to the ground ' _Here goes nothing.'_

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Cell picked himself up from within the rubble and spat out some blood "Think about it Kai, will you really be satisfied with ending things this way?"

Kai slowly walked forward and held a hand out aimed at Cell's back and fired a simple Ki blast at him, sending him flying across the horizon "I'm never satisfied knowing there's someone out there stronger than me."

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Raditz continued creeping his way across the grounds of the island ' _I didn't see Android 17 with them, I'm guessing that means Cell was able to absorb him. That would explain how Cell was able to power up and transform like that.'_ he poked his head around a corner and found them standing there, too invested in the fight to notice he was there ' _Okay there they are, I have to hurry and get within 30 feet of them without them noticing. If they see me coming then either I die or they run, in either case Cell would notice them and absorb her in an instant, and then we're all doomed. No Raditz you have to pull yourself together, she's standing right over there, like some kind of… mechanical angel.'_

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Kai waltzed over to where Cell was grovelling in the dirt "Cell this is supposed to be the halfway state of your evolution to Perfection, if you couldn't put up a fight against me like this then how much better could your Perfect Form do? You're doing a really bad job selling yourself at the moment, how the hell could I get a challenge out of you?"

"Oh trust me, I can give you far more than that." Cell staggered to his feet "You wouldn't even stand a chance."

"Doing a better job of selling yourself, but not by much. Keep in mind that I'm not stupid and I'm not that reckless, you'll have to amp it up way higher than that to get me on your side."

"Yes that's right boy, I can see it in your eyes. You are interested aren't you, keep in mind that I know how you think. You can't help but be curious as to just what I'll become, it's in your very nature. Human or not, you live for the thrill of battle, the stronger your opponent the more you welcome it, anything that gives you a chance to test yourself and prove that you're that much closer to being the best. It's a fact, we both know that I'm right. You want to see what I'm capable of at full power, your pride and grit won't let you have it any other way. And not just your pride, your desire to be the best, a drive that rivals that of even Son Goku himself! Just admit it, unless you face me in my Perfect Form, you'll never really know if you're the most powerful warrior in the universe now will you?"

"Okay so you have more in me than you lead on before, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about your so-called Perfect Form. Let's see if you can seal that deal and my curiosity."

"I think I know just what to say. If I get my hands on Android 18, you're going to get everything that's coming to you."

"Ominous but not that good of a sales pitch."

"Let me try again. Face it Kai, this is the only chance you're going to get. If she slips away now, you'll never get the opportunity to fight me at my full potential. And let's be honest, do you truly believe that Goku or Gohan would be able to give you the challenge that you deserve?"

"...You know the funny thing is, I know you're trying to play me, but it's only working about halfway. You understand my drive to be the best almost as well as I do, but I'm not going to sacrifice the planet on a whim. I'm not Goku."

"Kind of an unnecessary jab."

"And besides, there's only one thing that I value as much as I do being the best, and that's my friendship with Gohan. The Gohan from the future knows how much hell an Android is capable of raising, and I won't let him go through it in this world too, so let's try something a little bit different."

"What exactly?"

"Three minutes. You have three minutes to find 18, absorb her and reach this so called Perfect Form."

"Kai you can't do this, if you let him go now-" Future Gohan was silenced with a middle finger pointed at him.

"I know damn well what I'm doing, the only way this can get out of hand is if Raditz somehow manages to fuck up pushing a big red button. The only person who actually would be able to fuck that up would be Jerry from Rick and Morty."

"That's not the point, there's too much at stake for you to make such a risky move!"

"It's called a psychological tactic, I'm giving him a slimmer of hope only to rip it away and blast him straight to hell." Kai turned back to Cell "Like I was saying, three minutes, not a fucking second more."

"Yes thank you Kai, and believe me when I say this." Cell's grin widened "Great things are about to happen." and so he flew into the air in search of Android 18 "And just make it fast, I've got a Rick and Morty marathon recorded and I don't plan on missing out on it."

"Oh trust me, there will be plenty of time for that-"

"No!" that was when Nail suddenly blitzed in front of Cell "I believe the time has come for me to be the voice of reason, in which I say absolutely not."

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Raditz continued inching closer to the Androids ' _All I have to do is push the button and… watch her explode. Everwhere. I can see it now… a little bit of blonde hair here… her blue eyes over there… and then it's over and done with. I mean for all I know, she probably won't even feel me doing it, or even know what happened. It's just that her life ended in an instant… by me… and we don't have any Dragon Balls to wish her back when Cell dies. I mean granted there are the Namekian Dragon Balls, but who knows how long it will take to find them. OH GOD DAMMIT COME ON RADITZ, BE STRONG FOR ONE SECOND OF YOUR WORTHLESS LIFE! IF YOU DON'T, EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND LOVE IS GOING TO DIE, INCLUDING HER!'_ then the realization dawned on him, and the remote slipped out of his grasp and fell to the ground with a thud ' _Oh… So that's it…'_

The thud attracted the attention of 18 and 16 towards Raditz ' _Oh yeah, it's the one that claims tp actually get us. Was he hiding there all this time? Wait a second, what's that on the ground-'_ she looked down and froze at the sight of the remote ' _Is that… an emergency shutdown remote like the one Dr Gero had? How the hell did he get his hands on that?!'_

"Uh… hi."

"H-Hey."

"Look, I just… Let me just say something before we do this."

"Uh… okay."

Raditz let out a sigh ' _I can imagine Bulma and the others are never going to let me hear the end of this._ I know what you and your brother are going through better than you realize."

"You… You do?"

"My family, my entire race was enslaved by a monster with power we could never even dream of surpassing. My race was already known for violence and lust for battle, but Frieza got us into the business of slaughtering planets to make a quick buck. I always hated it, but what the hell could I do? Then I heard about my planet's destruction, and I heard about my brother Kakarot, the one you know as Goku, being sent to a remote planet out of Frieza's reach. I didn't realize until years later that he had found what none of us could, a way out. Eventually I saw the opportunity and reached out to him, and he offered me a place with his friends, his family, a life of peace. Of course he had to die in order to kill my former Saiyan comrade, but in for a penny, especially since we had Dragon Balls. After that I went off the grid, until my past eventually caught up with me in the form of Frieza. After Kakarot defeated him and I was transported back here to Earth, I took to the cosmos to try and make amends with those I had hurt."

"That's… a really nice story."

"My point is that I may have hurt people, but I made a choice to break free from that cycle of slaughter. I can help you and your brother as well, all I ask is that you look me in the eye and tell me that you don't wish to hurt anyone else."

"Wait a second, you mean you-" 18 eyed Raditz intently for a moment ' _This guy is really serious about this._ Look, putting the whole Goku thing aside for now, we weren't planning on killing anyone. We haven't even killed anyone thus far, in fact there's only one person we want dead right now, and that's Cell."

"Oh. Thank god, that makes this so much easier." so with a quick stomp, Raditz crushed the remote underneath his boot.

"Oh… Oh wow… I mean, that was really sweet and all, but… Maybe you should've kept that thing around."

"What? Why?" Raditz looked up at Cell and the others "That… had slipped my mind. Let's shelf that for now, you have to get the hell out of here. If Cell manages to get his hands on you then this will all be for nothing."

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Meanwhile, up at the Lookout…

Yamcha gritted his teeth "Dammit Kai, you've gotta be kidding me."

"What's going on down there, what did Kai do?" asked Bulma.

"He got cocky, he gave Cell a three minute window of opportunity to let Cell absorb 18, and it turns out Cell can clone himself like he's straight out of Naruto!"

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"Nope. _Dammit Goku where the hell are you, get out here and stop this madness!_

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Cell gritted his teeth as he found Nail blocking his way "I'm going to say this once, get the hell out of my way Namekian. I don't have the patience to deal with you right now, I have an Android to find and get my hands on."

Nail's gaze hardened slightly "I have no intention of allowing you to reach your Perfect Form, if you wish to find that Android then you'll have to get past myself first."

"Why you little… Fine, if that's the way you want it then so be it!" Cell paused, then summoned two identical copies of himself "You can thank Piccolo for this." he sent them out to deal with both Kai and Future Gohan, while he tangled with Nail himself and let a fist fly forward.

Nail bloced the fist with his forearm and tried to land a punch himself, only for Cell to block it, followed by the two of them clasing their forearms against each other, shattering the ground beneath them, and then meeting each other in a power struggle.

Cell's aura flared as he slowly began pushing Nail back.

Nail's muscles bulged slighty as he began pushing Cell back, then broke away from the power struggle and dealt Cell a fist to the gut, sending him flying backwards.

Cell pulled himself out of the rubble, then blitzed forward and dealt Nail a fist to the face, resulting in the two of them trading even blows throughout the skies, which ended with Cell then throwing Nail into a nearby mountain "You should've stayed out of this you wretched fool, now you-" he cut off his ranting when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, that being none other than 18 and the others where they were hiding ' _Android 18… at last, I've finally found her!'_

Nail pulled himself out of the rubble and noticed what had caught Cell's attention ' _Dammit this is bad, he found the Androids!'_

' _I knew it, I knew that she was close! She's been under my nose this entire time! After all of this time it's really happening, I'll finally achieve my Perfect Form and realize the full potential of my design! The ultimate in power, speed, technique, mind and spirit, at last Perfection will be within my grasp!'_

' _Raditz you fool what are you doing, they don't even notice what's going on over here!_ You have to get out of here!"

Raditz's head snapped up "Nail what the hell are you-"

"CELL SPOTTED YOU, GET OUT OF HERE!"

"After all this time she belongs to me!" Cell hurtled towards 18 at full speed.

"I refuse to allow another world to suffer because of an abomination like you!" Nail blitzed in front of Cell and fired a Mystic Flasher at point blank range, hitting him and blowing off part of his lower body, then burst forward and smashed him square on the skull, sending him hurtling to the ground and burying him in rubble.

"Well that went well." Raditz noted dryly.

"His energy disappeared, he's most likely masked his power level so he can move towards you underground. Get her out of here now!"

"Right." Raditz snapped back towards 18 and 16 "We can't waste any time, we have to get you out of here right now."

"No arguments here." 18 whipped around to face 16 "Come on 16 we have to get up, we're getting the hell out of here."

"Leave me." 16 told her simply "It is best if you simply save yourself. Cell is only after you at the moment, if I were to accompany you then I would slow you down. Now go, before he finds you!"

"Dammit… I'm coming back for you as soon as I can." 18 promptly took off on foot as fast as she could, with Radtz fight behind her.

That was when Cell burst up from beneath the ground in front of her "I know what you're getting at Raditz, and it's only fair to warn you in advance that she's taken."

"I have no intention of allowing you to shed anymore blood!" Nail burst towards Cell as fast as he could.

" **Kaioken."** with his aura flashing crimson, Cell whipped around and dealt Nail a quick spin kick, sending him flying into a nearby mountain, then resumed his quest "Okay that's better, at least for the moment. Now then 18, I'm not sure I like the idea of you hanging around with other men. Or in this case… a hedgehog."

"How about you leave the girl alone." that was when 16 stubled his way towards Cell.

"Come on 16, there's no need to be so jealous. This is meant to be, and she knows that for a fact to be true. I mean just take a look at what she's wearing, she's practically asking to be absorbed by me."

"Okay it's official, that line has been crossed." Raditz promptly flashed into Super Saiyan "You wanna go big guy? Well I say we go!" he pounced at Cell at full speed, only to get swatted into a nearby mountain.

"Oh no, who would've seen that coming? Anyway…" he was met with a Rock Punch square in the face that did absolutely nothing "Really?"

"Leave the girl alone!" 16 charged at Cell and started dealing him a feeble barrage of punches to the face, which did absolutely nothing.

"Oh you precious cinnamon bun, never change." Cell elbowed 16 on the back of the neck, knocking him to the ground "But I think that's enough of that, and if there's no more resistance from these two…"

"I'm not letting you get me without a fight!" 18 charged at Cell in a rage, only for her attacks to be dodged with ease.

' _A one-y and a two-ey and a you know what to do-ey!'_ Cell slammed 18 into a nearby plateau with a quick Ki blast.

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Meanwhile, on another part of the island, with Cell clone #1…

Future Gohan wiped some blood from his lip and flared his Super Saiyan aura "I don't care what you say Cell, I'm not letting you destroy this world!"

Cell let out a chuckle "And here I thought you would be like your father, I expected any Saiyan to be excited to see my Perfect Form in action."

"I don't need to see it, I don't want to see it, all I want is you dead!" Future Gohan promptly bulked up slightly, entering his 2nd Grade Super Saiyan form "I won't see another future turned into a hell on Earth, I'm not going to stand here and watch it happen again, no matter what I have to do to prevent it!"

"Is that so?" Cell held out one hand and began charging an Explosive Demon Wave "Who the hell are you trying to fool? You're too soft-hearted to attack anyone, it's why you were never able to defeat Android 17 in your time. Maybe then Kai would still be alive."

"You… YOU BASTARD!" in his rage, Future Gohan fired a full power Kamehameha blast at the Cell clone, obliterating it on the spot.

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"Don't think I'll let you take me that easily!" 18 fired a barrage of Ki blasts at Cell, the force not damaging him in the slightest but still pushing back a considerably distance.

Cell eventually managed to stop himself and disspated the Ki blast with ease "Okay that was fun, now back to businesses." he started advancing on 18 with his tail armed and ready.

' _Okay that hurt… It's times like this I'm glad I can use my hair to break my fall…'_ Raditz pulled himself from the rubble and found Cell advancing on 18 "You get your greasy tail away from her before I-" he charged at Cell and fired a Weekend blast, pushing him back a short distance but still not damaging him.

"GET DOWN!" that was when Nail blitzed in front of Cell and fired a Mystic Flash, actually damaging him, if only slightly.

" **MASENKO!"** that was when Future Gohan arrived back on the scene and hit Cell with a full power Masenko, sending him flying away, then whipped around towards Raditz "Take her and get as far away from here as you can, Nail and I will hold her off!"

Cell pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood "I hope you know, this means war you little-"

"TRY ME!" Future Gohan and Nail wasted no time in dealing him a two man barrage of attacks at full speed, dealing him some significant damage.

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Meanwhile, back with the targets…

18 wasted no time in draping 16's arm over her shoulder "Come on 16, we have to get the hell out of here!"

16 slowly looked up at her "Leave me here… I am nothing more than a burden to you… You must run…"

"There's no way in hell I'm leaving you behind like that."

"Hey, you want some help?" Raditz draped 16's other arm over his shoulder "I might not be good for much as I am right now, but I still know how to lift."

' _...Okay it's official, if we make it through this then I am totally going to ROCK his five foot world. Well, maybe four, depending on how much of his height comes from his hair.'_

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Kai looked down at the watch he had been wearing on his wrist "Okay, three minutes are up, time to die asshole. **Nail Gun."** he nonchalantly blew a hole through the Cell clone he had been fighting up until now "Well I did my part, now it's a matter of which side fucks up first." and with his Namek-Ken flaring, he blasted off back in the direction of the battlefield.

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

Cell found himself still on the receiving end of a swift and brutal barrage of attacks from the likes of both Future Gohan and Nail ' _Okay,_ _ **this**_ _obviously isn't working.'_ he looked down at where Raditz was attempting to help the Androids escape, then looked up at the sun, and then an idea formed in his mind ' _Wait a second… Tien got me into this mess, and now he's going to get me out.'_ so with that in mind, he retreated away from Nail and Future Gohan and flew right up to where the sun was sitting right behind him "I've been so close for so long, and I can't take it anymore! EIGHTEEN! I hope you're ready, because I'm coming!"

"Yippee ki yay mother fucker!" that was when Kai soared onto the scene.

" **SOLAR FLARE!"** Cell unleashed a massive Solar Flare, blinding everyone present with the intensity of the light.

"Fuck, my rage has blinded me!"

"Now the time has come for the climax, I'm going to take my time and make sure that I savor you properly." Cell slowly lowered himself to the ground.

"It's okay, I won't let him touch you." Raditz quickly rushed in front of 18 "Just stay behind me and-"

"Nope." Cell sent Raditz flying with a simple Ki blast, leaving him out of commission "And now for the actual climax instead of that sad little prelude.

18 gritted her teeth as she tried to force herself to see, but failed "16!"

"Yes?" 16 couldn't even look up at her.

"Look after the big guy."

"...Confirmed."

"Thank you." and with that, she charged at Cell at full speed.

"How touching." Cell thrusted his tail and promptly absorbed her into it.

"LET HER GO!" Raditz charged at Cell and started firing off a rapid barrage of punches and kicks at full speed.

Cell simply dodged every attack being thrown at him as he pulled 18 further inside of him one bit at a time, until he pulled her all the way inside of him.

By the time Raditz and the others were able to see again, they were all mutually horrified to find that with the absorption of 18, Cell had already begun to transform ' _And just like that, she's gone and we're all fucked beyond all comprehension.'_

Kai looked around at how horrified everyone was ' _Okay, maybe not one of my best ideas, but you know what they say. When in doubt, improvise. He's sure as hell taking his time, I guess he wanted some dramatic flare to it.'_

"THERE'S NO WAY I'M LETTING THIS HAPPEN!" Future Gohan flashed into 2nd Grade Super Saiyan and wasted no time in firing a rapid barrage of Ki blasts, only for them to be easily repelled by a green energy shield surrounding Cell's body, as the entire planet was being shaken by the effects of his transformation "I REFUSE TO ALLOW YOU TO DESTROY ANOTHER FUTURE, DO YOU HEAR ME?!" he burst towards the green energy shield and tried to power through it, only to be blown back by the force.

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Meanwhile, at the Lookout…

Bulma's head snapped up at the vibrations being unleashed by the transformation "Okay, so I can't sense power levels but I can feel that. Does that mean anything?"

"To put it bluntly, we're fucked on all levels." Piccolo told her grimly "You can thank Cell for that, his Ki level just exploded."

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Meanwhile, on another planet…

Cooler's head snapped up at what he was sensing ' _This energy, could it be? No, I feel malicious intent, but it seems somewhat familiar… is that Frieza and Father? No, it feels like Son Goku as well, actually all of them but mixed into one.'_

Salza looked up at him "Is something wrong Lord Cooler?"

"I sensed a great power appear out of nowhere, unlike anything I've ever felt before. It may even surpass my father's final form, both in power and in evil intent. It would seem that Son Goku and his companions back on Earth are in a great deal of trouble. What's worse, I fear that an evil of this magnitude will threaten not just the Earth, but the entire universe as well."

"Is it the target we've been searching for?"

"It seems unlikely, something about this energy feels as if it were similar to my own. Salza listen to me, I want you to contact Ginyu and Recoome and have them call off the search in their assigned quadrant of the galaxy until further notice. After that, I want you to summon Forte and the rest of the Armored Squadron, and prepare the ship for departure to Earth. We leave in one hour."

"Yes sir." Salza promptly rushed out of the room.

' _Well Son Goku, it would seem you and your companions have quite the fight on your hands this time.'_

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Kai and the others looked on as the chaos subsided and was replaced by a shimmering emerald colored light ' _Looks like he's finally done, it took him long enough.'_

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Meanwhile, up at the Lookout…

Piccolo gritted his teeth as he tried to stop himself from sweating "It's over… Cell has reached his Perfect Form…"

"That would explain a few things." Yamcha muttered "The only question is, what the hell happened with Raditz? He should've been able to take that shutdown remote Bulma made and use it on Android 18. Did it not work or something?"

"There's no way of knowing now, at the last second he crushed it under his boot."

"Why the hell would he go and do something like that?!"

"Something I'm never going to understand, and if you ever try to explain it to me I'll blast you to hell."

"...So he had a thing for 18 huh?"

"Looks like it."

"Not what I expected."

"That's one thing with humans I'll never understand, and frankly I don't want to."

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The light subsided, but all of the greenery on the island had been turned to ash.

Having completed his transformation, Cell slowly lowered himself to the ground and took a moment to take it all in ' _My perfect form… the perfect body, the perfect power… At last I've fulfilled my purpose… Truly, this is marvellous… There's only one thing to do now…'_ and then he did something that left everyone even more disturbed: he started singing.

 **P is for Priceless, the look upon your faces**

 **E is for Extinction, all your puny races**

 **R for Revolution, which will be televized**

 **F is for how Fucked you are, now allow me to reprise**

 **E is for Eccentric, just listen to my song**

 **C is for Completion, that I've waited for so long**

 **T is for the Terror, upon you I'll bestow.**

Upon finishing his song, he let out a menacing chuckle "My name is Perfect Cell, and I would like to say… Hello."

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 **At last, Cell's dream of reaching his Perfect Form has finally been brought to fruition, but for the rest of the world, the true nightmare is about to begin. Do our heroes have any hope of prevailing against Cell and his newfound power? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, Cell's path to Perfection has come to an end, and the entire universe is in deep trouble. Let me start by saying Happy Holidays everyone, and thank you for all of the support for this story over the past year. This will most likely be the last chapter uploaded in 2019, so I wish you all a Happy New Year as well, and I hope to get even more love for this story in 2020.**

 **Probably the hardest part of this chapter was figuring out how to replace Vegeta's arrogance in refusing to stop Cell from reaching his Perfect Form, but I think I managed to make it work. Cell claimed that he knew the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb, and since he claims to have knowledge of everyone's techniques, I figured I would give him Piccolo's cloning ability.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 50 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 20x): 1 billion

Kai (Namek-Ken 30x): 1.5 billion

Future Gohan: 160 million

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 1.12 billion

2nd Grade Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 1.68 billion

Nail: 800 million

Raditz: 10.4 million

Super Saiyan Raditz: 260 million

Semi Perfect Cell: 750 billion

Semi Perfect Cell (Kaioken burst): 1.15 billion


	26. Power of Perfect, Fight for the Future

**(Power of Perfection, Fight for the Future)**

With his absorbtion of Android 18, Cell's quest to reach his Perfect Form had at last reached its conclusion.

Kai looked on from his place in mid air and watched Cell throwing a few punches and kicks ' _So this is the Perfect Form you slaughtered thousands of people to achieve, looks more like perfectly ordinary to me. Why is it that when I look at him I think of that green villain guy from Hunter x Hunter? What the hell was that guy's name anyway?'_

Raditz's teeth were grinding furiously, his mind racing ' _18… she's really gone… He's going to pay for this… He has to pay!'_ he flashed into Super Saiyan and burst forward at full speed, launching a furious barrage of punches and kicks at Cell that didn't even faze him.

Cell ignored take in the newfound power bubbling beneath the surface ' _My perfect form… the perfect body… the perfect power… the fulfillment of my very existence… Truly marvellous, not at all overpromised._ So who wants to be the first one to test out my Perfect Form?"

"GIVE HER BACK!" Raditz hit Cell head on with a full power Vacation Delete at point blank range from behind, only for the blast to dissipate almost instantly upon making contact ' _Oh you've gotta be kidding me, at least with the likes of Frieza and the others it was able to make contact!'_

"Well what do you know, looks like we have ourselves a volunteer." Cell promptly blitzed out of view, and faster than anyone could see he dealt Raditz a sharp kick, breaking his neck and sending him crashing through a nearby plateau before skidding to a stop a considerable distance away, leaving him in a broken heap.

"Raditz hold on!" Nail and Future Gohan quickly rushed towards Raditz to aid him.

Cell threw a few more punches, then threw a smirk at 16 "Please, what are you glaring at? The way I see it, that fool should feel honored to be the first one to sample my newfound power."

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"Raditz hold on, just stay with us." Future Gohan and Nail wasted no time in coming to Raditz's aid, and the former promptly stuffed a Senzu Bean into Raditz's mouth "Here take this, it's a Senzu Bean, it will heal you. You just have to swallow, that's it."

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Kai promptly floated to the ground next to Cell and shot him a smirk "Well done, you managed to do a one hit KO on a Super Saiyan hedgehog. I hope you're not too proud of yourself."

Cell let out a chuckle as he started stretching his arms and legs "Oh don't get me wrong boy, I am proud. Not of that no, but of you. It takes a big man, not necessarily a tall one or an old one, to do what you did. Sticking to your guns and just throwing everyone's lives away, that's not an easy thing to do. And for that, I would like to top my… Huh, what is that on my head? Would you call it a crown?"

"Looks more like a goalpost to me."

"I think we'll call it a crown."

"Fair enough. Now then Perfect Cell…"

"Oh my god, I love the ring to that."

"I'm going to enjoy wearing down the knuckles on these gloves."

"Okay, I know that wasn't supposed to sound sexual but…"

"So I say it's time to turn your little coming out party into a funeral."

"And your time is up, how about we skip the brovado and just get to the part where you assist me in warming up."

"Fine by me, just keep in mind that I'm gonna be turning up the heat pretty quickly." Kai dropped into a combat stance and flared his aura.

"Ominous."

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Future Gohan stepped back to give Raditz some room "Oh good, you're awake. You know it's too bad you don't get the crap beaten out of you by guys like Cell more often, if you did that all the time then you'd probably be unstoppable."

"Oh god, tell me about it." Raditz cracked his neck slightly and pulled himself to his feet "If I had taken the opportunity to get a Zenkai whenever I could back before I first came to Earth, god only knows how strong I would've been."

"I still wonder how good that would've been for us, but anyway are you alright now?"

"I'm fine personally, but that kid over there is so screwed it's not even funny. He's about to get himself killed in ways I didn't even know existed."

"What are you talking about?"

"I might not be in the same league as any of you guys right now, but one thing I can do just as well as any of you is sense a power level with the best of them. Just now, when Cell snapped my neck with that one kick I caught a glimpse of the level of power he's hiding below the surface, and it feels like there's no end to it. It makes Frieza looks like a goddamn fly in comparison, and considering I grew up under his oppressive rule, that's a terrifying thought. I'm telling you both guys, the power I'm sensing now is only a drop in the metaphorical bucket, or rather the metaphorical ocean, and any second he'll be able to kick open the metaphorical floodgates, but he's holding back his power, and he's not the only one."

"So you can tell then." Nail noted "I suppose I should've expected as much from you."

"The kid does have a lot of pride, and since he's so focused on Cell right now I'm not surprised he hasn't noticed, but I could tell right away something wasn't right." Raditz turned his attention to Future Gohan "You've been concealing your power all this time, and a lot of it, and I think I understand why. You figured out how to surpass the kid didn't you?"

"There's no question, Kai is on an entirely different level now compared to what he was at before. He pushed himself to the absolute limit in the few years before the Androids revealed themselves, but he ended up hitting a plateau. He was unable to push the Namek-Ken past the 20th level, and the frustreation of this limitation took its toll on him. I could tell that any sort of limitation left a serious mark on the boy, his desire to surpass his limitations was what kept him going all this time. I discussed with Gohan some time ago, and I knew what it was that was pushing him like that: Scarlet."

"Who?"

"Yamcha's older sister, Kai's mother." Future Gohan told him "He would never admit it to me, but the death of his mother really affected him in a negative way. Part of me believes that his constant training is to distract himself from the pain and lack of closure he feels towards her dying, and I think that his desire to become the best stems from a desire to be like her, and with any luck, maybe see her again. I know how much it hurts him, and because of that I just couldn't bring myself to tell him that I was still stronger than him. If only the three of us had managed to finish Cell when we had the chance then it wouldn't mattter."

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Meanwhile, back at the actual fight…

Kai's Namek-Ken aura slowly but steadily increased, his muscles bulging considerably and his body crackling with electricity ' _Namek-Ken 40x, the absolutely maximum that I can push it right now. I can tell he has a lot of power bubbling just beneath the surface, so if I'm going to take him down, I can't take any chances._ So mind if I make the first move?"

Cell's smirk only grew wider "Oh by all means, go right ahead."

"Fine by me." Kai blitzed forward and launched a few punches and kicks, only for them to be blocked with ease, so he retreated a short distance "Okay looks like you did manage to power up a little bit, looks like you weren't just bluffing."

"Why don't you come and find out for yourself."

"If you insist." Kai burst forward and launched a quick barrage of punches and kicks at Cell at full speed.

Cell dodged and blocked every attack with ease, but he was sent skidding backwards a short distance by the last attack, and he blitzed through Kai's next attack and retreated atop of several rocky plateaus, easily dodging the barrage of Ki blasts Kai was throwing at him even as he took to the air.

"Try to dodge this!" Kai burst downwards from above as he hit Cell with barrages of Ki blasts from both above and below "There's no way he could've avoided that." he was proven wrong when the smoke cleared and Cell was nowhere in sight "Oh shit."

"That was an interesting maneuver, considerably more clever than the usual blunt tactics your companions are used to."

Kai whipped around to find Cell floating behind him "You know I'm not a fan of being mocked like I'm some kind of pathetic little kid."

"Says the literal 9 year old."

"And you're 6, so I say that this is fair game! **NAIL GUN!"** Kai fired his Nail Gun at Cell at full speed, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Yamcha looked down in awe at the battle raging onwards "Looks like Kai really knows how to put on a show, even in his Perfect Form he still has Cell totally on the defensive."

"It's not going to remain that way for very long." Piccolo told him grimly "Kai's attacks are wild and unfocused, he's realizing that Cell's new power is equal to his own, if not even greater, and his frustration is starting to get the best of him and cloud his focus."

"So he's going to lose?"

"Without a doubt, it's just a matter of how long he'll last."

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Kai gritted his teeth as he noticed Cell's silhouette still hovering within the smoke left behind by the explosion "Don't fucking mock me!" he soared into the smoke and let a kick fly forward.

"Nope." Cell caught the kick with ease and threw Kai away a short distance.

Kai gritted his teeth and let out an explosive wave of Ki, clearing the smoke ' _Dammit I was afraid of something like this happening, he's growing more powerful by the second!'_ he whipped around to find Cell on the ground waiting for him, then soared down towards him at full speed and launched a furious barrage of attacks.

Cell dodged and blocked every strick and caught both of Kai's hands in his "You were saying kid?"

"Don't fucking toy with me!" Kai kicked Cell in the face to free himself and continued his furious assault, only for him to not land even a single blow ' _Dammit this is getting me nowhere, I haven't landed one fucking punch on the guy!_ Would it kill you to just hold the fuck still and fight like a man?! Why the fuck won't you just take this seriously?!"

"Am I supposed to be? Oh I'm sorry, I thought we were still warming up."

"You seriously expect me to believe you haven't even started fighting yet? Don't keep fucking stalling with me, there's no way in hell I'm letting you delay the inevitable forever Cell! The way I see it your Perfect Form is a joke, you still don't have what it takes to defeat me and you know that for a fact! You're afraid to fight me, and if I'm wrong then how about you pull that stick out of your ass, show me that new power of yours and prove it like a man!"

"Well if you wanted a demonstration then you should've just said so." Cell suddenly blitzed behind Kai faster than he was able to react "You know Kai, while there's absolutely nothing I'd rather do than stand here and listen to you bluster at me until the death of the universe, I literally have a million better things to do. So here's the deal: I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

"Oh is that right-"

"Now hold on, you might have misheard me. Not half as hard, not some arbitrary percentage or anything of that sort. I want you. To hit me. As hard. As you can."

"And if I don't play along?"

"Well then I guess your mother was right about you-" he was met with a kick to the neck that did absolutele nothing "Ooh, consider that nerve touched."

Kai was forced to retreat away a small distance despite the shock ' _You've gotta be kidding me, a kick to the neck like that should've taken Cell's fucking head off! How in the fuck am I not even sctracthing him already?!'_

"I know what you're thinking, and it's not that hard to understand. You're either perfect, or you're not me."

16 was grimly watching the battle unfold from a short distance away ' _I did not see Cell make even the slightest move to deflect Kai's attack, it would seem that he just absorbed the impact, and it appears that he did not sustain any damage whatsoever. I fear that the difference in their power levels has grown too wide for the boy to overcome.'_

"Hey come on now, what happened to all of that brovado."

Kai gritted his teeth and forced himself to stop shaking, though he had a considerable amount of sweat dripping down the side of his face "What are you? What the hell are you?! I've been coming at you with everything I've got up until, you should be nothing but a bloody mess splattered across the ground!"

"Looks like you're finally starting to understand, this is the power of my Perfect Form, the power of absolute perfection." so on that grim note, Cell blitzed forward and dealt Kai a kick to the torso, sending him flying through several plateaus behind him, before he eventually managed to stop himself.

"I'm ok! I'm… I'm… Fuuuu-" and then his Ki gave out and he crashed into the watery shores below. It took a moment, but he eventually managed to pull himself back to shore, though he was gasping for air.

"Hey come on now kid, you spent all that time blustering at me about me not even being a challenge and now you're just going to give up without so much as a decent fight?"

"Don't… you fucking… mock me…"

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"Okay it's official, I say you're out of excuses." Raditz glanced over at Future Gohan "You know damn well what we're up against here, I say it's about time for you to bust out that secret power of yours."

Future Gohan slowly shook his head "I can't do that, there's no way Kai would ever let me interfere at this point. If I did jump in then he would never forgive me, this is his battle right now and he has to fight it alone. He would rather die than accept help from anyone, even if it was his best friend." and yet despite that, his teeth were grinding from his rage as his muscles began bulging unconsciously.

"Just how far do you plan to let this go? Face the reality, if you don't do something right now then he's gonna get himself killed."

"You don't know that, he could just knock him unconscious and then I'll-"

"We don't have Dragon Balls dammit! You don't want to crush his self esteem, that's well and good and all, but his pride doesn't mean anything if he's not alive to make use of it?!"

"...I'll jump in, but only after Kai loses consciousness and not a second before that. Arrogant and driven or not, he's still my best friend and I refuse to humiliate him by letting him see someone so much stronger than him."

"Who gives a damn about that?"

"I GIVE A DAMN AND I SAID NO! You obviously don't understand just how much his pride and his drive mean to him, they're what keep him going and they're what give him the strength that rivals any Super Saiyan! It's what gives him a reason for living! I don't care if you or anyone else see it as arrogance, but deep at its core I know that it's far more noble than you could understand! It's what I see in him, it's what's inspired me all this time even after he sacrificed himself to kill one of the Androids."

"...You'd better be right about this or I'm never letting you live it down."

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Meanwhile, in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber…

' _Calm down, concentrate, don't lose your nerve, keep your eyes on your objective, and have faith in the power dwelling inside of you!'_ with his golden Super Saiyan aura flaring, Gohan (now with a new short haircut) promptly fired a full power Super Masenko, leaving it to explode in the distance.

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" **I like food cause it is yummy, I will put this in my tummy…"** Goku was humming a little song he made up while he was rummaging through the fridge and pulling out all sorts of random stuff "Hey Gohan come on back, lunch is ready!"

"Okay, coming!" Gohan broke off from the barrage of punches he was throwing and floated down in front of Goku.

"Time for us to fuel up son. It's like your mom always says, Super Saiyan or not a growing boy has to eat."

"Right."

"But first things first, you mind cooking this up for us?"

"Way ahead of you dad." so Gohan promptly threw a steak into the air and blasted it, frying it in an instant.

"Well done, just the way I like it. Charred meat with no seasonings, just like how Grandpa used to make it." Goku caught the steak, only for it to incinerate in his hands, as well as accidentally set Goku's hair on fire in the process "Ow."

"Uh, dad? Your hair…"

"I guess you still have some work to do on controlling that power of yours."

"Yeah, sorry about that. But seriously dad, your hair is on-"

"Hey do you smell someone cooking pork?" and then he suddenly started screaming in pain as the realization hit him "HOT HOT HOT HOT!"

"Oh crapbaskets, dad hold still!"

"THE FIRE IS SPREADING TO MY GLOVES!"

"I said hold still!"

"WHY DID I BLOW UP THE TUB?!"

"Did you not watch those safety videos?! Stop, drop and roll!"

"Okay, okay Gohan I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I managed to put out the fire."

"The bad news is, I set the door on fire."

"DAD NO!"

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Meanwhile, back at the plot…

Raditz turned his attention to Nail and Future Gohan "Seriously, pride or not I think it's about time you guys tell him before he does something completely reckless."

Nail shook his head "Son Gohan does have a valid point Raditz, and taking the circumstances into consideration, there is honestly nothing he could do that could make this situation any worse than it already is, with the exception of blowing up the planet." and then the realization dawned on him "Oh no."

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

Cell wasted no time in mocking Kai's pitiful state "This is just embarrassing in every sense of the world, for all of your brovado you're not even going to make it to the end of me warming up my new power."

"Shut… your mouth… you bastard…" Kai pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood.

"Before we're finished I suppose I should show you some gratitude, if it wasn't for your stubborn brovado I would never have been able to reach my Perfect Form." Cell didn't even have to look behind him to know 16 was preparing to sneak attack him "Not the course of action I would recommend 16, you're one step from the scrap heap as it is. You were already powerless against me in my previous form, so what exactly do you expect to do now?" Cell promptly turned his attention back towards Kai "You see, this is what you get for not listening. But then again, since I know you have trouble following directions, I've decided I'm going to give you one last chance. You. Me. Hard as you can. Are we clear?"

"Crystal fucking clear." Kai ground out as he floated into the air, powered down his Namek-Ken to only 10x, held out one fist straight in front of him and began charging massive amounts of raw energy, that the island began rumbling and even the heavens themselves began moving apart as a result as massive bolts of electricity exploded from his aura down onto the island below.

' _Okay, this is considerably more intense. He powered down his Namek-Ken from 40x down to 10x, most likely to conserve the necessary amounts of Ki he needs. The only question is, what his he planning now?_ Okay see that's much better, I can actually feel that one."

"Give me a few minutes, then all you'll be feeling is OBLIVION!"

"That or disappointment, I say go ahead and flip that coin."

"THAT'S IT! You've mocked me for the last fucking time Cell, if you really believe that your power is that far above mine and you have the guts to put it to the test then let's see if you're perfect enough to withstand this!"

' _He's actually going so far as to dare me not to dodge this attack, but if he actually fires at me from that angle combined with the amount of Ki he's trying to put out, it will be more than enough to obliterate this entire planet with one shot, perhaps even a surrounding planet or two as well.'_

"You asked for it Cell, and now you die! **DRAGON FIST!"** packing into his attack every ounce of Ki he was able to muster, Kai thrusted his fist forward and his Ki exploded outwards in the form of a massive golden dragon the size of a mountain, also obliterating the plateaus it soared above in the process.

"Aw how cute, he named it- OH SHIT!" that was all that Cell had time to say before the Dragon Fist collided with him, resulting in a massive golden colored explosion that rocketed off of the surface of the planet, out of the atmosphere and into deep space before it finally detonated like a star.

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A few minutes later, after everything died down…

Raditz released the breath he was holding in and let out a sigh of relief "Okay that was a lot closer than any of us would've liked, but at least he missed the planet. I guess the kid knew what he was doing this whole time, he diverted the attack at the last second."

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Kai had returned to the ground and powered down his Namek-Ken completely, panting heavily from the sheer exhaustion he was feeling "So was that hard enough for you? _I hope to all hell it was, that Dragon Fist used pretty much 95% of the Ki that I had left.'_

When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Cell had lost about half of his torso, one of his arms and one of his wings as a result of direct exposure to the Dragon Fist "How did… You little…"

"Yeah I think that settles it, that was more than hard enough for you."

"This can't be… It shouldn't be possible…"

' _And a big fat cherry on top, it actually did something! I mean granted he's not dead, but you have to start somewhere!'_ so on that note, Kai started laughing in triumph "Yeah that's right, that's why you don't mess with the Crimson motherfucking Dragon!"

"You… You think this is funny?! YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?! Well it's not… as funny… as the look on your face." that halted Kai's laughing almost instantly "You're either in denial or a bigger fool than I thought you were, have you forgotten that I have Piccolo's DNA in my design as well?" so with some strain, Cell promptly regenerated the missing portion of his body in a matter of seconds.

' _...Oh shit.'_

"You know it might sound weird, but I kind of liked the old arm better. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to break this one in. As for you, well I think I've humored you long enough. I think I'll put an end to this little game now."

"Like hell you will!" Kai's white aura flared as high as it could (not that high considering how drained he was), and he fired a desperate barrage of Ki blasts at Cell, to no avail "Why the fuck won't you just die already?!"

"Oh come on now Kai, when has this ever worked, even once?" Cell simply walked through the series of explosions and slugged Kai across the face, sending him tumbling backwards a great distance "You don't need to answer that, it was a rhetorical question and you can't pull off a rhetorical answer like Goku can."

Kai staggard back to his feet and wiped the blood from his face ' _Dammit… in the end, even drinking the Ultra Divine Water wasn't enough… So what now…?'_

"Let me offer you some advice kid, for the future. Next time, why don't you remember your place like the rest of them… and wait for Goku?" upon destroying the Goku Button, Cell quickly dealt Kai an uppercut kick that sent him flying into the air, then blitzed above Kai and dealt him a brutal elbow to the spine, sending him crashing to the ground at full speed in an equally brutal fashion, leaving him badly injured and out cold.

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Raditz cringed at the sight of Kai being swiftly brutalized by Cell "Okay that can't be good, if his Namek-Ken technique was already gone then I'd say chances of him being dead now are pretty good. Kid you're out of excuses, if you don't get down there right now then he's going to be dead for sure, and that's if he isn't already."

"Dammit…" Future Gohan's teeth were grinding furiously as his aura exploded with golden colored rage, his body bulking up considerably as he slowly but surely ascended to the next level: 3rd Grade Super Saiyan.

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With the battle over, Cell returned to the ground next to Kai's unconscious form and held out a hand to blast him into oblivion "KO! I win, and it's a perfect win." he looked up and noticed the sight of Future Gohan powering up from his pure rage "Ooh, here comes a new challenger."

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Meanwhile, in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber…

Goku led Gohan a fair distance away from the door to the chamber, then flashed into Super Saiyan "Okay son, try to catch me if you can." he promptly blitzed away into the white void of the chamber.

"As if you had to ask!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and soared after Goku, then fired a quick Masenko.

Goku leapt out of the way to dodge the blast, letting it detonate in the distance "Not too shabby, but you're still going to have to do better than that."

"Oh I plan to." the two of them blited out of view, sending Ki blasts flying everywhere.

"Okay yeah, that's a lot more like it-" Goku was forced to leap out of the way to dodge an incoming barrage of Ki blasts, leaving him backed against one of the pillars of the chamber door, only to barely dodge it and let one of the pillars get blasted instead, but then he held out a hand and stopped the Ki blasts with his bare hands, and he breathed a sigh of relief "Okay that was a close one."

"Surprise!" that was when Gohan suddenly dropped down onto Goku's shoulders "I gotcha now dad."

"Looks like I'm busted, I have to admit you had some pretty good moves there." they both transformed back and looked over to notice to damage done to the living space, much to Goku's clear horror.

Gohan let out a nervous chuckle "Looks like we got a little bit carried away."

"Don't break Popo's stuff, don't break Popo's stuff, don't break Popo's stuff…"

"Dad are you okay?"

"Don't break Popo's stuff, don't break Popo's stuff…"

"What are you muttering?"

"SIXTH RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING!"

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Meanwhile, at the battlefield…

Cell was taken aback as much as everyone else was as he watched Future Gohan powering up with his rage "Is that Gohan? Good lord, the lungs on that boy. I wonder if he got that from his mother or his father."'

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Raditz let out a low whisitle as he watched Future Gohan power up "Shit Nail, I knew the kid was hiding some serious power beneath the surface, but this is insane."

Future Gohan slowly turned to face them as his pupils reappeared "Hey listen up you two, I need you to do something for me. Take Kai and get him back to Kame House and give him a Senzu Bean."

"At least you're not the kind of guy who loses his shit when he gets the new form, for the second I thought you were about to start going wild on us, like when most Saiyans turn into Great Apes or something."

"Not today at least."

"You know, if I had a watch on me then I would be looking at my wrist really condescendingly right now." Cell commented.

"...Just ignore him. But seriously take this and give it to Kai." he promptly tossed Raditz a Senzu Bean "It's the last one from what Father gave us before, make sure you give it to him the first chance you get."

"I get that but are you sure that's the best idea, won't you want to keep it for yourself in case you need it?"

"I doubt I'll have any use for it, as far as I'm concerned this battle was over before it began." he floated down towards the ground.

"Badass."

"Also probably accurate." Nail commented "Though not for the reason you believe."

"The kid definitely isn't lacking in confidence, you have to give him that much. Frankly now it's just a matter of whether or not he's right."

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16 looked on in awe as he watched Future Gohan descend to the ground ' _Incredible! Has he truly been concealing this much power all along?'_

Future Gohan looked down at Kai's unconscious form and started slowly walking forward "I'm only giving you one warning Cell, step away from him now."

"Have you come to take his place? How noble of you." Cell started walking forward himself to meet Future Gohan in the middle.

"I'm going to make you pay in blood for what you did to him."

"Oh don't lie boyscout, that must have been catharsis by proxy. Chances are that he's going to be waking up for the next five years in a cold sweat remembering today."

"I'm not a psychopath like-"

"Kind of like you."

"What do you mean like me?"

"How did Kai take it when he found out, by the way?"

"When he found out what?"

"That you let him die." that struck a nerve, as did the waves crashing against the shore as if on cue.

"...I'm going to start fighting now."

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't." Cell aimed a kick.

Future Gohan ducked under it and aimed a kick of his own, only to miss and block another kick with his forearm, before the two of them disappeared from sight, which promptly ended with him sending Cell crashing to the ground.

Cell burst out of the rubble and shot him a smirk "I have to give it to you kid, that wasn't bad at all."

"Give me a minute, you'll see the real deal soon enough." the two of them blitzed out of view once again, trading even blows across the skies faster than any of the others could track, which ended with Future Gohan once again forcing Cell into the ground, resulting in the fight going underground, then back up from beneath the ocean, and then Future Gohan dealt Cell a kick to the face, sending him hurtling towards the ground as he prepared to follow up.

Cell blitzed out of view and attempted to hit Future Gohan with a counterattack.

Future Gohan dodged the attack, resulting in the formation of a crater that Kai was almost pulled into.

"Yes now that's the spirit kid, but let's see just how long you're able to keep that up." Cell then charged forward.

Future Gohan dodged his attack and aimed a fist at his skill.

Cell cranked his neck to the side and dodged the blow, and then promptly buried his fist straight into Future Gohan's gut and dealt him a kick to the face, sending him crashing to the ground a fair distance away.

Future Gohan rebounded in time to dodge another kick, but received a fist to the face that sent him skidding across the battlefield.

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Raditz gritted his teeth at the sight of Future Gohan getting beaten down "Dammit this is bad, at this rate the kid is done for, and by extension so are we."

"Not quite, take a closer look." Nail pointed Raditz's attention in another direction "He's not fighting all out, not yet at least. He's simply trying to draw Cell away so that the two of us can get to Kai and carry him somewhere safe."

"Huh. Smart kid."

"An Android apocalypse wouldn't change that." they floated down to where Kai was lying on the ground "Let's hope that he isn't so negatively impacted by the results of this battle."

"I wouldn't exactly be sympathetic towards the kid, it was his idea to let Cell reach his Perfect Form. Lucky us the other kid is here to clean up his mess, otherwise we would all be on a one way trip to getting a sundae." leave a review and let me know if you get that reference.

"Let's not worry about that right now, what matters is getting him to safety so Gohan can fight all out." Nail picked up Kai in his arms "Gohan is fighting at a level we've only dreamt of until now, and it's something we shouldn't and won't see, not with his current state of mind." he glanced over at Future Gohan at gave him a thumbs up, earning a nod in return.

"I don't know what he sees in that kid."

"Probably what I saw in you when you first arrived on Namek."

"...Touche." and so the two of them flew off, taking Kai with them.

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Future Gohan watched as Nail and Raditz flew away, then turned back to Cell "Looks like you're in for a treat, now I get to fight you without holding back."

Cell shot Future Gohan a smirk "I take it we can finally fight without distractions, now that a certain someone has been removed from the equation."

"So you knew that I was stalling you."

"It wasn't that hard to figure out, just like I could tell you were intentionally steering our battle away from where I broke his body and spirit."

"So you say, but if that is the case then why did you let them get away?"

"Why not? It's not like I have any more interest in that brat, he was impressive considering he was only human, but you've already shown much more promise than him."

"Be careful what you wish for Cell, it might just be the death of you." Future Gohan began slowly and steadily powering up.

"That's good, I only hope you can provide for me a better challenge than your so called bestie did."

"Oh believe me, I will." Future Gohan continued to power up, causing storm clouds to flash with electricity overhead.

' _The power feels intense, but I can't help but wonder…'_

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Meanwhile…

Raditz and Nail were flying Kai away to safety, but stopped when they noticed the carnage being unleashed "Even the air is crackling, it's incredible even from this distance…"

"I saw this first hand back inside of the chamber." Nail pointed out "Right now he's just getting warmed up, but the real question is whether or not he can claim victory before the side effects of this new power show themselves."

"What do you mean side effects?"

"If all goes well, I won't have to explain it."

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

Yamcha and Piccolo could only look on in awe as lightning flashed above them "Where the hell is all of this power coming from? I've never felt anything like it before!"

"There's only one explanation for it." Piccolo told him flatly "It has to be Gohan, who else could it be coming from?"

"This kind of power puts even Kai to shame, there's no question about it. I'd say Cell has met his match."

"I'm not so sure about that."

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Cell grinned as he watched Future Gohan power up even further "Yes that's right boy, keep that power coming. I want to make sure you give me a real challenge this time."

"You Androids make me sick, the way you act like all of this is just some twisted gave for your amusement." Future Gohan's tone was laced with venom and disgust "What you did to the people of my world was all too real, and I promise you I have no intention of letting that happen in this world too! But you don't have to worry, I'm going to prevent that by showing you just how much stronger I am than Kai!"

"What are you- Oh no I'm sorry, I wasn't being specific enough. I'm referring to the last time the two of us met. Of course you wouldn't remember, because you weren't there. I mean, technically you were but…"

"Just get to the point!"

"Alright then Prodigal Son, tell me something. What do you know about time travel?"

"Less than I should."

"How do you suppose I got to his time in the first place?"

"Using my time machine obviously."

"Uh huh, and how do you think I got the time machine in question?"

"...I don't want to answer that."

"Here's the thing, Multiverse Theory is a bitch. The fact is that you, or at least another version of you, travelled to the past, saved the world, came back to your future, and then finally defeated the last Android. Congratulations son, you won."

"But wait, then when did you-"

"So you decided to celebrate! Head back to the past, get your hair ruffled and embrace the recognition and warmth provided by your dear friends and family one last time. But you made one. Fatal. Mistake. You took away what was mine, and that turned out to be your undoing in the end. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit into your time machine, so I had to revert to my larval state, I made the trip to a year before you showed up, burrowed under ground for the next four years, and well… the rest is history."

"So then… that means you're here…"

"Because of you! But please, there's no need to beat yourself up. You're just a child trying to play the hero, complete with spandex."

"And you're just another mistake I have to correct." and so with a mighty roar, Futue Gohan then continued powering up, his muscle mass increasing as lightning flashed all around him and the ground shattered beneath him, and once he finished powering up he burst forward and promptly dealt Cell a fist to the face.

Cell rebounded off a nearby rock and leapt into the air, only to instantly be hit in the face with a quick Gekiretsu Madan barrage, but when the smoke cleared he was nowhere in sight.

"Dammit, where did he-?!"

"Right here!" Cell blitzed behind Future Gohan and dealt him a kick to the spine, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

Future Gohan rebounded in mid air, blitzed above Cell and kicked him in the spine, then slugged him in the face, resulting in the two of them trading even blows for a brief moment before they both broke away.

"I have to admit I'm impressed, behind all of that angst and ridiculous hair, there's an actual fighter!"

"And behind all of that insufferable smarm is a dead man!" Future Gohan flared his golden aura in his rage.

"Gohan, you couldn't imagine the amount of dead men behind me." Cell promptly flared his own golden aura.

Future Gohan charged forward, only for his fists to be caught by Cell, resulting in the two of them entering a power struggle as their respective Ki signatures collided, but this eventually ended when Future Gohan deadbutted Cell in the face, then followed up with a furious barrage of punches and kicks, ending the combo with a quick yet powerful Super Masenko, the force behind it sending Cell crashing to the ground "Now that might not have done a lot of damage, but damn did it feel good!"

Cell promptly pulled himself back to his feet, spat out some rubble and blood, and he let out a chuckle "I will admit that in terms of raw power you have me bested at the moment, my own strength doesn't even begin to compare. However you still don't have a chance of beating me, not a chance in hell."

Future Gohan promptly lowered himself to the ground in front of Cell "You really want to believe that don't you? You're just bluffing now."

"You think so?"

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Meanwhile…

Nail and Raditz were still flying Kai to safety, only to stop when they noticed him regaining consciousness "I see you're starting to come around, perhaps we should land somewhere so we can give you the Senzu Bean."

"There's an island over there, that should suffice." Raditz jerked a thumb over at the island a short distance away, and so the two of them touched down on it after a moment.

"You must stay with us Kai, and eat this Senzu Bean so you can heal yourself." Nail promptly placed the Senzu Bean in Kai's mouth and forced him to swallow it.

Upon swallowing it, Kai promptly bolted upright and shot a glare at Raditz "And you wonder why I can't stand Saiyans, the whole thing where you get stronger every time you get a hole blasted through the crotch is so not fair."

"Tell me about it."

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

Future Gohan continued his attacks on Cell, only to find that not a single punch, kick or Ki blast was able to make contact with him ' _Dammit, he's getting more spy! Fine, if it's more power he wants then it's more power he'll get!'_ so he promptly began powering up even further.

Cell simply let out a chuckle at the sight "Such an arrogant fool. Go right ahead, power up to your heart's desire, it won't make any difference against me."

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Yamcha and Piccolo could only look on in disbelief over the power they were sensing "Talk about intense, his power has completely overshadowed Cell's! I can't believe it!"

"In case you weren't already aware babe, not all of us can sense power levels like it's second nature." Bulma pointed out dryly "How about spilling some beans on what the hell is going on down there, who are you guys talking about?"

"Who else could it be, it's Gohan! The future one anyway. Whatever the hell he and Nail did inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, it definitely worked."

"Woah…"

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Meanwhile, inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber…

Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan, his mind racing ' _Anger is the key to the power of a Super Saiyan, if I want to go beyond that then I need to control it, make that anger my own.'_ and on that note, he promptly started throwing a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Goku looked up from where he was meditating and blinked ' _Wow, looks like he's really getting the hang of it now. This is awesome, at this rate he's going to turn out even stronger than I had hoped he would.'_

' _Dad has just been sitting in that same spot meditating for a few days now, if I had to guess then I would say he's still trying to figure out how to go beyond a Super Saiyan. Who knows how hard that would be, so in the meantime I might as well hone my basic Super Saiyan form as much as I possibly can.'_ Gohan then powered back down to his normal form and took a few breaths.

That was when Goku got to his feet and powered up to Super Saiyan, and with a mighty roar he slowly but surely started ascending to the next level, 2nd Grade Super Saian, the force behind the transformation being unleashed blowing Gohan backwards.

"Holy crapbaskets dad, your power is on a whole other level! You really did it, you reached a level beyond Super Saiyan!"

"I could even go one step further if I wanted to." and so with a mighty roar he bulked up and ascended to the next level, 3rd Grade Super Saiyan.

"That's amazing, you're stronger than anything I've ever felt before! You have to be so strong that not even Cell would stand a chance against you, there's no way you could lose if you use a form like that! There's no way anybody could beat you when you're like that! I don't see how anyone could lose against you now dad, Cell is going down for sure!"

Goku tensed, then slowly shook his head "No, as much as I want to believe that I know for a fact that I would never be able to beat him like this."

"Wait what? But your power…"

"My raw power has increased sure, but it takes a lot more than that to win a fight. The bulky muscles that come with the price of making it hard to move very fast, and when I'm faced against a monster like Cell that's a disadvantage I can't afford. It doesn't matter if I have all of the raw power in the universe, if I move like a slug and can't hit my opponent then it doesn't mean a thing. It's going to take a lot more than raw power in order to take this one down." he breathed a sigh and transformed back "Besides, the transformation itself forces me to waste a ton of my own Ki. I would say that the basic Super Saiyan form has the best overall balance out of all of them, so maybe we should focus on that. Here's what I think we should do, from now on the two of us are going to try and stay in our Super Saiyan forms all the time, 24/7, at least with the exception of when we're sleeping. We need to make maintaining our Super Saiyan forms become as natural for us as breathing, completely effortless, so that we'll be able to use our Ki in a much more efficient way. We'll go pretty light on our other training until we can get the hang of that, and then we'll ramp it up all the way to an elevel."

"Right! Okay I'm ready dad, let's go for it!"

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

"I'm not through with you yet!" Future Gohan charged at Cell at full speed, which was actually noticeable lacking now.

"You might not be through, but I'm just about getting there." Cell barely even had to move in order to dodge Future Gohan's attacks, which led to him crashing into a boulder, obliterating it on impact.

' _What the hell is going on? It doesn't make any sense, why can't I hit him?'_

"Well this is turning out to be a major disappointment. So much for testing my limits against the prodigal son, you're even more worthless than the other brat was."

"You wanna bet?!" Future Gohan charged at Cell in a rage.

Cell sidestepped the attack and kneed Future Gohan in the gut, then slugged him in the face and sent him skidding across the battlefield. Cell then followed up with a brutal barrage of punches and kicks, sending him crashing through a nearby boulder.

"THAT'S IT!" now losing his temper, Future Gohan powered up further and attacked Cell with a slow barrage of punches and kicks.

Cell weaved around them with ease and caught Future Gohan in an arm lock "Just face the reality here, it's useless. You could come at me all day for all it's worth, and you still wouldn't touch me." he kneed Future Gohan in the gut, elbowed him in the spine and dealt him an uppercut to the jaw, then dealt him a kick to the face that sent him crashing to the ground.

Future Gohan pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood, his mind racing as he rose back into the air ' _I don't get it, why the hell is this happening? With all of the power that I've gained I should crushing him into dust so easily!'_

"This is just ridiculous." Cell returned to the ground himself "What happened to correcting another mistake of yours? This is nothing more than you screaming at me at the top of your ungodly lungs and flexing your muscles like a jackass. Anyone could easily perform a transformation like that." he promptly bulked up slightly in order to prove his point, the ground shattering beneath him from the weight of the raw power "It makes for an impressive display of power sure, but if your opponent has any kind of speed then it's absolutely worthless. Honestly, I had expected anyone who calls himself a warrior to understand that much at least, but you've made it pretty obvious today that you're simply green."

"Wait, you mean…"

"No, not like me you idiot; as in you're a novice, an amateur. You're surrounded by fighters who have seen more action in a single week than you've seen in your entire life, which includes your younger self! Hell even when he was your age, Goku had defeated an entire army, several demons, and he even sent a rabbit to the moon. I know what you're thinking and no, I did not make that last one up. I couldn't if I wanted to."

"Dammit…" Future Gohan gritted his teeth ' _Dammit, how could I have been so blind? My younger self anf Father, they both must know about this, and for all I know Nail probably figured it out as well! They knew about the side effects, they knew that the power it held wasn't worth the price! What the hell was I thinking, how could I be such a fool?!'_

"Yes, I can see you've figured it out now, so how about you come back down, stop using that useless form, and quit wasting everyone's time."

Future Gohan slowly descended to the ground as he reverted back to his normal form "There's no reason to fight anymore, I've lost this battle. I can't beat you Cell, so go ahead and kill me, just get it over with."

"I was going to anyway."

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Meanwhile…

Nail and the others quickly snapped towards the direction of the battle "Gohan's energy, it feels as if it vanished into thin air."

"But what the hell happened then?" asked Raditz "I mean Cell is still alive and kicking and his power is getting bigger by the second, does that mean the kid lost?"

"Either that or the weakness of his new form caught up with him, and he decided to withdraw from the battle knowing that he couldn't win."

"Well fuck that, I say no more sitting around." Kai pulled himself back to his feet and promptly flared his Namek-Ken aura.

"What are you intending to do?"

"What else? I'm gonna find Cell and hit him with as many Dragon Fists as it takes to blast his ass to kingdom come, don't even try to stop me." and so he promptly blasted off.

"One moment he's down, the next moment he's itchin for a fight."

"Maybe he does have some Saiyan in him." Raditz promptly flew off after him, with Nail doing the same."

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The scene on the Lookout was deadly silent.

Piccolo and Yamcha were looking down on the battlefield in disbelief ' _You've gotta be kidding me… There's just no way…'_

"So guys, what's the latest on Gohan and Cell?" asked Bulma.

"He's incredible…"

"Well yeah he's Goku's son, you really shouldn't expect anything less."

"No it's not him, I'm talking about Cell."

"Wait what?"

"It's all over, Gohan lost the battle."

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

Cell let out a low whistle "Eesh, I can't tell which is more shattered, whether it be Kai's body or your spirit."

"Just get it over with and kill me already." Future Gohan muttered quietly.

"Spirit it is. I honestly can't express how disappointed I am in you, I had so much higher expectations for the son of the great Son Goku. I do have one question though; While it did ultimately come up lacking, you, Kai and Nail all did managed to increase your power levels to considerable extents in a short period of time. Tell me, how did you do it." he was met with only silence "So you don't want to answer? Alright then, let me change the question. If you and your companions had more time, would it be possible for you to get even stronger?"

"Well maybe, if I had another day or so then sure, but what difference does it make, and why would you even ask something like that?"

"I'm just exploring a few possibilities. Now one more question, why hasn't Goku bothered to make an appearance yet? You must know where he's been hiding up until now."

"Don't get the wrong idea Cell. My father isn't hiding, he and my younger self are both training to defeat you even as we speak, and knowing my father as well as I do, when he finally does finish his training he'll be far stronger than I am right now. I promise you Cell, if there's anyone that can take you down it's my father!"

"Well isn't that quite interesting, if that is the case then how about I propose a little contest."

"What the hell do you mean a contest?"

"What else, I'm talking about a tournament. Let's say that it will take place 10 days from now, you can do some more training and then come and face me again."

"What is this, some kind of sick joke you're playing?"

"I'm not sure if Goku ever told you about this, but back before you were born in either this timeline or yours there was an event held every few years known as the World Martial Arts Tournament. I'm offering to recreate that, and the only notable difference will be that it will be me against all of you. We'll fight one on one and after each time I win, the next challenger will be free to step up to the plate, as many as you like. I think this is obvious, but the more challengers you bring the better chances you have of winning. But then again, saying your chances are better isn't exactly relative in this case. I'll inform you with further details once I've decided upon a suitable location, just make sure that you and your friends keep a close eye on the news."

"What the hell are you planning now?"

"To put it simply, my revolution. This should prove to be most entertaining, at least to me. Well I should be going, I'll see you there. Oh and one last word of advice, don't forget to bring along as many of those Senzu Beans as you can."

"Hold on a second, before you go just explain to me why you're really doing this. I want the truth from you Cell, what's your real objective. I just don't see what you hope to gain out of this whole mess. Tell me that this is just some kind of trick, otherwise it doesn't make any sense!"

"Didn't you ever hear what the creator of Rick and Morty said, about how you shouldn't overanalyze everything? I'm going to hold the tournament if for no other reason but to show off the power of my Perfect Form, and I also hope to draw out a challenger who could actually test my limits. I have no particular objective beyond that, I'm not interested in a pursuit as vulgar as the likes of world conquest. Even the purpose for which Dr Gero had me created in the first place, that being the defeat of Goku, at this point that could actually go either way. You might as well say that my only goal now is for me to enjoy myself in the only ways I know, which is to experience the looks of perfect terror inspired upon people by my perfect power. You see, the look you have on your face right now is exactly what I'm talking about. Well if there's no more questions, I'll see you on the day of fate kid." and with that, Cell took his leave.

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 **In a surprise turn of events, Cell has made the decision to host his own variant of the famous World Martial Arts Tournament, but could he be harboring potential alterior motives as Future Gohan suspects? And what of Goku and the Son Gohan of the present timeline, will their training enable Goku to defeat Cell at his own game when the moment of truth arrives? Find out as the suspense continues to mount ever further, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, this being the first of 2020, as well as the first of the final act of the Cell arc, we get a taste of Cell's newfound power that comes with his Perfect Form, but we get to delve into the reason behind Kai's passion behind being the best in martial arts, a taste of Future Gohan's newfound power (albeit with the consequences that come with said power), and Cell making the plans for his world-ending tournament: the Cell Games.**

 **Before we go any further with this, I just want to thank everyone who stuck with this story throughout 2019, this story would be nothing without all of the support you've given me over the past year.**

 **I knew that as iconic as the scene with Vegeta's Final Flash was, I had to come up with something just as effective and masterful, so I decided to go with the next best thing: Having Kai use the technique that TFS ranked as the 9th best Dragon Ball technique of all time, the Dragon Fist. Probably not as good as the Final Flash scene, but I did my best. Besides, even if it isn't technically canon, the Dragon Fist is one of the most amazing techniques in Dragon Ball history. Hell, it even found its way into GT three times!**

 **Speaking of Kai, I took some time this chapter to take a deeper look into his mindset, to expand on what was shown of him throughout certain scenes from chapter 15 and chapter 18 of this story, and why he's so obsessed with being the best there is. It all comes down to one point: his mother Scarlet, and the impact that her death left on him. Keep in mind, walking TFS reference or not, he's still only a kid just like Gohan, and he clearly showed some emotional trauma from seeing his mother die so young, combined with his father running out on him before he was even born.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 50 million

Kai (Namek-Ken40x): 2 billion

Kai (Namek-Ken 10x, Dragon Fist): 5 billion

Future Gohan: 150 million

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 1.05 billion

2nd Grade Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 1.575 billion

3rd Grade Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 3.15 billion

Nail: 800 million

Raditz: 10.4 million

Raditz (Zenkai): 52 million

Perfect Cell (suppressed): 3 billion


	27. The Calm Before the Storm

**Guest:** Oh by far one of the best, and probably the best thing about GT aside from Super Saiyan 4, so really, how could I not add it into this story? As for the games, well that's a whole other matter entirely.

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The battle had come to an end, and Cell had taken his leave to prepare for his new tournament, which was to take place in 10 days time.

' _Dammit… Dammit…_ DAMMIT!" forced to accept his defeat and failure, Future Gohan's aura exploded with his rage, the sheer force shattering the nearby plateaus across the island, before he fell to his knees from the exhaustion he was feeling.

That was when Raditz, alongside Nail and Kai, flew back onto the scene "Well on one hand he's not dead, but on the other hand he's still taking it pretty rough."

"I say it's pathetic." Kai grumbled in a very emo fashion "Find some honor in defeat for the love of our currently non-existent god."

"The view must be great from that glass house of yours."

"I may have lost to Cell, but I could still blast you into the sun if I wanted to."

"Ignoring you, what the hell happened over here, and where the hell is Cell?"

"Only one way to find that out." Kai promptly floated to the ground, with Raditz and Nail right behind him "Alright give us details Terminator reject, what went down?"

"I… I'm sorry." Future Gohan fell back to his normal form "I gave it everything I had, but he just toyed with me! I couldn't do anything, and in the end, in his eyes I wasn't even important enough for him to kill me."

"Sucks doesn't it? Welcome to my fucking world, at least my future self went out on his own terms."

"Trust me Kai, that's the last thing I want or need to think about. Nothing I did was good enough, either then or now."

"Well duh, if my Dragon Fist couldn't penetrate him what chance did you turning into a Hulk have?"

"You know about that?"

"I saw you bulking up out of the corner of my eye before I blacked out, it wasn't that hard to figure out. Just tell us what the hell he's gonna do next."

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Bulma found herself trying to comfort the crying Bulla "Easy now sweetie, it's okay… So are you two morons waiting for some kind of prompting or invitation or something? Get down there and help Gohan before he gets himself killed!"

"Easy Bulma, just calm down for a minute." Yamcha called her off "The fight's over and Gohan isn't dead."

"So… does that mean he won?"

"No, he definitely didn't win. Whatever happened, they just stopped fighting and then Cell just left the scene."

"That's what frightens me." Piccolo muttered "There's no question that Gohan's power was far greater than Cell's, but somehow it still wasn't enough for him to dominate the battle, and then he had to simply let Gohan go rather than finish the fight? Dammit, what the hell is he up to now?!"

"Whatever it is, we need to be ready."

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"You mean he basically gave you an invite to a tournament where he's the only fighter you have to give a shit about?" Kai shot a dry and annoyed look at Future Gohan "What the fuck do you think this is, Yu Yu Hakusho?"

Future Gohan let out a sigh filled with aggravation "Look I don't get it either, but he told me those exact words and then he took off."

"It's obvious that this is all just a game to him."

"Well that's just bullshit." Raditz muttered "Who in their right mind would enter a tournament like that in the first place? None of the three of you could stand up to him as he is now, so frankly the only hope we have is Kakarot."

"Goku's not stealing the win this time, the minute he and Gohan get out of that chamber I'm going in there myself, for as long as I have to in order to get strong enough to beat Cell."

"Kai, that's not very realistic." Future Gohan pointed out "Both Nail and I have seen what the chamber is like, it would be better if we went in there with you."

"If you have to come then fine, but believe me when I say that Goku isn't going to be the one to kill Cell. I'll bet you 10,000 zeni on that."

"Kai…"

"Me too." that was when Android 16 stumbled towards them "I will participate in the tournament as well."

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"But first, I must ask you to take me to the Capsule Corporation for repairs."

"You expect me to take you anywhere?"

"Affirmative. I need them to restore my fighting capabilities. Please… I wish to be useful…"

"Not a chance, there's no way in hell I'm dragging one of Gero's monsters anywhere near any of my friends' homes!"

"Hold that thought you guys." Raditz stepped up to Android 16 and gave him a small smile "We can take you there, but you'll have to see what they say about it."

"Are you kidding me?!"

"It's not as bad as you think it is, I think it's obvious by now that this one is nothing like the Androids you knew from your time."

"And what makes you so sure about that?"

"17 and 18 were different from the ones in your time, you even said so yourself, they didn't seem all that bad. Granted they kind of came off as overconfident assholes, but they're far from being mass murderers like the ones you told us about. Besides, I doubt this is the time to get pick about who we get on our side."

"...You'd better be right about this."

"I wouldn't be saying it if I didn't think so."

"Let him do whatever." Kai just started brooding in a corner "I say Goku hurries the hell up and fast, the minute he gets out is the minute I go in. One day in there is all I need to show you just how far I can push myself, human vs Saiyan be damned. I don't care what any of you say, there's no way in hell Goku will be the one to kill Cell."

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Meanwhile, with Cell…

Cell was in the middle of the first task for planning his tournament "Now then let's pick out the grounds for my tournament, yes I believe this place will work quite nicely. But still, perhaps it would be for the best if I push out the edges a bit so the venue can breathe." so he fired a Ki blast to level the area, killing the nearby residents as a result "And the next step, collecting the material for building my ring." so he used his telekinesis to lift a nearby plateau out of the ground and cut it to reveal a large block of stone "Excellent, even the stone in this area is perfection itself." so he used his telekinesis to cut the stone into a set of 24 by 20 blocks and placed them all down on the ground to form the arena "Yes there we go, a bit on the rustic side perhaps but it can always be added onto, and now I have the perfect place for-" he paused when he noticed something that caught his eye, that being was a green tile among all of the white ones, which would really annoy anyone when you think about it "Son of an emerald whore, starting again!" and so on that note he promptly flew off to find another location.

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Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp…

Mrs Briefs was in the middle of gardening, and she looked over to notice Kai and the others touchdown nearby "Oh Kai darling, it's been so long. Ever the heartbreaker I see, so how's your training going?"

"Hey MILF." Kai gave a two finger salute.

"Oh Kai dear, I'm a grandmother now. Call me GILF."

"Doesn't make a difference really."

"And who are these fine gentlemen you brought with you? I know Raditz, but…"

"The Piccolo lookalike is Nail, I actually respect him, and the other one is Gohan from the future so leave that swinging for the park."

"Phooey."

"So where's Bulma at right now, is she still up at the Lookout? We've got an Android here in some major need for repairs and I need the keys to her lab."

That was when Dr Briefs showed up on a bike for some reason "Why come to the acorn when you have the mighty oak?"

"Becuase that's a professor from a different franchise Doc."

"I mean that I taught Bulma everything she knows!"

"And Doctor Who, Bill Nye and Back to the Future taught me everything I know Doc, just hand over the keys to her lab and I'll take care of the big guy from there."

"Well I just got off the phone with Bulma, she and the others should be back here before too long now."

"Whaddup bitches, where's my GILF at?!" that was when Master Roshi dropped down onto the scene in a capsule plane.

"And now this is happening."

"Yep." Krillin stepped out first, with the others following "Bulma just gave us a heads up and told us to meet her at Capsule Corp right away, and considering what we've been sensing we're not exactly inclined to just ignore her. Plus it's hard to keep tabs on everything from Kame House with just Ki sensing alone."

"She and Yamcha are still up at the Lookout."

Chichi on the other hand had made her way over to Future Gohan "So how did it go?" she was met with only a sigh "So bad I take it?"

"He's been brooding worse than me, what the hell do you think?"

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A few minutes later, inside Capsule Corp…

Kai hooked a few wires into the damaged parts of 16's head "Alright big guy, I'm gonna hook your internal OS up to the system and don't be bothered by any oil release that you're doing against your will. Now let's see what we've got." he pushed a button as Surfin Burd started sounding through the speakers, and images of birds, lots and lots of birds, popped up on the screen "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, how long has this been running?"

"How long has what been running?" asked 16.

"And just for the sake of curiosity, I'm gonna go ahead and close this." Kai pushed the button and saw the alternative to Surfin Bird in 16's databank.

" _ **Kill Son Goku! Kill Son Goku! Kill Son Goku!"**_

"...Well bird is the word then." so he changed it back to Surfin Bird.

"What did you see?"

"Nothing that won't haunt me for the next few days."

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Meanwhile, with the others…

Krillin blinked "A tournament? Sounds like he's just messing with you."

Future Gohan "I was the one who saw that look on his face, believe me when I tell you that that sort of look wipes away any doubt of how serious he was. He said that it's in 10 days, I don't know anything else other than what he told me."

"Well look on the bright side, you're not dead."

"That's not very comforting right now Krillin."

"Hey don't knock it, sometimes you're not so lucky." he was met with various nods from the likes of Chiaotzu, Master Roshi, Raditz and Nail.

"Wait a second, you mean all five of you have died before? Even Master Roshi has?"

"Oh yeah, Chiaotzu and I twice. The first round was just basically Piccolo's dad being a dick about a decade ago."

"Seriously?"

Chiaotzu nodded "Yeah, second time I blew myself up trying to kill Raditz's dumbass friend, you know the big guy that showed up with Vegeta."

"Yeah I remember that, I was there."

"I know that all too well." Raditz grumbled "Apparently he got brought back by everyone else when we wished back the Namekians that Frieza and his men have killed, and now he's out there getting into the movie business or something."

"That… I've got nothing for that."

"So what then, he just expects everyone to fight him one one?" asked Upa.

"That's what he's told me. Apparently it's his way of recreating the World Martial Arts Tournament that you guys were in, and now that I think about it Father only mentioned it a few times to me before he died."

"Well my boy, allow me." Master Roshi sat down his cup of tea "Considering how I once won such a tournament once myself many years ago, I'm in the unique position to explain. A long time ago, a contest was started in which the best martial artists in the world were to take part, all of them beinf drawn together to decide who could lay claim to being the best. If my memory serves me correctly, your father Goku first started competing back in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, and he made it all the way to the championship too, which was no small feat for his first time in the ring. But that was where the boy faced the great master Jackie Chun, it was a tough battle but that was where his run came to an end. Three years later, Goku found himself competing head to head with the likes Tien Shinhan in the finals of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. Tien proved to be quite a fierce competitor, one of the toughest we had ever come across at the time, but Goku kept him busy for a lot longer than anyone had expected for a kid his age, only about 15 at the time. In the end, Goku lost but only just."

"What happened?"

"He got hit by a truck."

"Oh, okay I remember him mentioning that part."

"Then we get to the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament three years later, one of the most brutal in history, and everyone in attendance swore that it was the closest competion that they had ever seen. Not only did that point end with Goku becoming a blushing newlywed, Piccolo ended up taking the tournament by storm under the alias Majunior at the time, and he wiped the floor with all of the opponnents who stood in his way. Kami even possessed a man just to compete, and he wiped the floor with Yamcha in the process. Any normal fighters were too afraid of entering the tournament. In the championship match, which literally decimated the entire island, everyone saw Goku and Piccolo locking horns, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Goku emerged victorious as the strongest man on the face of the planet. In the process though, the ring was destroyed, and since that fateful day the World Martial Arts Tournament has been a thing of the past, never to be held again. Let's see now, how many years ago was that tournament?" he looked up and his jaw dropped at the sight of almost everyone having left.

As it turns out, Future Gohan was the only one still present "That sounds like it was a sight to behold."

"Oh believe me, it was. Feels like it was only yesterday. Unfortunately things are a lot more severe and we have much bigger fish to fry, Cell is out there and who knows what kind of insidious plot he's brewing."

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Meanwhile, with Cell and his insidious plot…

Cell was growing frustrated to find that the construction "How did all of these squares make a circle?! No no it's fine, it's fine, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother me… It bothers me, it bothers me a lot, and that tile is still green!"

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Meanwhile, back at Capsule Corp…

Kai and Dr Briefs got to work on putting 16 through a scanner "Well thanks to the schematics that Sonic the Hedgehog and angsty nerds Present and Future brought back, we should be able to help you. But at the same time, from the looks of what we found from rooting around in your system while trying to get that Surfin Bird song out of both our headas, I'd say that you're missing a significant portion of data. And considering these are plans for 17 and any plans for you were probably destroyed along with Gero's lab, there's not really anything that we can do to fix it."

"That is fine." 16 assured him "I am my own Android. I will live my life accordingly, faults and all."

"I could always give you a sick Gatling gun."

"Appreciated, but unnecessary. What is that creature on your shoulder?"

"Oh that thing? It's Dr Brief's pussycat, Bulma might be shallow as fuck but her dad is actually pretty chill."

"May I touch your pussy?" he was met with a meow from the cat, whose name is Scratch from what I know.

"As long as you don't let George Takei hear that."

16 gently reached out, and Scratch climbed onto his shoulder "Hello pussycat. It is licking me now. Should I lick the pussy?"

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"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

Future Gohan pinched the bridge of his nose, his patience running thin "Mother please, when the time comes to fight Cell again, we're going to need my younger self."

Unfortunately, Chichi wasn't backing down "What you guys need is to get it through all of your heads! Gohan you lived through hell, and seeing the circumstances you've dealt with, I can't and shouldn't stop that. But I only told your father that he could train with our version of you, I never said anything about letting him fight."

"Chichi you can't keep him out of this." Krillin protested "He's a fighter like the rest of us."

"He's only ten!"

"And he's the third strongest fighter I know!"

"Who's the fourth?" Kai called from down in the lab, silencing Krillin almost immediately as a result.

Chichi let out a sigh "I'm a fighter too you know, how the hell do you guys think I landed the strongest man on the planet?"

"Arguably."

"Don't make me come down there kid, I will rip your world a-fucking-sunder!" she calmed down for a moment and turned back to the others "Look, I know I come off as books in and books out, but that's because I want something better for my son, instead of him just surviving off prize money and welfare. Now I know I can't stop him, but if he fights and gets hurt, or god forbid he dies, and any of you could've stopped it, there's no dragon in this UNIVERSE that will save you from me." she let the others take a moment to let that sink in.

"...Yeah don't make me come over there." Kai could be heard mumbling from inside.

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Meanwhile, with Cell…

After three tries, Cell had finally managed to design the ring to his image "Finally, my arena is complete! Perfectly square, a fine marble white, and a full 24 by 20 feet…" he paused when he noticed a hole in one of the tiles, but rather than take off and start again, he took a deep breath to calm himself down "Let it go Cell, you have shit to do." and so he promptly flew off in order to do the shit in question.

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Meanwhile, back at Capsule Corp…

While some of the support characters were enjoying some baked goods, courtesy of Mrs Briefs, the others were looking over the TV in anticipation of Cell's announcement.

" _Hey man, is that the last Hetap?"_

" _Yeah, and it's all mine."_ and cue the gunshot " _Oh god, oh my god, oh Jesus why?!"_

" _Hetap. Come on, you've killed for less."_

"Well that's not necessarily false." Raditz commented.

Kai ignored him and gritted his teeth ' _Dammit come on Cell, if you're going to make an entrance then do it already!'_

Krillin glanced over at Future Gohan "Hey so be real with us Gohan, you're sure that Cell told you he'd appear on TV with more details right?"

Future Gohan nodded "Yeah I'm positive, he said so himself."

"In that case, let me know when he comes on. I'm gonna step outside and get a little bit of fresh air."

"What's your plan?"

"My plan is that we have 9 days to train, I might not come anywhere near close to measuring up to you Super Saiyans but I can't just sit around and do nothing."

"You have the right idea Krillin, I think I'll join you." Upa pulled himself to his feet "Sitting around and doing nothing won't get us anywhere."

"If it's gonna me a real tournament with real rules, it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. You never know, we could always tap out before we get killed."

"You're wasting your time guys." Kai grumbled from his place on the couch "Cell himself is the only opponent there's gonna be, you'd be dead before you could even step into the ring."

"Says the kid who Dragon Fisted him and it barely even penetrated him."

"I'll lock myself in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for the next 9 days if I have to, Cell won't even get the chance to beg for mercy and you two assclowns won't even get a chance to fight him."

"You know kid, Yamcha's nephew or not, if you're gonna brood and skulk around you could at least try not to be a dick about all of that."

"Oh gosh, let me try again. Hey Krillin, how's that broken neck of yours?"

"Just fine, how's your spine?"

"...I'm giving you a five minute head start."

"Thank you I'm going to need it, you're very fast."

"And I might not use the Namek-Ken."

"KAI!" that was when Yamcha burst into the room, with Bulma following right behind him, and he burst through the others and in a surprising move, he pulled Kai into a hug "You're okay aren't you?"

"I took a Cell to the spine and got beaten down worse than music did by Limp Bizkit, what do you think? Not even the Dragon Fist worked on him."

"It blew him apart but he regenerated because of Piccolo?"

"Yep."

"Figures. Just hang in there, you'll bounce back and Cell is gonna be in for one hell of a surprise when the time comes." Yamcha then glanced over at Future Gohan "Looks like you made it out okay too, Piccolo and I knew that you survived your brawl with Cell but we kind of expected you to end up getting beaten down pretty bad."

"So did I." Future Gohan let out a sigh "I'm sorry for making all of you worry so bad."

"Forget it, you were trying to do your part to bring down the big bad. I think if Goku saw you then he'd be proud of you."

"I doubt he would be of how I lost."

"Hey think of it this way, any battle you can walk away from is a learning experience."

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Meanwhile, in Central City…

Cell was blazing through Central City, destroying everything in his path, until he found himself in the TV station in front of the terrified receptionists "Tell me, would there be a TV show that's currently broadcasting live to a worldwide audience?"

One of the receptionists barely managed to find her voice amidst her terror "Top floor, main studio, try there."

"Excellent, thanks for the help." so on that note, Cell promptly forced his way upwards through the ceiling, which left everyone present even more terrified than before, if that was even possible in the first place.

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Meanwhile, back at Capsule Corp…

" _Work your body, work your body, make sure you don't hurt nobody!"_

Krillin sat down next to where Master Roshi was drooling over an exercise program "You know there's actual porn on the internet right?"

Master Roshi let out a scoff "Krillin my boy you have to learn to appreciate the classics, it's what separates the perverts from the connoisseurs."

"They still never get laid all the same." Kai was met with a fist bump from Yamcha, which earned some disapproving looks from Bulma.

" _1… 2… 1… Huh?"_ one of the women was particularly freaked out by Cell just popping out from beneath the floor, throwing her off and advancing up to the next floor " _Uh… You have great glutes!"_

"Okay this just got interesting." Kai snatched the remote and started flipping through the channels, only to see Cell rising up from beneath the floor in a cooking show, a soap opera, and then some anime movie.

Chiaotzu lit up at the sight of the anime movie "Oh wait is that Sword of Truth? I love this movie, leave it here."

"It's recorded."

"Works for me."

"See, cable isn't always bullshit." Kai switched onto the news network.

" _And as you can see, every dog does indeed have its day."_

" _Which is how Justin Bieber got a career in the first place."_ Cell suddenly burst up from beneath the floor and grabbed the reporter by the neck " _Tell me, is this or is it not the top floor main studio?"_

" _Y-Yes… it is…"_

" _Good, then in that case: The following contains violence, coarse language and adult situations not suitable for minors. Viewer discression is advised."_ he then proceeded to snap the reporter's neck in a very brutal fashion.

"Woah-ho-ho, brutal!" Chiaotzu was met with several disturbled looks, as well as a long low whistle from Kai "What?"

" _Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and that Technicolor rainbow in between, we interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special bulletin. That is to say, I interrupt this broadcast. As it so happens I come bearing wonderful news, especially for anyone out there sick of living in times of peace. The wait is over my friends, life will soon be chalked to the brim with nail biting suspense and action. I am Cell. You may remember me from the following cities."_ the screen showed a quicl scrollthrough of all of the cities he had attacked, those being Aru Village, Basil Town, Chazke Village, Ginger Town, Nicky Town, Penguin Village, Pepper Town, Polisas City, Purple City and Yahhoy " _Of course, if you lived in those cities then you won't remember, seeing how you have now become part of my biomass due to me absorbing you. I'm sure you're aware of the creature being tracked on the news, stalking cities and looking for fresh victims. I am what you may refer to as the perfected form of the creature in question, and I would like to take a moment to thank the human race for its generous donations of energy that made this possible, as well as to assure everyone that I've reached my quote and my prowling has come to an end. But let's move on to more important matters now. I am officially hosting a once in your lifetime event, a tournament so grand that it will literally leave you breathless! I hearby dub said tournament as the Cell Games! Be part of the conversation on Twitter at #cellgames."_

Yamcha pulled out his phone "And from the look of it he's already trending."

" _The location of this marvellous event will be 28KS.5, if you don't know where that is then blame the cartographers. For those of you familiar with your adorable little World Martial Arts Tournament, I'll be borrowing the rules. No brackets this time however, yours truly will be your opponent. And much like Kai's mother, I intend to accept all comers."_

"YOU SON OF A-" Kai had to be held back from blasting off towards Cell in a blind rage by the likes of Raditz, Nail and Future Gohan.

" _This tournament is also open invite, as many challengers as you wish until the winner is officially determined. This works to your advantage seeing how, as powerful as I am, I may end up using a considerable amount of my own strength and tire out after awhile, which does seem more than fair. Apart from that you already know the rules, if you forfet your match or any part of your body is pushed outside of the ring then you've lost. If you end up dying, though I'll make an honest effort to go easy on everybody, that will also count as a lost, and if every member of your team should happen to lose then that will result in a loss for the entire world. That's right, defeat will mean annihilation for every person on the planet, from the entire population of Earth to a man gazing up at me in horror as he takes his final gasping breaths. So in conclusion, I encourage all capable fighters to consider my invitation. The Cell Games will start at noon exactly ten days from now. That should give all of those entering plenty of time to prepare, or for those not participating, time to connect with loved ones, get your affairs in order, or maybe just kill your boss. Get a purge going, live a little, because exactly nine days from now… Well let me just give you an idea."_ Cell promptly fired a Ki blast through the wall behind him, destroying half the city and a nearby mountain in one shot as a result " _So just be sure to keep that in mind, and I'll see all of you on the Day of Fate. Also, feel free to pray to your god, but it's only fair to warn you now, I won't be listening."_ and on that note, Cell promptly took his leave as the camera cut out.

"I can't believe this is happening." Krillin muttered "Now the whole world is at stake in this thing, and everyone knows it. What the hell are we supposed to do know? Gohan and the others only survived because they wanted them to, at this rate not even Goku could have a chance at beating Cell."

Yamcha looked over to see Kai ripping off the t shirt he was wearing "So where exactly are you going?"

"Where do you think?" Kai pulled a new gi out of a capsule "I'm not fucking Superman or anything like that, but there's no way in hell I'm going to let Cell get the better of me. One way or another, if Cell's gonna die by anyone's hand it sure as hell won't be Goku's!" and so he promptly stormed out of the room.

"Kai hold on, don't go charging in on your own." Future Gohan prepared to go after him.

"Gohan hold on." Chichi grabbed him by the arm and stopped him "Before you go, at least let me cut your hair so that it doesn't get in your way."

"As long as I don't end up looking like one of the Three Stooges again."

"I said I was sorry for that."

"No you didn't."

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Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location…

A certain bald man picked up a phone "Hello? Oh yeah, I saw it. I've already got my promo team on it. We'll have you on a plane tomorrow. You just do some push ups, sit ups, and pull plenty of buses… Champ." and on that note, Nappa promptly hung up.

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The next day came, and as a result of his live announcement, Cell had succeeded in plunging the world into chaos, with cities around the world having already begun to empty as people scrabled for the hills in a desperate attempt to escape from his attention, with full scale panic being the only constant at the moment.

Raditz and the others could only look on at the chaos taking place from their place atop the Lookout, with his teeth grinding furiously as a result "Dammit, all of this is my fault! I could've prevented this, if only I had I had destroyed 18 when I had the chance, and I fucked it up in every sense of the world! I'm the one who fixed this, I have to at least try to make it right!" his aura flared and he prepared to blast off down towards the Earth below.

Fortunately for him, Nail was easily able to hold him back "Think about this at least for a moment Raditz, we both know for a fact that Cell isn't the kind of opponent you can take on by yourself, especially not as you are right now. As your friend, I would never allow you to simply throw your life away no matter what the circumstances might be. If you wish to fight him then just wait, save your efforts for the tournament like the rest of us. None of us blame you for what happened yesterday, so stop blaming yourself over it. Besides, the fact is that Goku is our best chance right now. As much power as Saiyans are capable of keeping under wraps, there's no telling what sort of strength he'll have once he and Gohan come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber when they finish their training."

"Which raises the question." Future Gohan glanced over at Mr Popo "How much longer do we have before Father and my younger self are finished with their training?"

"They have three more hours until their day in the chamber is complete." Mr Popo told him.

"Oh please." Kai let out a scoff "There's no reason to assume they'll think that a day is going to be enough, chances are the two of them will stay in there training for a lot longer than that."

"As far as I'm concerned, if it helps us to defeat Cell then they can stay in there for as long as they want." Piccolo told him flatly "We have 9 full days left, and besides you just drank the Ultra Divine Water and fought Cell, so you should be resting."

"Yeah, and look how that turned out."

"My point is, I plan to go in next when they're done."

"If you want to give Goku a beatdown then go ahead and get your turn done with, if I have to stay in there for the next 8 days before I get strong enough to beat Celll then so be it."

"As much grit as you show right now, that's not an option. There's a natural limit to the time anyone can spend inside the chamber, any one person is allowed a total of 48 hours and not a minute more."

"And if someone does end up going over the limit?"

"Then the door to the chamber will vanish, never to appear again, leaving whoever was inside going over the limit trapped in there for eternity."

"Well that sounds like a steaming pile of plot convenience."

"There's no point in letting yourself get so worked up, like I said there's enough time for all of us to go inside."

"That's not satisfying for me, if you know anything about me you know that I don't settle for a certain level of strength." then their heads all snapped in a certain direction, as in inside the building of the Lookout.

"That's Goku's Ki signature." Nail noted "Surely he and Gohan haven't decided to end their training so prematurely. It doesn't make sense, why would they not use the full time?"

Sure enough, at that moment Goku and Gohan both made their way out into the open part of the Lookout, both of them having considerable damage to their armor, and both of which in their Super Saiyan forms "So that was Nail and the Future Gohan's Ki signatures that I was picking up on, and Cell is still hanging around down there too. Anyone wanna fill me in on what's going on?"

Kai and Piccolo both looked at Gohan, then looked at each other "Is that Gohan? Oh you've gotta be shitting me."

"Come on guys seriously, someone tell us what's going on."

Raditz let out a sigh "Well to put it simply…"

"Wait hold that thought bro, before you do I think I should eat something, any chance you have some food handy Mr Popo? I'm serious, I don't think I've ever been this hungry."

"...Yep it's official, little brother is back."

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20 minutes later…

It didn't take Goku and Gohan long to start chowing down on food in the way that only Saiyans ever could "Oh man this stuff is amazing, I can't remember the last time I had anything as good as this!"

Raditz looked a little bit grossed out "So is that what Saiyans look like all the time when they eat?"

"Yes." was the simultaneous chorus.

"Just checking. So be real with me Kakarot, you two did actually remember to eat in there didn't you?" he was met with a muffled reply "Seriously, at least have the decency to swallow your food before you try and speak."

Goku took a moment, and I mean a long moment, to swallow what he was eating "Yeah it's official, I'm not pooping tonight. To answer your question bro, yeah we ate the entire time, but between my hair getting caught on fire and us being terrible cooks, so we couldn't make anything as good as this stuff. We've been needing this feast for a year."

"Okay, makes sense."

Kai eyed Goku and Gohan intently from where he was brooding ' _Okay something is seriously wrong here, they both look like they're in their Super Saiyan forms, but they both seem way too calm and chill for that to be the case.'_

Gohan was the first one to finish his food and let out a content sigh "Thank you Mr Popo, that really hit the spot. I knew my dad said you were a good cook, but that was amazing." then he turned to Kai "So fire away, what happened while we were in there?"

"To put it bluntly, Raditz fucked up and shit hit the fan."

"...You mind elaborating?"

"I got my shit wrecked even after using my trump card."

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Meanwhile, back at Capsule Corp…

Dr Briefs and Bulma were now hard at work with repairs on Android 16 "Oh I see, so these circuits connect like so don't they?"

"Hey dad, come get a load of this." Bulma "I'm peaking into 16's memory banks, and unless I'm missing something there's nothing here but stuff on Goku."

"You don't say, that's quite interesting."

"Well I guess it's not that much of a surprise, it's no doubt that Dr Gero created this guys for the sole purpose of wiping Goku off the face of the planet. The real mystery is, why is he no longer interested in following his program? Unless of course this is some elaborate ruse to lower us into a false sense of security."

"No, I don't think so. His circuitry may be complex enough to throw me for a loop, but my gut tells me this nice guy routine isn't an act. No matter how you look at it, he's the most gentle machine I've ever laid eyes on."

"Yeah I suppose. Maybe it's just another side effect of Gohan altering the timeline, but in any case I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. With Cell still out there, we're going to need all of the allies we can get our hands on if we want any hope of taking him down, and it's not like someone trying to kill Goku turning to our side is a fist for us."

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

Goku took in what he was hearing from the others and grinned "So that's what's been going on, truth be told it actually sounds kind of fun. It's not every day you get to compete in a big tournament."

"Fun, of course you would think that." Piccolo muttered.

"Hey by the way Mr Popo, you didn't by any chance throw it away did you?"

"What? No I held onto it, as a matter of fact I even washed it." Mr Popo pulled out Goku's old orange and blue gi, which he quickly put on in place of the busted armor.

"Thanks a ton for that Mr Popo, you really are the best. Hey that reminds me Gohan, we'd better ask your mom to make you a new Gi when we get home. Chances are you're too big for your old one now."

"Thanks dad, but I think I've got it covered." Gohan made his way over to Piccolo "So Piccolo, I was wondering…"

"What, you want me to make you a gi like your dad's?" Piccolo guessed.

"Actually, I was hoping I could get one like your's…"

"...Oh."

Nail looked over and tried to suppress a grin "Did your heart just skip a beat? Honestly, that's just precious."

"Shut. The fuck. Up. Anyway yeah sure I guess, I think I'll be able to outfit you with something to your tastes. **Clothes Beam!"** Piccolo used his Clothes Beam on Gohan, granting him an identical copy of his gi, complete with the orange shoes and the white cape.

"Wow, this feels amazing. Thank you Piccolo."

"Quick rundown, doors are going to be a little bit difficult at first, so I suggest going with a 45 degree angle. Also crowds, but I don't really deal with them."

"Duly noted."

"Enough with the elephant in the room assclowns." Kai pointed out dryly "What the fuck is our plan then, do you two have what it takes to take on Cell?"

Goku gave a shrug "Well it's kind of hard to say, I haven't seen him now that he's in his Perfect Form yet or whatever you call it, so right now I can't say for certain. I'll know better once I've had a good look." and on that note, he locked onto Cell's Ki signature and promptly disappeared with Instant Transmission.

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Meanwhile, at the Cell Games arena…

Cell was in the middle of a very important phone call "Look I understand that you sponsor all forms of sporting events, but just for the sake of being clear you do realize that everyone dies if I win, right? Yes. Yeah, I guess it is a win win for you isn't it? Alright then, it's officially the Cell Games, presented by Hetap!" he looked back to see Goku appear on the scene "Hey listen, I'm going to have to call you back." and he promptly hung up "My, what an honor."

"I don't know if I would call it that." Goku told him flatly.

"So tell me what you think, this is the ring where in nine days, we shall decide not only the fate of this boring blue ball of dirt and water, but the entire galaxy as well. Stylish right?"

"Not really, it's actually pretty lame when you think about what's at stake."

"Perhaps." Cell turned to face Goku as the skies darkened and lightning began flashing overhead of the arena.

"So this is your Perfect Form then is it? Not bad, not bad at all."

"Nice of you to say so."

"I just came to take a look and see what I'm going to be up against, and to say this: I'm going to be taking part in your little tournament, so you keep your end of the bargain and don't cause any trouble between now and then, got it?"

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Let's make it a match for the books." and with that, Goku disappeared in a flash.

"That's the spirit, of course that's assuming there's anyone left to write the books once I'm through with this planet."

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Goku promptly flashed back onto the Lookout "Well I'm back."

"So how did it go down there with him?" asked Future Gohan.

"I'm gonna be totally honest with you guys, he was a lot more intimidating than I had been expecting him to be. There's no telling what kind of damage he can do if he really puts his mind to it, I mean I won't know until I try but as things stand right now, I'm not all that certain I can defeat him."

"Father, you… you can't be serious."

"I am serious, I wouldn't joke about something like this."

"If that is the case then I think it's for the best if you go back into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to train." Piccolo told him "We still have days before the tournament, the way I see it we might as well use them. We've already decided on the order, I'll be going in first and then Raditz will be going in with Nail. Gohan, the future one, will be going in after them, and lastly the two of you will go in after him, and Kai will go after you two."

"...Yeah I don't know about that, about me and Gohan going in or about Kai going in."

"What?!"

"I think it's safe to say me and Gohan have had our full inside the chamber so we can just finish up our training out here, 9 days should be enough to get ourselves pretty well prepared."

"You've officially lost what few brain cells you have." Kai noted dryly "You're not even going to think about going back in?"

"That's right, and I don't think you should either."

"You're officially off the fucking rocker, I'm not just going to sit around and do nothing for the next 9 days."

"I never said you should, but the Hyperbolic Time Chamber is a harsh place and humans age a lot faster than Saiyans and Namekians do. Besides there is such a thing as too much training, you have to rest every now and then."

"So what then, you expect me to believe that the great Son Goku has settled?"

"I'm not saying that, what I'm saying is that if we've already pushed ourselves to the absolute limit our bodies can take then what's another year going to do? We'd just be torturing ourselves in there, of course it's fine if the rest of you go in there and train as hard as you like in order to give yourselves a fair shot. As for the Earthlings, well I don't think it's worth the risk even though all of you can stand to beef up just a little bit."

"I'm not an idiot like some people, as in you, so do you really expect me to put up with getting patronized by you of all people? Are you really trying to suggest that you and Gohan are that much stronger than me?"

"Oh I'm not suggesting anything, I'm outright saying it."

"You son of a-" Kai burst forward and let a fist fly, only for it to be blocked with ease.

"But I'm not saying it can't happen, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber just isn't the right way for you to go about it. I actually know someone who can help you, Yamcha, Krillin and Upa get a lot stronger in only a matter of seconds, and it's just a matter of contacting him."

"So how do we contact him?" asked Piccolo.

"You'll sense him coming, I can tell that he's heading for Earth as we speak. I'll head out and meet him first when he gets here. Anyway Gohan, we should get going."

Gohan nodded "Yeah okay dad, I'm ready."

"Alright, we'll see you later guys." and so the two of them took off and began soaring down towards the Earth below "Hey by the way, we need to make a stop on the way alright? There's someone I need to talk to."

"Okay sure." so they flew downwards until they came to stop at Korin Tower "Hey there, how's it going Korin? It's been a long time."

Korin gave them both a nod "Looks like you've both bulked up."

"You could say that, so what are you up to these days?"

"Nothing too big, just watching you guys sprout up."

"Good to know, and Yajirobe when did you get back?"

"Look I already know why you're here." Yajriobe shut him up "I'm saying it now, there isn't a chance in hell of you talking me into fighting in that stupid tournament then you've got another thing coming."

"You haven't changed a bit, but no one is asking you to enter anything so don't worry."

"Good, as long as we're on the same page, I mean it just wouldn't make any sense to bring out the big guns until you have to. A secret weapon is only really useful if you keep it a secret until you need it."

"I know that a lot better than you think I do."

"Still though, no matter how you slice it the world is in quite the pickle." Korin noted "I don't think I've ever seen so much panic from the people down there."

"Yeah I know, life Cell wasn't awesome enough to begin with but seeing him in his Perfect Form us pretty intimidating. I'm not sure I wouldn't be in a panic before long too."

"I say you're doing a fine job hiding your fear so far. Of course, I'm hoping that's because you've found some sort of way to save us in the time chamber?"

"Well…" Goku let out a nervous chuckle.

Gohan eyed Goku intently for a moment ' _Did he? I was with him the entire time, is there some other thing he isn't telling me?'_

"Hey Korin be honest with me, you could pretty much gauge Cell's full power from here can't you?"

"To be fair he hasn't revealed his full strength yet, so it's difficult to say, but I could offer up a rough estimate though."

"Hey anything you can tell us at this point would help, if you don't mind I'd like you to compare the two of us."

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Meanwhile, back up on the Lookout…

Future Gohan looked over at he others "Is it just me or were Father and my younger self still in their Super Saiyan forms this entire time? It just seems to me that they were rather subdued all along."

"There's no question the two of them were in Super Saiyan form." Piccolo noted "At this rate I can only assume they spent a great deal of time training to hold the transformation as easily as they do their natural state."

"So what does that mean, do they intend to undergo some kind of even greater transformation when they fight?"

"And here I thought you were smarter than Goku is." Kai let out a scoff "I figured experience would teach you something, rather than go beyond Super Saiyan like you did they decided that the regular Super Saiyan form is optimal so they've learned to hold it without any effort or emotional stress, so that they can use as much energy on fighting as possible without wasting any on the transformation itself. I'd say that the younger you came up with it, because that's actually brilliant."

"I… I never thought of that. A transformation for the sake of power alone is worthless, I learned that the hard way."

"We know." this was when the force hit them like a ton of bricks, shaking the entire tower in the process "Oh you've gotta be shitting me, that better not be who I think it is."

"Is… is that Father?"

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Down in Korin Tower…

Korin and Yajirobe were considerably taken aback by the amount of power Goku was putting out, the integrity of Korin Tower cracking apart in the process "STOP! Please Goku stop, that's enough! The walls can't take anymore!"

Goku took a breath and powered back down "Sorry about that, it's only half my full power though, so what do you think?"

"You mean that was only half? Good grief, what a frightening creature you can be sometimes. I mean how much more power is it going to take before you get satisfied?"

"Ask me again later."

Gohan shot a glance at Goku in awe ' _Wow dad, and he really thought I could be stronger than him? Not a chance of that happening.'_

"So tell me honestly Korin, how do I compare to Cell as I am right now?"

Korin pondered this for a moment "Well as I said I can only guess, but based on what I have to go on, if you want my honest opinion… Between you and Cell, I'd have to say he still has you outmatched."

"...Oh yeah, I was afraid of that."

"Don't get me wrong, I know you've powered up a great deal from before, but like I said it's just a rough estimate."

"That actually sounds about right, good to know my gut instinct wasn't too off the mark. Thank you for that Korin, like always." he patted Gohan on the shoulder "Come on big guy, we'd better get moving. Well with any luck, I'll see you guys later." and on that note, Goku and Gohan took their leave.

"And he's gone, honestly I doubt really anything should surprise me anymore. _No matter how much I try to think about it, Goku just doesn't seem to have much of a chance of winning, so why does he seem so happy and calm about it? There's no way he's given up already, has he?'_

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Raditz breathed a sigh "That energy was unlike anything I've felt before."

Piccolo nodded "That's true, but I don't think we even came close to experiencing Goku's full power just now, so just imagine what it will be like when the man goes all out. For all we know, we might actually stand a chance."

Kai was less than satisfied by what he had been sensing ' _You've gotta be fucking me, not only is he ridiculously stronger than me, but for all I know Gohan is on the exact same level he is! You always have to have some kind of advantage over me that lets you get a step ahead, every time I think I've managed to close that gap you push away and leave me in the dust!_ Alright, whoever is going into the chamber just do it already. You're holding up the line. I'm not waiting on any of you guys more than I have to."

"If you insist, but we still have time so there's no need for you to rush us." Piccolo promptly made his way inside the chamber.

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

Goku and Gohan materialized on the beach outside Kame House "Alright son, what do you say we go get your mother and head home? I already have our training regime worked out too. We'll put up our feet for three days, followed by three days of pushing our bodies to the limit, and that will be followed by three more days of rest. Seems pretty simple and straight forward, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess." Gohan looked up at Goku "So dad, be honest with me. Are you really sure we're up for this tournament, I mean do we really have any chance against Cell?" he was met with only a chuckle.

"Try not to worry about that, at least for now. Let's go ahead and go inside, I'm sure that your mom misses you." so they made their way inside, to looks of disbelief from the others "Hey you guys, what's up? What, do I have something on my face?"

"Wait a second, Goku is that really you?" asked Krillin.

"Yeah it's me, why?"

"What the hell did they do to you while you were up there?"

"What are you talking about, why are you acting so weird?"

"You are Goku, aren't you?" asked Upa "I mean you look so different, both of you do, it's like you're entirely different people."

"I take that as a compliment, so thanks."

"Is that who I think it is, has my little man come ba-" that was when Chichi made her way into the room, only to freeze at the sight of Goku and Gohan in Super Saiyan form "Wait a second, so who the heck are they supposed to be? Surely not my husband and son right?"

"Yeah it's us, who else would we be?" this was met with a comical yet blood curdling scream as a result.

Chichi wasted no time in doing her thing with Gohan "Oh my sweet baby boy, what have they done to your hair? Please tell mommy you didn't dye it!"

"Take it easy Chichi, I swear it's not what you think." Goku was met with only crying.

"My only son looks like the hype man for a new age punk band!"

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The next day came, and despite all of the chaos revelling throughout the world, there was also a tense calmness surrouding it at the same time.

Cell for example, he was growing particularly bored ' _Right then, perhaps a little warmup might do me some good.'_ so on that thought, he promptly blasted off of the surface of his arena and into the upper atmosphere ' _Looks like the cells I inherited from Frieza and his father certainly do come in handy, don't they?'_ he wasted no time in tearing through one meteor after another within seconds, only to come face to face with one meterorite much larger than him ' _Well I suppose I might as well give the humans a little show and some momentary amusement.'_ he promptly stopped the meteorite with one hand, and then with one clean Ki blast he blew the meteorite apart into thousands of pieces, which were then blown down towards Earth, which led to the people thinking that it was a series of shooting stars, thoroughly freaking them out. As he was about to head back down to Earth however, he glanced over and noticed a ship passing him and heading down towards Earth ' _There seems to be quite the sizeable power level on board that ship, this should prove to be quite interesting._

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Meanwhile, at the Son reisdence…

Chichi made her way around the house looking for Goku and Gohan, only to find them nowhere in sight "You've gotta be kidding me, where the heck did they run off to now?"

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Meanwhile, with Goku and Gohan…

Gohan and Goku were sitting by a riverside, just taking in the beauty of nature and the peaceful calm while they could "It sure is peaceful around here."

Goku nodded "Yeah it is, really."

"Hey, you know something dad? I'm actually really happy."

"Oh yeah, how come?"

"It's because we're fishing like you promised me, it's been a long time coming too."

"Wait a second, when did I promise to take you fishing?"

"Don't you remember? It was way back when you fought Vegeta."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was there so I know it all too well." Yamcha and Raditz suddenly floated down next to the two of them "Don't tell me you actually forgot about that."

"...Oh yeah, I actually had forgotten about that. It's just that so much has been happening between now and then."

Gohan nodded "And we've done all sorts of training and stuff together since then, but we never got around to the fishing until today."

"You're not mad are you?"

"Of course not, I'm just glad we're doing it now."

"I am too, really."

"Kakarot listen…" Raditz sat down next to him and let out a sigh "I feel like I should apologize to you, and to the rest of you. Cell was only able to reach his Perfect Form because I hesitated in shutting down Android 18. I don't really know why, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that to her."

"Hey don't even give it another thought big bro, right now I'm stronger than I've ever been before and Gohan got some good training in as well."

"I just hate that useless feeling, not being able to do anything to make things right."

"I understand how you feel." Gohan told him "That's part of why I enjoy training with Kai as much as I do, even if I don't like fighting at least I can make a difference. I don't want anyone to have to feel helpless in any situation like that or like now."

"You've got a keen mind along with that heart Gohan, but you two right now are at a level I can only dream of."

"Hey come on Raditz, don't be like that." Goku gave him the classic Son grin

"Oh believe me I get him more thank you think." Yamcha let out a sigh "It feels like millions of years ago since the days where we were gathering the Dragon Balls for the first time."

"Does it? To me it seems like only yesterday when I met you and Bulma, and we gathered the Dragon Balls for the first time. We were so green back then."

"Yeah I know, and now look at us. We're both married, you've got a 10 year old son, I finally settled down with Bulma and now we have a baby girl of our own. The old days are over and gone for good."

"Hey come on man, stop being so modest." Goku let out a chuckle, only for his expression to turn serious and his head snapped up, and he gave a smirk "Looks like he's here."

"What the hell are you-" Yamcha's head snapped up and he nearly froze "Oh man, you've gotta be kidding me. Is that Frieza, how the hell could he-"

"Easy Yamcha, that's not Frieza and he's not an enemy. He's the same race as Frieza, but I know for a fact that he's here to help us. Yamcha, get Kai, Krillin and Upa, then lock onto my Ki and meet me in an hour. I'm gonna go greet our new ally. In the meantime Gohan, you head back home okay?" and then he blitzed away with Instant Transmission.

"Okay… This just got weird."

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About an hour passed.

Goku touched down in an abandoned desert, waiting as he watched the ship slowly lower itself towards the ground ' _Well here he comes, and I thought Frieza was the one who had a taste for the dramatic flare. From the looks of things his power is crazy too.'_

The ship slowly landed on the ground in front of him, and Cooler was the first one to step out of it, followed by several unnamed men "It would seem that you've gained a considerably amount of power since the last time we met Son Goku."

"The same could be said for you Cooler, it took me a minute to recognize you. So what are you doing here?"

"It shouldn't be that hard to figure out. I detected that monstrous energy signature from the planet I was on. What's more is that the energy I felt appeared to have traces of the Saiyan people, the Namekian people, and even that of my own family. I had to put my current business on hold, as I knew that a power of this magnitude would inevitable pose a threat to not only your Earth, but the entire universe as well."

"So you came to help, thank you." they both promptly shook hands.

"You've aided myself and my empire considerably in the past, so now I'm returning the favor to you."

"Wour timing couldn't have been better, do you have that Namekian Forte with you?"

"I suspected you would need his talents?"

"Not me specifically, but I do know some people who would benefit from what he has to offer them." Goku glanced over and smirked "And that should be them now."

" **Nail Gun!"** a Nail Gun soared past Goku and hurtled towards Cooler at full speed, only for him to deflect it with ease "FUCK!"

"And that would be Kai, he in particular needs it."

Sure enough, Kai and the others dropped to the ground and readied fighting stances "The space lizard here has 10 seconds to give me a good reason not to blast his head off before I literally blast his head off."

"The fact that I deflected your attack with such visible ease." Cooler pointed out dryly.

"I said a good reason."

"...Fair enough. Regardless, for one appearing to be of such a young age your power is clearly quite impressive."

"Flattery gets you nowhere."

"Rest assured I have no intention of harming any of you or any of the people on this planet. I came here because the power I sensed is a threat to all of us, this entire universe if he is not stopped. I have no intention of allowing this creature to do as he pleases. One of my loyal suboordinates has the abilities necessary to allow you to at least stand against this monster when the time comes."

"Meaning what exactly?" asked Yamcha.

"Meaning that I will assist all of you in the same way I assisted Son Goku and Tien Shinhan in their training when they crash landed on one of my planets." Cooler glanced back to the entrance of his ship "I now require your skills Forte."

Sure enough, at that moment Forte made his way out of the ship and bowed to Cooler "I take it you require my capabilities once more my lord?"

"Indeed I do my friend, see what you can do. In the meantime, I believe that I should see for myself what sort of monster currently plagues this planet." and on that note, Cooler promptly disappeared via Instant Transmission.

"I suspected as much, it would be unwise for my lord to go into battle without studying the capabilities of his opponent first hand."

Goku blinked "Huh… I didn't know he knew Instant Transmission."

"It never came up before." Forte turned back to the others "Before we proceed, if you have any questions for me feel free to answer them."

"Yeah I've got one." Kai stepped up to him "I don't know why you're with Frieza's brother and frankly I'm not interested in hearing why, what can you do to help me surpass a Super Saiyan?"

"Surpass a Super Saiyan, you say? You have quite a fire within you child. Very well, kneel down and I shall see what I can do."

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Meanwhile, at the Cell Games arena…

Cell didn't even have to look back to know that someone was standing behind him, and he just gave a simple smirk "According to the memories of my genetic sources, you must be the brother of Frieza, your name is Cooler if I'm not mistaken."

Sure enough, Cooler was standing behind Cell, eyeing him with suspicion, curiosity and some intentment "So you know about my identity, and your energy signature has traces of my brother and my father, and even some Saiyan and Namekian traces as well. Which raises the question, who and what exactly are you?"

"So you came here seeking information about my existence? Very well, I suppose I may as well indulge you. Considering I have no knowledge of you ever coming to Earth before, I doubt you're at all familiar with my creator, Dr Gero of the Red Ribbon Army."

"I am not."

"As expected. What you would understand is that I happen to be purely biomechanical, unlike my fellow Androids who were also created and/or modified by the good doctor, who eventually decided to create me with one sole purpose for existing: to become perfect. While still in the development process back in his lab, I was infused with the genetic material of the greatest and most powerful warriors in the galaxy, good and evil alike, collected over the course of several decades."

"Which would explain why you have such traces of my race and others."

"Indeed, and through my genetic makeup I know many of the secrets your kind and others have to offer, and combined with the secrets bestowed upon me by Dr Gero, I have become what he dreamt for me to be: the ultimate perfect warrior, the greatest power this universe has even known."

"It seems he was quite a man of vision."

"Indeed he was. Backstory aside, what do you think of this setting? In case you weren't aware, this is the ring where we shall decide the fate of the world in eight days, as well as that of the galaxy itself, whether they want it or not. Stylish, is it not?"

"Perhaps, rather intimate."

"I should hope so, the process proved to be quite strenuous, especially considering I had just finished patching a certain hole."

"Appearances matter little in comparison to stakes." Cooler and Cell turned to face each other, their auras clashing wildly and creating an electrical storm above them, shaking the landscape itself as a result "So this is what the good doctor dedicated his life to creating, most impressive I must admit."

"You flatter me so."

"As I would hope. I'll be taking part in this event you have planned, so long as you give all of us adequate time to prepare."

"I wouldn't want to interfere with necessary preparation, especially if it will give my perfection the challenge it deserves."

"Oh trust me, if you and I should be granted the circumstances of meeting in battle, then I'll be sure that you're far from disappointed." and with that, Cooler took his leave.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

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Meanwhile, back at Cooler's ship…

Forte studied Kai and the others intently "Yes, I should be able to unlock your potential, at least to an extent."

"What do you mean to an extent?" asked Kai "And for the record Yamcha and I already had our potential unlocked by the Grand Elder back on Namek a few years ago."

"It can be done to a person more than once, but once it has been done to a person, they must biologically age every five years before it can work again."

"So to sum it up, you can make me stronger?"

"To an extent, yes."

"Well in that case, dibs! Lay it on me!"

"Such a fire in you child, and quite the eagerness as well." Forte placed a hand on Kai's head, and a white glow surrounded his body.

Kai got to his feet and took a moment to get a grasp on his new power "Forte was it? Thank you for this, now if you'll excuse me I have a new power to try out." and he promptly blasted off into the skies.

"The boy's fire burns brightly."

"Yeah, he's always been like that." Yamcha stepped up to Forte next "So you can unlock that much power for all of us?"

"I can awaken your potential to the same extent for all of you, but how much power you gain depends on your current power level. To put it simply, so long as you were on the same level as the boy before, you would be after."

"He's ahead of us by miles."

"Then no."

"Just making sure." Yamcha got down on one knee as Forte placed a hand on his head, a white glow surrounding his body.

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Meanwhile, at the Son residence…

Gohan and Goku were enjoying the days before the tournament in the best way they could: by stuffing their faces and just relaxing "Wow, that was tasty."

"If you're done then you should get started on your homework." Chichi told him.

"Got it."

Raditz seemed less than impressed by their methods of preparations ' _This can't seriously be how these two plan to spend their time preparing for the tournament, I'm all for stuffing my face as much as any Saiyan, but how the hell is that going to help us defeat Cell?'_ then his head snapped up and he bolted to his feet "Okay guys, I take it you feel that?"

"Yep, I figured this was coming." Gohan made his way back into the room wearing his new gi that Piccolo gave him "Sorry mom, but I have a feeling studying will have to wait." and he made his way outside the house.

It was at that moment that Kai dropped to the ground in front of him, his body radiating his milky white aura "You knew that this was going to come Gohan, it's time for you and me to face off again."

"Looks like you've really powered up in the last day or so, but you don't look any different. You didn't go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber did you?"

"Nope, I didn't need to. I had some help to get a hell of a lot stronger, but now that I have this new power I need to test it for real. You and me, one on one, the others staying the hell out of this one. We're doing this, right here and right now."

"Not in front of my house, we don't need it blown up."

"Fine, bottom of the mountain, right now."

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5 minutes later, at the bottom of the mountain…

Raditz and Goku looked over the scene from high above as they watched Gohan and Kai prepare to go all out in their fight. "Looks like the two of them plan to go the distance with this one, don't they?"

"Gohan never fights with full power unless he really has to." Goku told him "I have a pretty good idea of how this fight would turn out if he gave it his everything, but this should still be pretty interesting."

"From what Nail told me, last time the two of them went at it their fight was one hell of a sight to behold, and now they're both leagues beyond what they were back then. The only question is, who will come out on top?"

"I already know the answer to that, but the other won't go down without a fight."

"I can tell, from what Nail tells me he understands something crucial in being a warrior, a truth that no one had to teach him, that there's a difference between those who aim for the top and those who will settle. That difference matters."

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Gohan wasted no time as he threw aside his cape and flared his golden aura "Alright Kai what are you waiting for, if we're gonna do this then I want you to power up already."

"Like I needed an invitation for that." Kai's Namek-Ken 10x aura flared into life, and then even higher as he pushed it even further into the 20x range, the force shaking the ground like an earthquake.

' _His Namek-Ken is way higher than I thought he'd be able to push it, whatever he did to get stronger definitely worked. I'll prbably have to go all out against him in this fight, not that I wouldn't no matter whether I need to. He hates it when I hold back, if I hold out on him then he'd probably never forgive me._ So is this it Kai, is this how far you can push yourself at the moment even with the Namek-Ken?"

"That's about the sum of it yeah, drinking the Ultra Divine Water helped me to push the limitations of the Namek-Ken way beyond what they were before. The good thing about the Namek-Ken is that I can push it as high as I want to through willpower alone, and if done right I can push way past the limits of a Super Saiyan. I learned a long time ago from someone I deeply love that there's a huge difference between those who settle and those who aim for the top, and that's why I aim for the top in everything I do."

"Cell is without a doubt the strongest enemy we've ever faced, and even after everything there's no guarantee that any of us will actually be able to beat him. That kind of thought scares me, but I still feel a sense of comfort knowing that my best friend is by my side, that his warrior's drive pushes me to get strnoger myself!" and so Gohan charged forward, meeting Kai in an explosive collision and elbowing him in the face.

Kai dodged the next attack and began firing off a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed, resulting in the two of them trading een blows until their fists collided with a blinding flash, and once they broke off Kai fired a quick Nail Gun.

Gohan quickly dodged the Nail Gun and fired a barage of Ki blasts at full speed.

Kai wasted no time or effort as he dodged, blocked and deflected every Ki blast being hurled at him with ease "Don't think that's all it's going to take for you to beat me!"

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Gohan blitzed behind Kai and dealt him a sharp kick to the face, the force sending him crashing into a nearby plateau, and then he prepared to follow up with a quick Kamehameha blast.

Kai rebounded just in time to fire a Nail Gun as he forced his Namek-Ken up to level 30, which allowed him to overpower Gohan's Kamehameha as a result.

Gohan blitzed out of the path of the blast, blitzed down towards Kai and dealt him a solid kick to the chest while he was still stuck in the position of firing the Nail Gun, and then he quickly began forcing Kai on the defensive with a swift barrage of punches and kicks.

With his aggravation growing, Kai dealt Gohan a heavy fist to the gut and followed up with a quick Masenko to the face, sending him tumbling backwards a great distance.

Gohan rebounded after a few seconds as the two of them both took to the skies, their auras blending together in the form of a double helix that lit up the skies for miles around.

Kai took the opportunity to deal Gohan a furious barrage of attacks, dealing him repeated knees to the spine "You know how I feel about you holding out on me!" they started repeaetedly punching each other in the face and torso, which ended with the grappling in a fierce power struggle "You know better than to hold the fuck out on me, I told you that I want you taking this seriously!" he grabbed Gohan by the arm and hurled him even higher into the air, and he charged in to finish it as he pushed his Namek-Ken up to 40x "I know that you're still holding out on me right now, I told you to come at me with everything you've got!"

"You want me to give everything?! Well fine, you asked for it!" with a mighty roar, Gohan's gold colored aura roared into life.

"I said to give me everything, becuase that's what I'm giving you! That's what I've always been giving you!"

"And everything is what you're going to get!" Gohan charged downwards towards Kai at full speed, resulting in a blinding clash as he dealt Kai a full force fist to the gut.

Kai slugged Gohan in the gut in retaliation and dealt him a fist to the face "Come on you son of a bitch, give me all of your strength right here and now! Do you hear me?! EVERYTHING!"

"FINE!" Gohan flared his golden aura as high as he could, his body beginning to crackle with a small amount of bio electricity as a result "Alright Kai, come at me so we can end this!"

"I PLAN TO!" pushing his power to the absolute limit, Kai charged towards Gohan as high and as fast as he could, resulting in a blinding clash that lit up the skies across the mountain, as well as shaking the surface of the entire planet. When everything subsided after a moment, Kai had lost his Namek-Ken aura, but he still whipped around and aimed one last fist at Gohan, but he stopped just before he made contact, and instead his body finally gave out and began falling towards the ground at full speed.

Gohan caught Kai in his arms and gently lowered him to the ground "We'll keep pushing each other, we'll both keep getting stronger together my friend. I promise."

"Quite the admirable battle."

Gohan looked up to see Cooler lower himself to the ground in front of him "I take it you were here long enough to see us fight."

"Indeed I was. The boy has overwhelming tenacity and a drive to succeed, the likes of which I've rarely seen throughout the galaxy."

"He's always been like that, it's that drive that's been pushing him to keep up with me for as long as I can remember."

"Drive is critical. Remember this young one. After spending so many years roaming throughout the universe, you tend to learn a few things. Striving to be the best, to aim for the top rather than just settling for where you are now, caring deeply about those you hold dear and having an overwhelming desire to protect them, both of these feelings are crucial in continuing down the path of a warrior. Don't forget that."

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The next day came.

Raditz was growing restless waiting for Piccolo to get out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber "I can't be the only one losing patience right now, he's late."

"Keep in mind that he does have a full two days in the chamber, unlike myself." Nail pointed out calmly "Considering his defeat at Cell's hands, it only makes sense that he would wish to make the most of it."

"I get that, but we have to get stronger in there too. In case he wasn't aware, he wasn't the only one who got a major thrashing from Cell. My neck is still making a weird squishing noise from when he kicked me."

"None of us need or want to hear anymore about that, especially considering he's here."

Sure enough, the door swung wide open and Piccolo emerged, his clothing ripped and torn in several places "I didn't even need to hear what you two were talking about to know that I waited the right amount of time to come out."

"So did you get strong enough to actually make a difference against Cell?"

"There's only one way to find out, and you'll only find out on the day of the tournament, so if you're going to get in there then I suggest you do so already."

"Fine by me." Raditz promptly made his way over towards the chamber door.

Nail silently followed after him, studying Piccolo intently as he did so ' _Piccolo's power level has increased to heights I could never have imagined. The question is, will it be enough for him to stand against Cell?'_

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Kai was in the middle of doing a set of pushups on the floor of the Lookout, when he looked up at the news and let out a groan at what he was hearing "Oh that can't be good."

" _Citizens of the world, the battle may be fierce, but your Royal Defence Force is determined to put a stop to this monstrous Cell regardless of whatever risks may be necessary. Though the times we face are indeed quite turbulent, I urge all of you to remain calm.'_

"Yeah this is going to be bad, the military won't even be able to scratch him, which means that it's up to us to take him down now. And maybe 16 depending on how that goes."

"I thought you were helping with that too." Future Gohan pointed out.

"I had more training to do, and I was sick of listening to Surfin Bird or "Kill Son Goku" over and over again. Besides, Dr Briefs and Mother of the Year, using that sarcastically obviously, can handle that."

"You've never been snarky about Bulma's father for as long as I've known you."

"Because unlike a certain bluenette, he never gets on my nerves and never gives me any reason to be snarky." Kai glanced over at the edge of the Lookout and pulled out a telescope from a capsule he kept in his gi "Okay, that's definitely not good."

"Definitely not. So how come you're up here with me?"

"Goku's apparently trying to be a dad to my version of you for once, and he's out on a picnic with young you and the other Mother of the Year. As for Yamcha and the others, they're still getting a grip on their new powers, testing them out against Cooler's guys."

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Meanwhile, in a rocky wasteland…

Cooler stood in a rocky wasteland overseeing the battle that was about to begin, with one side containing his own Armored Squadron, and Yamcha, Krillin and Upa being on the other "Let me make this clear to all of you, this is all simply to determine how much of an increase in power these earthlings have gained as a result of Forte's abilities, and it's not a battle to the death, so don't go overboard again. Doore and Neiz."

"Great, you blow up one planet." Doore muttered.

"Now then, when both parties are ready. Begin!"

"Good, because there's a new technique I've been working on over the past few days. **Wolf Fang Saber!"** Yamcha stepped forward and summoned a crimson colored Ki blade in his hand "So what do you think?"

Salza was the first one to approach him and shot him a smirk "A fellow user of the energy blade then eh? How about a game of blades, eh mon ami?" he formed a Ki blade of his own, referred to as his Salza Blade.

"After you perdant. **Kaioken 3x!"** Yamcha quickly flashed into his Kaioken and pushed it to the third level.

"How kind of you." Salza rushed towards Yamcha as he raised his Salza Blade, resulting in the two Ki blades clashing, only for the Ki blade covering Salza's hand to be instantly shattered into nothingness upon the blades making contact "Quite impressive, you've come far mon ami."

"You find a whole new level of power you never knew existed when you have something to protect and fight for."

"Then let's see you back up that claim!" Salza let out a howl as he fired off a Full Power Energy Wave, engulfing Yamcha in the explosion that followed.

When the blast subsided, Yamcha wasn't even remotely scracthed, only a few hairs out of place as he shot a smirk over at Salza "I've gotta give it to you, if it wasn't for the Kaioken I probably would've been in trouble."

"You can handle that one Salza, let's see how the bald little shit can handle my patented Bind Wave!" on that note, Neiz shot out a net of electricity from his fingers, engulfing Krillin and wreathing his body in it, causing him to cry out in agony "Deep fried human, this oughta be tasty!"

"I… don't… think so… **Kaioken 5x!"** Krillin pushed his Kaioken to the fifth level and promptly forced the electricity out of his body "Again for the Kaioken save, you guys are pretty good to be honest."

"Let's see if you little shits can counter this!" Doore powered up and charged at them at full speed.

" **Kaioken 3x!"** Upa powered up his own Kaioken and dealt Doore a full force kick to the head, sending him crashing into a nearby plateau.

"You son of a-"

"No repeats of that incident Doore, I've seen enough." Cooler blitzed in between both parties and flared his aura slightly, which was more than enough to stop both parties in their tracks in an instant "I made it clear that this was just to determine the power increase the Earthlings had gained, not an all out brawl." he turned to the others "I believe that you've gained a considerably enough increase that you should at least be able to provide support against the monster Cell, but only if absolutely necessary. Don't allow your arrogance to overcome you, and don't pick a fight with him unnecessarily."

Yamcha and the others shared a few looks, and they all nodded "Understood."

"Good." Cooler looked towards Salza and the others "And worry not, I also intend to have the three of you undergo similar increases in power while the rest of us participate in this so called tournament.

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Meanwhile, back up on the Lookout…

Kai looked down at the Earth below and let out a low whistle "Huh, looks like those three powered up more than I expected. If I had to guess, I'd say that with a sufficiennt Kaioken multiplier, they could take out the likes of 17 and 18 if they wanted to."

"Not that it matters." Future Gohan pointed out "Those Androids are gone, and Cell is way beyond anything they were capable of."

"And of course I'm still way stronger than them." Kai looked over at the radio "And it looks like we have an update."

" _We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for a special news update."_

"You have to give that guy balls for actually going into work, that's more than you can say for the rest of the idiots down there."

" _The Royal Defence Force has reached coordinate 28KS.5, where they will launch an all out assault against the creature known as Cell. Their attack will begin at any moment."_

"Yeah, that's not going to end well."

" _We're taking you to the scene now."_

" _I've never seen anything like this ladies and gentlemen, it's the entire Royal Defence Force deployed to one single location! The chances of this monster surviving this outpouring of military might are second to none!"_

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Meanwhile, with our main hero…

Having been listening to everything that was happening, Goku could only grit his teeth in pure frustration "Dammit those fools, they don't stand a chance against Cell! The only thing they're going to do out there is get themselves killed!"

" _They're hitting the monster with everything they've got ladies and gentlemen, the ordinance is almost definite! This assault is absolutely tremendous, the military is not letting up! In all honesty, when they finally stop shooting, I don't think there's going to be even a piece left of that monster!"_

"Dammit stop it, get away from there before it's too late!"

" _It… It can't be! It appears that Cell has survived the assault completely unscathed! He's now floating in mid air as if nothing happened! What in the world is he?!"_

"Dammit!" Goku had to force himself not to spike his power in his rage "They should've run when they had the chance, now Cell is going to hunt them down like dogs!" he was proven right by the sounds of explosions and screams of agony that followed "Dammit!" forcing himself to calm down, he stepped out of the car and turned to the others "Hey Chichi, Gohan, listen. You guys can go on ahead to Master Roshi's without me, I need to go talk with Piccolo up at the Lookout over something important, something that can't wait any longer." and so he promptly disappeared with Instant Transmission.

Gohan and Chichi shared a confused look "So does that mean we're supposed to just stay here by ourselves? He was the only one of us who can drive."

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

" _Over the course of the days since the announcement of the Cell Games, dozens upon dozens of evacuation orders have been issued all over the globe. Thousands upon millions head for the countryside, including the endangered Saskatoad T-rexes, while others seek shelter. The world has never terror as real as it is today."_

"You've gotta be kidding me." Piccolo grumbled.

Future Gohan nodded "I know how you feel, the fact that dinosaurs are still a thing. It's weird how we never talk about it, whether in this timeline or mine, at least not since we drove them out of the cities."

"Not that, I'm talking about terror. Never seen, my jolly green ass! My own father released every murdered out onto the streets and overthrew the world government in the span of two days!"

"Oh yeah Father mentioned that to me, and the fact that the king of our planet is a blue carin terrier wearing glasses."

"It's bullshit!"

"I actually think that's pretty progressive."

"Not helping."

" _Even the attack of the Saiyans five years ago pales in comparison to this overwhelming threat, as if comparing a cataclysm to a rampaging toddler."_

"See what I mean, the giant dumbass turned an entire city into a glass floor and ripped apart every organ in my body!"

Future Gohan shuddered "Believe me, I remember that all too well. I blew his arm off, so that was somewhat catharsis, which doesn't really work when you're only five."

"...Where's Kai right now?"

"On the phone over there, something about securing his future after Cell."

Sure enough, Kai was sitting on the edge of the Lookout talking on his phone over a very serious topic "And so the brave Son Goku and his son defeated the evil monster Garlic Jr, but it couldn't have been done without the help of Piccolo, Kami and the greatest ally known to manking. The sex master and kung fu legend himself, Kai! So what do you think?"

" _Yeah I'm going to have to stop you right there, a few questions. First question, why would he summon the Dead Zone, the only thing that could defeat him?"_

"Okay I'll be honest, I wrote myself into a corner with that whole immortality shtick, and I pretty much regretted it about 20 minutes later."

" _Second question, I mean no offense, but why exactly were you there?"_

"For the same reason that I'm making my most memorable line into a t shirt. Fuck power levels, Fuck Super Saiyans, and fuck you. Any more questions?"

" _Just one more; Why did you write yourself getting peed on?"_

"I've got a better question, how much would you pay me to get peed on?"

" _...You're gonna go far in this business."_

"It's all a matter of knowing what people like. So anyway fax me over the contract after the tournament is over, or actually email it like a normal person, and then we'll get to work on the production of Skygina." he hung up and turned around, only to be met with disturbed and confused looks from everyone present "What? Unlike the Triclops, I actually am allowed to have hobbies outside of training."

That was when Goku blitzed onto the scene with Instant Transmission "Hey guys, how's the training going?"

"You already know Palmtree, you saw me and Gohan go at it and me lose."

"Yeah I know, just trying to break the ice. Speaking of which look at you Piccolo, looks like you knocked out a lot of training and really powered up inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber didn't you?"

Piccolo nodded "That's right, I had two days so I made the most of it."

"Yeah well it really shows, I say good job. You seem way stronger than you were before."

"I'm with Kai for once, quit beating around the bush, yes I'm strong but I won't fair any better against Cell than I did before."

"Yeah, that does sound about right."

"You're honest to a fault, and frankly it's always irritating. But enough talk, what are you really doing here?"

"I was wondering, is it possible for you to split back into two Namekians like you were back before you mered with Kami?"

"What brought this on?"

"Well I'm sure you already know this, but as soon as you and Kami merged into one Namekian, all of the Dragon Balls disappeared along with Kami, the guy who created them, and considering how many people Cell killed, it would be great if we could get them all working again, so we can wish all of them back to life."

"Not just Cell, I'm sure that Dr Gero's other Androids and the good doctor himself probably killed a considerably number of people when they first appeared." Future Gohan pointed out.

"Yeah that is true, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have them handy later on too.

Piccolo slowly shook his head "As noble of a thought as that is, I'm afraid that it just isn't possible for me to do that. Now that Kami and I are merged it's permanent, there's no way we can separate again. If it were a possibility, then I would've never delayed that decision for as long as I did."

"Oh, well damn. But then again, since you did absorb him, would it be possible for you to make a new set of Dragon Balls yourself?"

"Unfortunately no. I'm from the Warrior Clan, Kami was from the Dragon Clan. One of them punches people, the other one makes Dragon Balls. In simple terms, if you want Dragon Balls then you need another Namekian."

"What about New Namek?" Future Gohan pointed out "The Namekians all got wished onto anotehr planet where they could live in peace, so we could just ask one of them to come and be our new Guardian right? There should be a whole gaggle of Namekians capable and willing of making new Dragon Balls."

"We would have to find New Namek first, and god only knows where that is. Also, gaggle?"

"Well what would you call them? A pod of Namekians, a pride?"

"More like a cornucopia, I mean what would you call a group of humans?"

"An infestation." was Kai's contribution to the conversation "Or maybe that's just in case of people like Trump."

"The point is that without a Namekian from the Dragon Clan, there's no chance of us getting any Dragon Balls."

"Actually Gohan does have a point." Goku commented "If I can find the Namekians' new home planet, I can try to convince one of them to live at the Lookout for the time being, so that way we can get a new Guardian to make us some new Dragon Balls."

"Okay hold on a second, that's all well and good but how are you going to find them? We have no idea what planet they ended up on, and it will take way too much time."

"Maybe if we go around in a ship or something, but if I use Instant Transmission then I can be there in a flash. Their Ki signatures will be a lot like yours, so I just have to focus hard on outer space and find them."

"You mean you can sense power from that far away?"

"Only one way to find out, but as long as they're not sitting on the other side of the universe then I should be able to. Let's give it a shot, so everyone just hold still." Goku put two fingers to his forehead for a moment, but stopped and gave his classic goofy grin "Sorry guys no dice, I was picking up a whole lot of nothing."

"...Well shit."

"But I do have another idea, I can just head over to King Kai's planet and try to sense them from there. Okay, so I just have to focus on his Ki and… Okay found him, see ya!" and then he promptly disappeared in a flash.

"I can't figure out if he's a genius or if he's got some major brain damage."

"Keep in mind that he's my literal father, so I know for a fact that it usually depends on the circumstances." Future Gohan let out a chuckle "I always do miss that."

"Hey guys shut up, the dog king is on the news." Kai turned up the volume on the small TV they had at the Lookout…

" _Citizens of the world, this is your king speaking. As I'm sure all of you saw during the live broadcast earlier today, the entirety of the Royal Defence Force was wiped out by the creature known as Cell. The fault of this tragedy falls on myself and me alone. To those left behind by their passing, I am truly sorry. We believed that sending them out was our best chance of survival in these times of terror. The grim truth is that there is nothing more we can do, but please do not lose heart my dear subjects. Long ago, a young man stepped forward and freed us from the horrific terror unleashed by the evil King Piccolo. Perhaps that hero will return and save us one more time from certain doom. There is only one thing we have now, and that is hope."_

"Say what you will about or king being a literal dog, but he knows how to give a speech."

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Meanwhile, at the Cell Games Arena…

Despite the chaos that had been unleashed mere hours before, a brave yet heavily armored journalist and his team were slowly making their way closer to Cell's arena "This is bullshit man, this is suicide."

"Hey come on dude, pull your balls out of your purse and do your job." the crew leader told him flatly.

"Okay, that's sexist as hell."

"Yeah it's sexist alright, and do you know what's standing right out there? A pulitzer, now go get it!"

"If I don't make it, tell my dog I love him." with a deep terrified gulp, the journalist made his way into the arena and promptly held a mic up to Cell's face "Uh… hello."

"Oh, hello there." believe it or not, definitely the former for fans of the Abridged series, Cell was actually pretty cool about seeing him there "How may I help you?"

"Oh, um… W-Well Mr Cell…"

"Oh please now, don't be so formal. Call me Perfect Cell."

"Oh… Okay then, Perfect Cell-"

"Mr Perfect Cell."

"M-M-Mr Perfect Cell, can you tell the audience where you are and who you came from? Wait no, I mean-"

"No, that's actually an apt choice of words. As for the where, this is the emaculate Cell Games Arena, located in 28ks.5. As for who… Let me weave you the tale of my origin. Though I must prefice that it does drag on in places, so I'll try to minimize the filler and the movie adaptations for you. Now then, our story begins as many stories often do: With a young girl shooting a little boy in the face."

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Meanwhile, on King Kai's planet…

Goku materialized on the surface of King Kai's planet "Okay, now to make sure I'm at the right place. Small green planet, gold clouds as far as the eye can see, looks mind numbingly boring, yeah I think I'm in the right place."

"Oh believe me, you are." that was when a young woman with brown hair in a ponytail and a crimson colored gi got his attention "I've been here for about half a decade, so frankly you don't know the meaning of mind numbingly boring."

"I don't imagine I would, it's been awhile Scarlet. Looks like you've really powered up."

"You too Goku, the only difference is that I don't have the Saiyan biology going for me so I actually have to work to power up."

"So that's where Kai gets it from." Goku let out a chuckle, but then his face fell slightly "Hey just out of curiosity, have Tien or Tarble shown up here in the past few days?"

"Oh they showed up yesterday, I just left them in hell to tangle with some of the stronger guys who want to kill you to see how they stack up. I checked on them about an hour ago, from what I saw Tien was going toe to toe with Slug and Tarble was wrecking Turles without too much of a problem."

"Huh, good for them. At least they can do some training up here before I wish them back after we take down Cell, but in the meantime I'm kind of here on business."

"They already caught me up to speed on what's going on, Cell sure sounds like the kind of monster that haunts my dreams. From the looks of it, I'd say you and everyone down there has your work cut out for you. No offense Goku, but it seems like you always get caught in the middle whenever Earth is about to get blown up, whether it's because they come for you or it's because you're the only one powerful enough to save it."

"Welcome to my world. Anyway, can you get King Kai for me? I was hoping to find a Namekian to come and take over as our new Guardian so that we could get the Dragon Balls back, and we'd have them before the actual fighting starts, so if King Kai could point me in the direction of their new planet, that sure would help to speed things up."

"I see where you're coming from Goku, but unfortunately King Kai is up at the grand hanco's planet meeting with the other Kai's of the universe. But if it helps, I think I can give you a rough idea of which way to go."

"That would be awesome, thanks."

"Sure, just hold on for a second." Scarlet pulled a book out of her gi, turned to a certain page and started looking in different directions.

"You know I really hope one of the Namekians will be willing to come back with me, I know that Mr Popo has been lonely ever since Kami had merged with Piccolo, and I know Nail would love to see one of his old friends again. Looking back they do have a lot of similarities, they're both quiet but cool, and they both give off this vibe that they're kind of lonely. I feel bad for both of them, especially Mr Popo since the internet connection up at the Lookout-"

"Goku I mean this in the nicest way possible, shut the hell up so I can concentrate. Seriously, even your breathing is distracting me as if you were a tiny Darth Vadar."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Good, because-" she suddenly gagged and staggered back slightly "Sorry, I actually just swallowed a bug."

"Hey come on Scarlet, quit messing around."

"Like you have room to talk, you have the attention span of a squirrel- Oh wait hold that reference to Drake & Josh, I found them. They're in that direction, just use your Instant Transmission and you should get there in seconds."

"Gotcha." Goku placed two fingers on his forehead and prepared to blitz away, only to suddenly stop and look back at Scarlet "You know, there's something I've actually been wondering for awhile now. How come you haven't used King Kai's telepathy to try and talk to Kai? I mean you've done it with Yamcha, so why not?"

"...Oh boy, I was hoping you'd never ask that." Scarlet let out a sigh.

"Why?"

"Because I don't think I'd be able to bear it. Look Goku, you have a privelage I don't: To be able to watch your son growing up before your very eyes, to actually be there to experience it in person, to take him in your arms and tell hom how proud you are of him and how much you love him. I can't do that with Kai. Just hearing his voice and not being able to see how much he's grown, I don't think I'd be able to bear it."

"I… I never thought of it like that. But I can tell you this; Despite all of his… quirks and other things going for or against him, Kai's turning into a strong and fine young man, and I think you'd be proud to see how far he's come." and with that, Goku departed for New Namek and disappeared in a flash.

"I'm sure I would be."

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Meanwhile, at the Cell Games Arena…

Cell continued with his interview, now getting into the Z portion of the story "And so it turns out, he was an alien the whole time!"

The journalist's jaw nearly dropped at what he was hearing "Woah, I did not see that coming at all!"

"I know right? So Goku and Yamcha both die, they train in the Afterlife for a year in preparation for when two more Saiyans show up…"

"Wait a second, what about Goku's brother and that other guy?"

"You mean Raditz and Beets? Well Beets was killed by Piccolo, and Raditz left the planet, but we'll get back to him later. Anyway, we're focusing on training for when the Saiyans show up, so now, enter: Kai. Now trust me, you'll have to strap yourself in for this cartoon character."

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Meanwhile, on New Namek…

The Namekian people, or what was left of them, were simply going about their day, only for that to be suddenly disrupted by the sight of Goku suddenly appearing out of nowhere "What in the world?"

Goku looked around at the Namekians in awe "Wow, it's like a whole bunch of Piccolo's all in one place. Eesh, if this was a few years ago this might have freaked me out."

Moori, the new Grand Elder of the Namekians as of about 5 years ago, slowly and cautiously approached Goku "So stranger, who are you exactly?"

"Oh yeah hi there, sorry to barge in like this. My name is Son Goku, and I came from the planet Earth-"

"Oh yes of course, the younger brother of our guardian Raditz, the heroic Son Goku who did battle with Frieza on our original Planet Namek and saved our people from almost certain extinction!"

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't save your planet while I was at it."

"...Anyway, it would seem that your planet is the one in grave danger now."

"You guys could sense Cell all the way out here? Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that, especially considering Cooler and his men showed up to help."

"We don't know the specifics behind the carnage you face, but we've sensed an evil presence eminating from the direction of your world."

"Well if you have a vague idea then that's good enough for me, so that means I can just cut to the chase. I came here because I'm looking for a Namekian to step up and become the new guardian of our planet, mainly someone who can make Dragon Balls since the Guardian is the only one who can make Dragon Balls, and we're going to need them when the time comes for us to wish back all of the people Cell and the other Androids have killed up until now. So yeah, if any of you want to volunteer then you'd be doing us Earthlings a really huge favor." this caused many of the Namekians to back away.

"Very well, if that's what you need then I know a Namekian perfectly suited to the job. Just a moment. Say Dende, come on over here my boy!" he quickly called Dende over to his side "This here is Dende, he's a good friend of your son Gohan, and he enjoyed the company of Kai and the others as well. He's been talking about Earth every day since we left, he often says he misses his human friends and he would love to play with Gohan again."

"That's great and all, but there's still the big picture to consider. We need someone who knows how to make Dragon Balls."

"And he will. Don't let his youth or diminutive size cause you concern, I can assure you for a fact that Dende will make you a first rate guardian."

"Good enough for me, if that's the case then I say Dende is hired."

"Uh hi, nice to meet you." Dende nervously shook his hand.

"Okay then, let's head back to Earth."

"You mean right now?"

"We're facing off against Cell in a matter of days, we need the Dragon Balls as soon as we can get them."

"Well… okay, let's go."

"Great! Hey thanks a lot for this you guys, I promise we'll be sure to take really good care of him back on Earth, and we'll be sure to take down Cell too, so you guys have nothing to worry about."

"I'll take your word for it, we have faith in you." Moori assured him "Remember Goku, we'll all be rooting for you from here."

"I can't thank all of you enough, and we'll be sure to give you the good news once Cell is out of the picture for good. Well we'd better get going, we have to have the Dragon Balls ready for when the big day comes, so see ya!" and so Goku and Dende promptly disappeared in a flash using Instant Transmission.

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Meanwhile, at the Cell Games Arena…

By this point, Cell had gotten to the events of the battle with Frieza back on Namek "So after everything, he just starts crying!"

The journalist let out a low whistle "Wow, like a bitch!"

"I know right? I'm pretty sure Frieza said something along those lines, at least before he killed him, but fortunately Raditz does come back."

"Dragon Balls, right. By the way, does that short Saiyan come back, Vegeta I think? Because he could probably be good for some worldbuilding."

"No not at this point, though call it a hunch but I think he'll be making a grand return at some point."

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Meanwhile, at the Lookout…

Goku materialized on the Lookout with Dende by his side "Hey guys check it out, guess who the Namekian people chose to send back with me to be our new Guardian."

"Dende, are you serious?" Future Gohan looked more shocked than relieved "You mean he's going to be the new Guardian?"

"Yep, the Grand Elder recommended him."

"I… I'm not so sure Father, does Dende even know the first thing about the job?"

"Relax son, he's going to do fine. Anyway just keep Dende some company for a few minutes, I'm gonna go see if I can grab Gohan from Kame House real quick.

Dende on the other hand, looked up at Future Gohan in awe "This energy I sense… it's similar but somehow different… You are Gohan, but not the one I'm familiar with… Who are you?"

Future Gohan let out a sigh "It's a long story Dende, one in which I lived through hell."

"Before we get to that, let me fill you in on why you're here." Kai told him dryly "Goku decided to bring you here so you could mystic us up a new set of Dragon Balls because we're all a cavalcade of fuck ups."

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

Gohan blinked at what he was seeing on TV "Wait, so is this one of those YouTube Poop videos that Kai showed me once?"

"Nope, definitely not." was all Krillin said.

" _And now it's my honor to introduce your World Martial Arts Champion, the most powerful man the world has ever known, the legendary Mr Satan!"_

"Wait a second, martial arts champion? Oh crap, did we miss a tournament?!"

"Yeah, there was one about a year ago." Master Roshi told him.

"Dammit, we were busy training for the Androids!"

"What do either of you care?"

"Prize money, I can't live on your couch forever."

" _Tell me Mr Satan, what do you have to say to your opponent?"_

" _I'll tell you what I've got to say! Now you listen here Cell, I know damn well why you gave everyone so long to prepare for your so called tournament! It's so you could spend your last few days among the living praying that the mighty Mr Satan wouldn't show up!"_ this was met with cheers from all of the morons in the crowd " _So after I eat my Jimmy John's, and drink my Hetap, and and **** my hot asain wife! I'm gonna squash you! Like the bug! You! ARE!"_

" _Yes, give it up for Mr Satan everybody, the world's last and greatest hope!"_

Gohan looked between Krillin and Upa "So just to be clear, do any of them know what's going on with his name or…"

" _HAIL SATAN! HAIL SATAN! HAIL SATAN!"_

"Okay yeah they know, just checking. At least it's better than listening to "Hail HYDRA" over and over again."

"But those movies were great." Krillin pointed out.

That was when Goku suddenly flashed onto the scene "Hey guys!"

Chichi wasted no time in grabbing Goku by the shirt "Well if it isn't Goku, it's about time you decided to show your face here! Where the heck did you disappear to and leave us in the middle of some abandoned city?!"

"Hey listen Chichi, I know you're mad but I need you to hold that thought for now. Gohan, you think I can borrow you for a little while?"

"What do you mean borrow me?" asked Gohan.

"I went over to New Namek and I brought our new Guardian back with me, you remember that little Namekian Dende don't you?"

"Wait Dende, are you serious?"

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Meanwhile, at the Cell Games arena…

By this point, Cell was about to finish up with his interview "So after I finished humiliating the son of Son Goku and his BFF, I made my newsroom debut, delivered my emaculate address, and now here we are. So do you have any more questions?"

"Yeah I do have a few, were the parts about Garlic Jr and Dr Wheelo really necessary to the story, or Turles and Slug for that matter?" asked the reporter.

"It's a little something called world building, and exploring possibilities along with a few missed opportunities."

"Right. Last question: How did you know about the parts you weren't there for?"

"Ah, that's a story for another time I'm afraid. But for now, I must bid you adieu."

"Oh. Well thank you for your time Perfect Cell." the reporter was promptly blasted into oblivion by Cell as a result.

"That's _Mister_ Perfect Cell to you."

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Meanwhile, up at the Lookout…

Future Gohan, having finished informing Dende of the hell of a future he had come from, looked over to see Kai looking down on the Earth below "Hey Kai, what are you doing?"

"Since no amount of training is going to fix the power gap between us and Cell, I'm doing the next best thing to occupy my time." Kai didn't even look away from the binoculars he was looking through "I'm watching a bunch of overconfident dumbasses try and challenge Cell and get their spirits crushed, and that's after he did some kind of interview."

"Is it that guy on the new barking out stuff like Hulk Hogan?"

"Nope, that guy is still doing that even as we speak. There's these two guys for starters, one who actually accused Cell of being some dickhead in a costume and who has brovado that rivals my own, and he's with a guy who's got a sword that can cut through dimensions. Cell scared them off by doing the test of which one of them can blow up a planet."

"Oh boy. Who else?"

"Well next there's a guy with a ridiculously deep voice, and he challenged Cell to some kind of card game. Cell took him out by using the rule book against him, though with the kind of hair he was rocking I'd bet he's never lost a game of "Who's the Protag." in his life."

"Uh huh. Who else?"

"Next there's these two street fighter looking guys, one of them having some kind of dark energy like you'd seen in Inuyasha, you know like when he awakened his demon blood. It didn't do shit to hurt Cell, but it looks like he did get him worked up after he pulled a "Shoryuken" and the blonde guy."

"...Are you sure this isn't on YouTube?"

"No more than any of our lives already."

"Fair enough."

That was when Goku materialized back on the Lookout with Gohan "Hey guys, I'm back."

Dende lit up when he saw Gohan appear "Gohan you're here, it's really you!"

"Dende, oh man it's so great to see you!" Gohan pulled Dende into a hug "It's been so long since we've seen you, so is it really true that you're going to be our new Guardian?"

"Yep, that's right."

"That's really great, you always did show a lot of potential, but now we'll be able to see each other every day!"

"Yes I know!"

"Enough with the pleasentries." Piccolo promptly shut them up "Be real with us Dende, can you really recreate the Dragon Balls?"

"Hey come on Piccolo, stop stressing him out so bad." Goku waved him off "That old Namekian guy seemed pretty certain that Dende would be perfect for this kind of thing."

"By old guy, you mean you're talking about the Grand Elder." Dende told him.

"Yeah the Grand Elder, that's what everyone called him, and if he gave you his seal of approval then that's good enough for me."

"Right, anyway I'm fairly certain I can have the new Dragon Balls completed in about 100 days or so."

"...100 days? Oh wow, we actually don't have that kind of time."

"Oh, I see. Actually there is another way, if the old Dragon Balls still exist then all I need is a model of the original Eternal Dragon and I can have them working again for you right away."

"No kidding? That's awesome!"

"But the Earth's Dragon Balls have been turned to stone, and they're currently scattered across the planet." Piccolo pointed out.

"Have no fear, I once sculpted a model of the Earth's dragon from memory, so the child can use that." Mr Popo told them.

"Alright, so this should be a piece of cake!" Gohan pumped a fist in triumph "Hey Dende I was wondering, can you make it so the Dragon Balls have the power to grant three wishes like the ones on Namek do?"

Dende nodded "Sure."

"And while you're at it Dende, can you make it so that a single wish on the Dragon Balls will be able to bring back more than one person at once? For example, when we intend to wish back all of the people that were killed by Cell or any of Dr Gero's creations."

"Yes, that's nothing the Dragon Balls can't be made to do as long as I know about what you wish for me to include as I go into the process, but considering the amount of power required for a wish like that will downgrade the total number of wishes down to two."

"And that's really the only downside?" asked Gohan.

"Yep."

"Great, so can you see if you can make them do that?"

"Sure, all I need now is that model of your dragon."

"Right." so on that note, Mr Popo promptly pulled out the model of Shenron "Here it is, I carved it from memory."

"Oh wow, this dragon is so different from the one on New Namek. Alright then, I believe I'm ready now." Dende gently sat the model of Shenron on the ground and started chanting in the Namekian language, causing the model to glow as a white light shot out of it and into the open sky above, before dispersing downwards towards the Earth below "Alright, if everything went as planned then the Dragon Balls should already be working again."

"Already huh?" Piccolo shot Dende a smirk of approval ' _Nicely done, the Grand Elder seems to have been right about him.'_

"Okay, if that's the case then I'm going to go get Bulma to lend me her Dragon Radar and start tracking them down."

"Probably for the best, especially if we have two people tracking them down." Kai pulled a Dragon Radar out of his gi "I'll start tracking them down, you go get the other one from Mother of the Year over at Capsule Corp. She's probably still working on repairing Android 16."

"Gotcha, good idea." Goku looked over at Gohan "Hey son listen, I think that you've trained hard enough, so why don't you stay here and spend some time with Kai and Dende until it's time for the tournament?"

"I… I don't know dad, are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Gohan.

"Hey just take it easy, don't worry about it so much okay?"

"Father, do you mind if I ask you something?" Future Gohan spoke up "How is it that you're still able to be so calm? Does Cell have some kind of hidden weakness that you're just not telling us about, is that it?"

"Nope, as far as I can tell so far he's pretty much invincible. Well I'd better get going, I'll see you later guys." and he disappeared with Instant Transmission.

"That didn't help, at all. Alright younger me be completely honest, has Father told you anything that he hasn't told us? It doesn't make sense, he keeps saying that Cell is stronger than he is and that he doesn't know if he can beat him. If that is the case then why would he be so relaxed about it?"

Gohan slowly shook his head "I don't know, he hasn't told me anything more than what you guys already know, except he keeps saying that I should look forward to it."

"You can't be serious."

"I don't get it either, but if he says to look forward to it then that means either he has something he wants to show off, or he's already accepted defeat. Neither of those seems very likely in case of dad, so what then?"

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Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp…

Goku materialized in Bulma's lab at Capsule Corp "Hey Bulma, what's up?"

"Hey Goku you're not going to believe this." Bulma told him "The workmanship on this android the others brought us is top notch, Dr Gero might have been one crazy vengeful son of a bitch, but the guy really knew his stuff."

"Huh, cool. Well anyway Bulma, would you mind if I borrowed your Dragon Radar? I tracked down the Namekians and brought us back a brand new Guardian, so now I just need to track down the Dragon Balls."

"Alright sure, it should be in the drawer right behind you."

"Perfect, thanks." Goku pulled the Dragon Radar out of the drawer and prepared to teleport away, but stopped when he noticed something on the computer "Hey what's with this?"

"Oh that? I found some hidden folder in 16's databanks, it was completely inaccessible to him and it was full of incomplete and corrupted files. There is one undamaged video there, I was going to take a look at it later."

"Huh, you mind if I take a look? I'm just curious."

"Sure, knock yourself out."

"Thanks." so Goku clicked on the video and started playing it, unaware of what he was about to see.

" _May 12, 750, 4:30 pm. Red Ribbon HQ."_

"Wait a second, why does that date sound familiar?"

" _Hey dad, I'm just here at headquarters getting everything put away. There's no bunkmate so I have the room to myself, so that's good, which is good for a guy my size. Anyway… I just wanted to record something for you, since you and Uncle Frap are busy building all of those robot guys and stuff. I know you're calling them artificial humans or whatever, but let's face it, that name is way too long. I mean, what about just calling them cyborgs or androids? You know, like from that movie we saw? Well anyway, I just wanted you to know that… I miss you dad."_ and then the alarm sounded " _What the-"_

" _Hey get your ass moving, some kind of thing is tearing its way through the compound! We've gotta get moving!"_

" _Oh, got it."_

And then a young sounding voice rang throughout the background " _Ka…"_

" _Me…"_

" _Okay, well sorry about this dad."_

" _Ha…"_

" _I've gotta run."_

" _Me…"_

" _I love you. Good luck with the robot stuff-"_

" _HAAAAAA!"_ and then the screen suddenly cut out.

Goku slowly clicked off the video and stook up, his expression slightly pale ' _That was his son, and on that day… That's why he… Oh god…'_

"Jesus." Bulma muttered ' _I guess now his hatred for Goku makes sense, that's one hell of a bomb to drop._ Hey Goku, are you okay?"

"What? Oh yeah yeah, sorry. Thanks for the radar Bulma, I've gotta go." and still appearing rather shaken, Goku disappeared from the scene using Instant Transmission.

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 **And so, with everyone preparing in their own way, the countdown to the Cell Games continues with a new weight to it. The stage has been set for the battle to decide the fate of not only the Earth, but the entire universe itself. Will Cell emerge the victor, or will Goku's confidence prove to be enough to carry the day? The long awaited showdown is about to begin, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this, we get a prelude to the Cell Games. Just because it's a new year doesn't change my plans for this fic, as in I at least plan to finish with the Cell saga before I go back to college, which should be in the last week of January.**

 **One of the few things I disapproved of about the Cell saga is that the human characters were treated as if they were useless, so in order to make up for that, I added in Cooler, another character I feel had unused potential, as well as a few of his men, as in his Armored Squadron and the Namekian known as Forte, the one I had unlock Tien's potential, and had him do it for some of the other human characters, in this case, Yamcha, Krillin and Upa.**

 **Once again, I do not, nor will I ever, apologize for the TFS references I include in my stories, such as the inclusion of Cell's interview in which he goes over the entire plot of Dragon Ball, or the inclusion of the video on Android 16's origin.**

 **Speaking of TFS references, guess what Kai was referencing later in the chapter when he was talking about guys challenging Cell and getting their spirits broken in the process.**

 **Just to be clear, this chapter ended up being a hell of a lot longer than I expected it to be, so sorry about that if it inconveniences you. I promise the next chapter will be shorter. Maybe, depending on how much I end up covering.**

 **Power levels:**

Super Saiyan Goku (suppressed): 4.55 billion

Super Saiyan Gohan: 10.5 billion

Cooler: 6.5 billion

Salza: 90 million

Doore: 85 million

Neiz: 80 million

Nail: 800 million

Piccolo: 360 billion

Kai: 50 million

Kai (Potential unlocked): 250 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 40x): 10 billion

Yamcha: 5 million

Yamcha (potential unlocked): 50 million

Yamcha (Potential unlocked, Kaioken 3x): 150 million

Krillin: 2.4 million

Krillin (potential unlocked): 24 million

Krillin (potential unlocked, Kaioken 5x): 120 million

Upa: 3 million

Upa (potential unlocked): 30 million


	28. Cell Games: Act I

**xSonallyGirl129x:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you're enjoying the arc so far. I always do appreciate someone who loves TFS just as much as I do, and 16's backstory was just too good to pass up, so I decided to have Goku see it since he never did in canon or in TFS. Also, the references Kai was making last chapter were actually to the Cell Vs series TFS made, at least the first few videos in that series (Cell vs Yusuke, Cell vs Yami Yugi, and Cell vs Ken & Ryu). Cooler and Scarlet both have a lot of potential in this story, even if one of them is dead for good. Yamcha's Wolf Fang Saber was something I came up with for a fic idea awhile back that I had scrapped, so I decided to make some use of it. I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story.

 **Vukk:** I did think about the possibility of both Gohan and Future Gohan having their potential unlocked, but truth be told I thought that would make them too overpowered, and I thought that would end up taking away from Gohan's character arc. As for power levels, I know that they don't really have any meaning, but I thought it would be fun to keep doing them. Vegito1089 has great power level lists on YouTube, although with the exception of his lists for Super.

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" _A challenge from a monster. A promise from a hero. And one ring in which the two of them will decide it all. Join us as all of it comes together, at the #CellGames only on ZTV! With our very own boy Jimmy Firecracker live on site, as the mighty Mr Satan takes on the sinister Cell in a no holds barred fight for the fate of the world! Will it be humanity's last stand, or will the devil get his due?! Find out on the day of reckoning at the Cell Games, presented by Hetap!"_

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Yes, as you can tell from the advertisement above, the day of fate had come at last, and only hours were left before the Cell Games began.

Goku got himself dressed and ready for action, and he started singing a little tune to himself as he made his way out of the house " **Got my wristbands on and my boots are tied, gonna get my friends and fight a bug guy, doo doo-doo, today is fighting day."**

"Goku wait!" Chichi suddenly rushed out and caught up to him before he left "Goku, let me just say something."

"Okay."

"Look… You've already died once. I can take that. I can make peace with that. You're a fighter and to be honest, it's why I fell in love with you. But Gohan? Not Gohan. Not our baby boy, so please just promise me you guys will come back safe and Gohan is just watching from the sidelines."

"Chichi… We'll both make it back, I promise." he pulled her into a gentle hug and gave her a light kiss on the lips "If all goes according to plan, Gohan won't have to fight. I've gotta go, but I promise I'll see you later." and then he disappeared with Instant Transmission.

"Goku…"

"You know if Gohan dies, that means the world is doomed anyway, so what the hell will it matter then?"

Chichi let out a shriek and whipped around to find Kai leaning against a tree a short distance away from the house "Don't sneak up on a woman like that, you scared the ever loving daylight out of me!"

"I just wanted to see your reaction, I knew you'd get all riled up, especially considering you're so against telling anyone about your condition."

"You mean… You know?"

"I can sense it from you with my Ki sense, I heard you vomiting back at Kame House for like an hour and a half, and I found all three of your tests in the trash."

"Oh."

"So you haven't told him have you?"

"Of course not, not with everything that's been happening."

"Figures. Well at least he's got some extra reason for coming back alive, and I can keep my mouth shut when I want to, so don't worry about that. Anyway I'm heading over to the arena so I can see if there are any other morons who want to challenge Cell, over the last few days I've seen some homeless guy who exploded half of Cell's body and ate a few of his arms, a dude who tried to use a magical notebook given to him by a death god in order to give Cell a hear attack, what I think was an actual Pokemon trainer, and some bald dude in a cape and a blonde cyborg that got bitch slapped into a mountain. Well, see ya around Mother of the Year." and so he promptly blasted off towards the Cell Games arena.

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Meanwhile, at the Lookout…

Goku materialized on the grounds of the Lookout along with everyone else "Hey guys, looks like everyone is ready to go. Wait, where are Gohan and Cooler? I thought I sensed them with you guys a little while ago."

"You did, but Cooler didn't want to wait for the tournament to begin and informed us that he would go ahead on his own." Nail told him "Gohan said that he wanted to clear his head and took off early this morning."

"Makes sense, he'd probably want to get a first crack at Cell or something, or maybe just scope out the situation." Goku glanced in between the others and noticed the grim expression's on their faces "Hey come on you guys, what's with all of the long faces? You can't tell me all of you are really that nervous?"

"It's not that… Father, there's something that we have to tell you before we go into this."

"What is it?"

"You know how we asked Dende to modify the Dragon Balls so that we could bring multiple people back to life with just one wish?"

"Yeah?"

"He was able to do it, but it turns out that by doing so, it means it won't work on anyone that the Dragon Balls have already resurrected once before."

"Oh. I see."

Dende bowed his head "I'm very sorry, I should've thought to mention that right at the beginning to all of you."

"...Hey come on Dende, there's no need for you to beat yourself up about this. We're going to be alright as long as none of us end up dying."

"You realize that's a lot easier said than done Kakarot, we're talking about Cell here, not some random thug off the street." Raditz pointed out.

"Hey take it easy bro, we'll be just fine, you'll see. Now come on, we'd better get going. It's almost time for the tournament to start."

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Soon enough, Goku and the others (Gohan, Future Gohan, Piccolo, Raditz, Nail) were flying towards the Cell Games arena at full speed ' _I hope you're ready Cell, I've got a big surprise in store for you.'_

"Hey dad, check it out!" Gohan pointed towards two figures in front of them "Isn't that Krillin and Upa up there?"

"Yeah you're right, it is them!"

Sure enough, Krillin and Upa were hovering in front of them "We both know that even with these power ups from Cooler's guys, we won't stand a chance against Cell, but we figured that even if we can't fight we might as well lend some moral support."

"Great, thanks you guys. I think we'll take it. We'd better get moving though, we've only got an hour until Cell's tournament starts. Plus I don't want anyone getting a swing at Cell before I get to."

"Oh yeah sure, like anyone else would be stupid enough to show up."

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Meanwhile, with the only other people dumb enough to show up…

Jimmy Firecracker and his cameraman Larry loomed down at the Cell Games Arena from their place atop a nearby plateau "Jimmy Firecracker here live from the Cell Games, presented by HETAP, because apparently nobody else would take this job, because Jimmy Firecrack corn and he don't give a fuck! He'll take every job, he'll take any job, hell he'll even take your job! And speaking of jobs… no one else is here yet. We have 20 minutes to go until the Cell Games finally begin, and the question still remains: Will Jimmy Firecracker have to get in that ring? Does the legendary Jimmy Firecracker have to come down there and slap that perfect jawline?! Well if that is the case, then I know that our viewers can see what we're seeing in case that does turn out to be so- Wait hold that thought." he motioned for the camera to look down to see a car pulling up to the ring, and Mr Satan stepping out "It looks like Cell has been saved for the moment from the wrath of Jimmy Firecracker, as his first opponent has arrived! I'm receiving word that this is him without a doubt folks! The man, the legend, the winner of the 24th World Martial Arts Tournament, this is Mr Satan himself ready to save us all! The savior has come ladies and gentlemen!"

At this, Cell let out a sigh "You know, now I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have made this an open invite."

Mr Satan promptly took the opportunity to storm up to Cell, his expression way too cocky and smug for his own good "Now you listen here Cell, I've got you all figured out! You used a bunch of light shows and trick bombs to destroy all of the cities and militaries and junk, but let me tell you now that those toys won't work on me."

"This can't be happening, it just can't."

Jimmy Firecracker continued doing commentary from atop the plateau "15 minutes to go and the champ has already stepped up into the ring and started taunting his opponent, you'd better update that TV PG rating to TV MA. Wait, what do we have here now? The champ is calling us down now, let's do this! Come on Larry, what do I always say?"

Larry was quick to parrot his catchphrase "Where there's smoke, there's firecracker sir. _Along with a hell of a lot of death and destruction.'_

"You're goddamn right!" they stepped into the ring and held the mic up to Mr Satan "So do tell us Mr Satan, what do you have to say to your adoring public?"

Mr Satan shot them a cocky smirk "First of all, to all of the kids at home. Do not attempt to recreate the violence you are about to see."

Cell suppressed a loud snort ' _Yeah, you're going to need a nearby mountain and a mop in order to do that.'_

"Unless you buy the new Mr Satan action figure, on sale now in stores everywhere!"

' _So homicidal minors are acceptable then?'_

"With a low price of just 300 Zeni each."

Jimmy Firecracker pressed onwards "And tell the audience Mr Satan, why have you come here today?"

"Well aside from being sponsored by HETAP, Mr Satan never backs down from a challenge!"

Cell let out a sigh ' _First thought, I'm pretty sure he means always instead of never. Second thought, I'd kill for a HETAP right now.'_

"Not when it comes to evil! Vile! Wretched! Contemptible! Wicked! Monstrous!" he kept on going.

' _Yeah, I definitely shouldn't have made this an open invite.'_

"Inhuman! Dishonorable! Nefarious!"

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Meanwhile, in a forest area…

16 (now fully repaired and with a Capsule Corp logo on his armor in place of the Red Ribbon Army logo) stood in a remote forest area not far from the Cell Games arena, taking in the nature that was surrounding him ' _All of this is so beautiful, and yet so many people take it for granted or just abuse it.'_

"So I guess Bulma and her dad finished repairing you."

16 glanced back to see Gohan standing a short distance away from him "Affirmative. Repairs were completed yesterday."

"Good. So how is your body working now?"

"Satisfactory. My diagnostics indicate 100% functionality."

"Oh good, I'm glad to hear that." Gohan looked around the animals surrounding the two of them in the area "So you like animals and nature?"

"Affirmative. They put me more at ease."

"Yeah I know, I like animals too. All sorts of things interest me actually. I'm hoping to become a scholar someday."

"A fine goal. I am certain you will make an exemplary scholar."

"Thanks." a brief pause "I have to ask though, are you really out to kill my dad?"

"Affirmative. That is my only directive. I have no other use. As a result, I was declared defective and stored away."

"What do you mean defective?"

"I loathe conflict, and therefore I am defective as a weapon."

"That's no reason to shut you down."

"Dr Gero once stated that he created me in the image of his deceased son. But he was bold and daring, whereas I am not. A war machine that shuns war is nothing but a failure."

"Don't say that."

"It is the truth. Your power however, it is immense. It far surpasses all of your records within my system. When the Cell Games finally begin, I foresee you becoming the deciding factor in its outcome."

"Me, are you sure about that? I mean I know I train with Kai a lot, but I'm sure my dad is way stronger than me."

16 let out a small chuckle "We are not so different, you and I."

"We aren't?"

"Let us be on our way. The Cell Games will commence shortly, and it is best if we arrive as soon as possible. I also sense that Kai is travelling towards the tournament not far ahead of us."

"Yeah, we should get going. _How are 16 and I alike though?'_

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Meanwhile, back at the Cell Games arena…

"Baneful! Iniquitous! Excreable… Villain like you!" yeah, Mr Satan was only now finishing his tirade against Cell, not getting so much of a glance from him "Now what the hell do you have to say to that?"

Cell just let out a sigh ' _Honestly, why do I have to deal with this today?'_

"Oh what's the matter, Satan got your tongue?"

' _Not going to question how Satanic that sounds._ Are you sure about this?" he wasn't wrong.

"Speak up bug boy."

"You look like an extra from a budget porno flick, the kind where everyone gets tested afterwards, even the cameraman." it might be gross, but he's still not wrong, and it definitely hit close to home.

"Oh, well you're…"

"Did they find you in the subway? Were you homeless? Did you get your start in bum fights?"

"This is getting oddly personal…"

"Do you have any actual friends, any relationships at all that aren't about your money or your position?" it's an honest question.

"Well… I have a daughter."

"Oh that poor orphan." ouch.

"...Can we just cut to commercial?"

"Need to reevaluate every life decision you've ever made?"

Jimmy Firecracker (JF from here on) glanced up to see a white light approaching the arena from the distance "What on Earth is that?"

' _That must be Cooler, so glad he saw it fit to make an appearance here. I hope he knows what he's in for.'_

Sure enough, at that moment, Cooler dropped down onto the scene a few feet away from everyone else to save everyone from that awkward mess of an introduction ' _So the day of truth has finally come. I know Cell is still suppressing a significant amount of power, but I still can't tell how much.'_

"It would seem that a bizarre looking man has joined us, unless my eyes deceive me it's as if he fell from the sky." JF was quick to make commentary.

"Oh please." Mr Satan let out a scoff "It's just another trick."

"Could this man be intending to participate in the tournament?" JF quickly approached Cooler "I must ask sir, do you intend to take on the terrifying Perfect Cell?"

Cooler suppressed a sigh "Whether or not I take part in this tournament is still to be determined, and to any other questions you may have for me, no comment."

"...Message received violent looking gentleman."

"Please back away, I prefer some personal space."

"Very well then." JF quickly backed away "This one seems to be dangerous, I advise all people to be cautious of him."

"You are aware I can still here you."

"Oh please." Mr Satan let out a scoff "Crazy people like this one are only good for getting in the way."

' _You would know.'_

JF checked his watch "Alright ladies and gentlemen, in just 5 minutes with all eyes on this ring, the Cell Games to decide the fate of the world will begin! As we previously predicted, the only man able to answer the challenge is none other than Mr Satan himself! Of course that is quite a comforting thought, after all this man, the champion himself, is all of the salvation that this planet will need!" and then he looked over to see Kai touch down on the ground, soon to be followed by Gohan and Android 16 as well "And it would seem that more mysterious strangers have appeared from thin air! Where do these people keep coming from?"

"Get real." Mr Satan let out a scoff "It's obvious that they're just hiding behind rocks and waiting for the moment to make their dramatic entrances, and using cranes and wires to make it look like they're flying, similar to the practical effects we use in Skygina, Mr Satan vs the dreaded demon from the Dead Zone! Coming to theaters this August!"

"Of course, such insight as always champ!" JF made his way over to Kai and the others "Excuse me, do any of you intend to take on the terrifying Perfect Cell?"

"Get that mic the fuck out of my face before I shove it down your throat and give you a colonoscopy with your camera." was all Kai said, being extremely non-plussed.

"Message received violent child."

Cell was quick to try and goad Kai on "Answer the question Kai, do you intend to take me on today? Because I'm more than ready to throw down when you are, so come on and let's toss you through a mountain or five for old time's sake." he received no reply "The old silent treatment is it? Don't tell me you came all the way out here just to stand around and look mean. Oh wait now I get it, you took my advice. You're waiting for you know who." then he turned to 16 "And you came here to join us today as well 16, this is quite the surprise. So you actually still exist, and you're back in one piece. I definitely wasn't expecting that. Let me take a wild guess, you came here for your little murder crush." then he turned to Gohan "And the prodigal son himself, if there was one person I wasn't expecting to see here today, it was you. So tell me, do you intend to participate in the games as well, or are you just going to sit on the sidelines brooding like your BFF over there."

"If I have to fight then I will, but father is going to be more than enough to take the likes of you down." Gohan told him calmly.

"We'll just see about that." Cell glanced over in a certain direction and smirked "Ah, so the one I've been waiting for has decided to come. Excellent, now things can really get started."

"Alright you guys, if you're ready then I say we do this." sure enough, Goku dropped down onto the scene, with Future Gohan, Raditz, Krillin, Yamcha, Upa, Piccolo and Nail following right behind him.

"And just like that, our roster is finally complete. I hope this day finds you well Son Goku."

"It could be better, considering one of my friends, my own student and who knows how many innocent people died because of you."

"If for no other reason but to get you more ready for our grand battle. I see you've brought the whole gang to witness our battle as well. Raditz, Piccolo, Nail, Krillin, Yamcha, and even the prodigal son from the future as well. Welcome, I look forward to seeing what each of you have in store for us."

"You'll see soon enough Cell, count on that." Raditz glanced over and saw 16 approaching the group, with Gohan and Kai following by his side "Get a load of you 16, looks like they fixed you up pretty well."

16 nodded and gave a small smile "Indeed, I am now operating at 100% efficiency. And for some reason, I register 10 kilograms lighter."

"That sounds like a big steaming pile of foreshadowing." Kai muttered.

"I owe you my gratitude for all that you have done, for without your intervention I would not have been fixed." 16 then looked towards Goku, his gaze hardening "As for you Son Goku, I was created with the sole purpose of destroying you, a fact that you would be wise to remember."

Goku gave a simple nod, his expression filled with what looked like guilt "Yeah, I know. There's no way I'm ever going to forget that." the remorseful tone in his voice caught everyone present off guard.

"A wise decision. However, my primary objective at the moment is the defeat of Cell and ensuring he will not be able to cause any more harm."

"Yeah, good call."

Mr Satan was less than pleased at the attention the others were geting "Yeah, I get paid for every second I'm on camera, so if we could just-"

"Just a moment champ." JF made his way over to Goku and the others "Excuse me sir, are you or any of your freakish looking friends participating in the tournament today?"

"Yep, that's why we're here." Goku promptly cracked his knuckles "I was actually thinking I would take on our friend here myself first, you guys don't mind that do you?"

"Are you sure about that Father?" Future Gohan glanced over at him "I mean, is there really any need to go in there blazing right away?"

"Better to get this started right away, no offense but I doubt most of you really stand a chance against him."

"Fair enough, I guess."

"I just don't want to take any chances."

"Hey, what the hell gives you clowns the right to decide who goes first!" Mr Satan stomped towards them and shoved JF to the side, earning a "Fuck" from him "There is no way in hell I'm playing second fiddle to a bunch of gym rats with too much time on their hands!"

"And what the fuck does that make you?" Kai muttered, leaving him taken aback.

"And now I think I've seen it all, could there really some backwater yokels who don't know about yours truly, the one and only Mr Satan? Well let me get all of you up to speed, I am the World Martial Arts champion and I will be the one to defeat Cell!"

"...Holy crap, there was a tournament? You won the tournament? Well that says a lot about your strength level, that means you're stronger than almost half of the guys here! Hey Yamcha, you hearing that?"

"Why are you addressing my specifically?" Yamcha grumbled.

"Not just you, Krillin and Piccolo too. Too bad, and to think I wanted a turn too. Oh well, I guess we should just go ahead and let the champ handle it." his tone was filled with a ridiculous amount of sarcasm, so much that it almost sounded genuine.

"Are you for real right now?" asked Gohan.

"Of course I am. He's the champ, he's got this."

"...I can't tell if you're serious and that's very concerning."

"Of course I'm not being serious you sheltered fuck."

"Enough of your pratting, it's time too start." Cell promptly shut all of them up "I don't care who's up first, let's just begin already."

"Well as long as we already have rank sorted out, I'm calling first dibs." Mr Satan then stepped forward "It's time for me to teach you where you fall, at my feet to be more specific."

"Okay I can't do this, this is too painful to watch." Goku spoke up "Hey listen, if you want to go first then I won't stop you, but you should know that you're gonna get crushed."

"Would you care to repeat that?" JF was quick to round on Goku "One can only hear the chorus of agonizing groans filled to the bring with shame that seem to be spanning the globe at this very moment at the jab from this nay-sayer! Such a sad and misinformed soul with no idea whom he's addressing right now! He claims that if our champ wishes to go up against Cell then he should be prepared to get trampled like road kill, the nerve that some people have is just unbelieveable!" he was being met with a chorus of groans from people all around the world.

Kai shot a quick glance over at Gohan "Add this to the growing list of reasons why you should be glad you don't go to public school. But in all seriousness guys, if this assclown is so desperate to make himself look like an even bigger dipshit than he already does, then I say we just go right ahead and let him. If he gets killed, god I'm hoping so, we can just wish him back with the Dragon Balls."

At this, Goku let out a sigh "Yeah I guess you're right, I mean what's the use." he waved at the others and signalled the "go ahead" to them.

JF was quick to report this to the audience "Excellent, it seems here that the hecklers have done some growing up. Perhaps there's hope for the younger generation yet, it takes a man to know when to step aside and these fellows have stepped! A passin nuisance to our hero to be sure, but as the games begin Mr Satan has appeared to regain his composure."

"You got that right." Mr Satan prepared to take off his cloak "And now it's time for the champ himself to end this little freak show once and for all!"

"And we look forward to seeing such a-"

" _Hope y'all ready to get down and dirty with the three hottest stars from the Y network!"_ that was when a pink chopper showed up on the scene.

"What do we have here, new challengers from the bitter rivals of ZTV?!"

"Oh please!" Mr Satan let out a scoff "Like we don't already have enough knuckleheads hogging my spotlight!"

Cell just pinched the bridge of his perfect nose ' _Oh my god, this is worse than that fever dream when I had to deal with those Duel Monster rejects.'_

" _We're coming to you live from the Cell Games Arena! It's Piiza, Piroshki and Karoni, and we are-"_ they were cut off by Cell firing a simple Ki blast at the chopper, blowing it to hell in a second.

"Dead. They are dead. Is that parachutes I'm seeing? No wait, that actually looks more like an arm." and just like that Cell, you have the gratitude of the entire DBZ fandom.

JF was the first one to find his voice "Did… Did those people just die?"

Mr Satan let out a scoff "Don't be an idiot Jimmy, obviously that was an unarmed remote controlled cargo robot with a voice recording." he looked down at the charred corpse that landed at his feet "Not to mention they're filled with fake cadavers for added effects, I'll give them points for effort though." and he get no points for stupidity.

"Mr Satan ain't no one's fool! Go champ!"

"YEAH!" with a mighty roar, Mr Satan smashed a rock over his head.

"Here we go at long last ladies and gentlemen, seething with rage on behalf of all of those hurt by this monster, Mr Satan is at last getting his chance to show Cell why he should be fearing what's about to happen! And just now it's about to happen, the moment we've been waiting for is at last upon us! Mr Satan is ready for a smackdown! I know I've said it many times but it's worth repeating, the future of the world rests on the outcome of the battle we're about to see, but all of you be sure to take heart in the knowledge of what you're about to see. Mr Satan has been looking forward to this day with gusto! Just wait until-"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Kai finally shut him up "The meter is running dude, either take a crap or get off the goddamn pot, my ears are bleeding." he breathed a sigh of frustration and glanced over at the others "With any luck, it's gonna be that easy to get rid of this assclown too. You all know I'm right."

"Kai, people are dying and we're just watching." Nail pointed out flatly.

"And that about sums up our lives up until this point."

Cell on the other hand, was less than impressed with Mr Satan and his brovado ' _You cannot be serious, who in the hell could possibly be this stupid?'_

Mr Satan was quick to get things back on track "Alright Cell, if that is your real name."

"It's actually Perfect Cell-"

"It's actually garbage, and I'll give you one guess who's taking out the trash."

"Wait you were serious, you're actually going to fight? I thought you were just the hype man for someone else."

"I AM THE HYPE!"

"Kill him!" was Kai's response, and pretty much what I believe a large majority of the DBZ fan base was thinking when they first saw this.

"Now try and get this on camera Gary, or Larry or whatever your name is." Mr Satan promptly threw off his cape and championship belt "Cause I'm gonna end this in a single blow, and it's gonna be faster than light! **Dynamite Kick!"** he dropped into a stance and dealt Cell a solid kick to the face, then followed up with a solid kicks.

Of course, Cell was a lot more bored than damaged ' _Okay seriously, why the hell do I look like I've seen this somewhere before? Seriously, is he based on Chuck Norris? No, he's a badass, but then again that might have something to do with all of the memes about him. Bruce Lee? No, this guy looks too American. Hulk Hogan? Okay, that one does make a little bit more sense.'_

" **SATAN PUNCH!"** Satan let a full force fist fly towards Cell, until…

"Enough." Cell promptly backhanded Mr Satan into a mountain, followed by the sound of a loud splat and him slowly sliding down the side of the mountain, leaving a blood stain from where he landed.

JF was the first one to find his voice "Ladies and gentlemen at home… If you're seeing this, then you know that Mr Satan… our beloved champion… IS DEAD!"

"Oh wow, who would've seen that coming." Kai muttered.

"And now I'm getting reports that people all over the world are rioting all over the globe, well that definitely escalated quickly."

Kai then burst out laughing "Yeah, this is a better day than I thought it would be."

Unfortunately for him, that was when Mr Satan came to "What happened?"

"Oh god dammit, he's still alive."

"Did I kill him?"

"You wish assclown."

"Did my punch destroy the ring?"

"Not even if Big Green up on the Lookout blessed you to do so."

"...Is this my blood?"

"In literally every single dream you have, yes."

"Oh good, he's alive." Goku let out a sigh.

"What part of that is good? I wanted one fucking thing today!"

"What about killing Cell?" asked Gohan.

"Would you believe me if I said this was more important?"

"I'd be shocked otherwise." Yamcha muttered.

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By this point, Mr Satan was stumbling back onto the scene, drooling like an idiot ' _Oh god, if I had anything under my afro then I'm pretty sure it would be broken.'_

"Mr Satan, please tell us!" JF was quick to rush over to his location "Did you die? If so, then you have officially beaten Jesus' respawn time! Can you tell us what happened out there?"

"Magnets…"

"How does that work?"

"They put magnets under the ring and the tiles and uh… When I went for my punch earlier they must've been turned on, and I went flying because they didn't like all of the iron I've got in my blood cause I eat my spinach."

"...Oh okay, that makes sense."

"Now I just need to rest up and get my barrings back, and then the real deal smackdown will begin in earnest!" he started barking out an arrogant laugh for all of the world to hear.

Cooler was particularly taken aback by what he was seeing ' _How in the world did this imbecile manage to win a championship title? Maybe this planet isn't as well off as I was first led to believe.'_

"Okay seriously, all non Ki users just shut up." Cell told them flatly "Now that the back of my hand is warmed up I think it's time for us to get this thing under way, so who wishes to go up against me first? I don't care who it is, as long as you can actually fight."

"Thanks for waiting for me." that was when Goku stepped into the ring "Now what do you say we get this started?"

"Getting right down to it and starting off with you then, are we? A bit out of character when you think about it. Truth be told I expected you to send in your entourage one after another so as I may leave you for our grand finale."

"I think we'll see about that. Word is that you've adopted some of our fighting styles."

"You could say that I suppose, after all imitation is the greatest form of flattery."

"That's one way of looking at it."

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Meanwhile, outside the ring…

Future Gohan and the others looked on in concern "I can't remember the last time I saw Goku like this, I mean he's so relaxed."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah I know, and that's putting it mildly. Just take a look at him, from the stance he's taken you would think this is just a regular old sparring match or something."

"This is gonna be one hell of a sparring match, he's definitely been looking forward to this for a good long while, which really goes how confident he is in his own power right now. That has to be a good sign, doesn't it?"

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In another area outside of the ring…

JF was quick to do some more Goku bashing "Ladies and gentlemen you won't believe this, it seems that the orange clad fool has entered the ring and is set to take on Perfect Cell in a one on one slaughter fest just waiting to happen!"

Mr Satan didn't waste a moment on contributing to this bashing fest "I would advise all parents to remove their children from the room immediately, and to tune back in when yours truly, the one and only Mr Satan, is ready to get back in that ring and show that trickster what for! Right after I shake off this concussion, drink some HETAP, and be sure to stretch. After all, stretching is important kids, as is HETAP."

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Back inside the ring…

Cell shot a smirk at Goku as he dropped into a stance of his own "Well then, if this is what you want then I'm more than happy to skip the hors-d'oeuvres and dive straight into the main course of this grand event."

"And now you're finally speaking my language." Goku charged into the fray, resulting in both him and Cell trading even blows, with neither one of them landing a single strike, before he then went on the offensive.

Cell blocked and dodged every strike and dealt Goku a solid fist to the face, only to be met with a kick to the face at the same time, leading to the two of them retreating to opposite sides of the ring. A brief pause, and then Cell charged at him again.

Goku leapt over Cell's attack and charged at him, only for him to reveal himself to be an afterimage when he made contact.

"Wait a second, so the afterimage can't move, how do you even-" Cell was cut off by a fist buried in his gut and a solid kick to the face sending him flying out of the ring.

"Alright guys, he ringed him out!" Yamcha pumped a fist in triumph, only for it to be cut short by the sight of Cell stopping himself in mid air "Uh… Yeah okay, that one is my B."

"The first of many I predict." Cell floated back into the ring and touched down as he shot a smirk at Goku "Clever little move there, but would you really have been satisfied with a victory via something as simple as a ringout?"

"Probably not." Goku returned the smirk in full "I don't know why you would even bother messing around. It's not like you're even fooling anybody, we all know you're way too strong to go down that easy."

"I'm just getting my kicks, as long as you're holding out on me I see no harm in getting some enjoyment from this."

"You say that like I've seen anything close to your full power yet."

"Oh trust me, you'll see what I'm capable of soon enough. I just prefer to showcase my power incrementally."

"I look forward to it."

"You just can't say no to a challenge no matter what the odds may be, that must be the Saiyan blood coursing through your veins."

"I guess you and I are a lot alike that way."

"I do enjoy a good battle."

"Like I said."

"So you did." Cell charged at him.

Goku blocked a fist, ducked under a kick and leapt over another fist, only to be met with the sheer force of Cell trying to force him out of the ring, but he crouched down and dealt Cell a solid kick to the torso, sending him hurtling into the air, and then Goku charged upwards towards him with his hands cupped at his side " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a Kamehamaeha at full speed.

Cell deflected the Kamehameha with ease, leaving it to detonate in the upper atmosphere, but this also left Cell open for Goku to deal him a fist to the spine, but he quickly retaliated with a fist to the face and a smash attack to the skull, sending him hurtling down towards the ring below them.

Goku recovered a split second before he hit the ground.

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Gohan was quick to voice his concerns to the others "What the heck is he doing? There's no way that dad is fighting like he means it, if he was then he wouldn't be this sloppy."

"That makes sense." Future Gohan muttered "It shouldn't surprise me that Father has been fooling around up to this point, he's just feeling out his opponent. Of course, if I had to guess then I would say that Cell is doing the exact same thing. I've been here for about 2 weeks and it still feels weird to say that I'm watching a fight alongside my 10 year old self. You'd better brace yourself though, I think things are about to start getting serious."

"Looks like it."

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Cell lowered himself to the ground a short distance away from Goku "Now then, as far as a warmup goes I think we've had enough for one day, wouldn't you agree."

Goku gave a short nod "Yeah, I think we have."

' _He doesn't disappoint, he's definitely no stranger to a close fight. You're mountains above what the others are capable of Goku, that much is certain.'_

' _He packs an even bigger punch than I was expecting from him, I'd better be sure that I keep my guard up. After all, if I slip up even once then he's going to mop the floor with me._ Well if you're so sure Cell, then let's get down to business already."

' _There's the fire I was expecting from him, that means he's about to make his move.'_

"I hope you're ready." so on that note, Goku dropped into a stance as his golden aura began surging around his body, the sheer force shaking the entire area for everyone to feel.

"Holy crap, you guys feeling that? Now that is what power is supposed to feel like, and to think he didn't even have to pump up like some roiding angsty child!"

With a mighty roar, Goku finished powering up and let out a shockwave, and when that subsided, it revealed his entire body pulsing with golden energy.

"Well okay then Goku, now that you've shown me yours it's only fair that I show you mine as well."

"Oh yeah, whip out your power Cell, let me feel it."

"Alright, now you're speaking my language." so on that note, Cell promptly started powering up himself.

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Meanwhile, with the morons…

JF was taken aback by the sheer force and power being displayed "Mr Satan, these two combatants have been engulfed in flames!"

"Oh please." Mr Satan let out a scoff "They're both wearing fire retardant clothes, that's just too obvious, as is the fact that their bodies are covered in a thin protective gel, just like with our own stuntman Morgan from Skygina. God rest his soul."

"What happened to him?"

"AIDs."

"Always be sure to wear a rubber kids."

"And don't share needles. And drink plenty of HETAP."

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Raditz and the others continued to watch the spectacle intently "Get ready you guys, from here on out they're both going to go full power." he received a side glance from Gohan, which went unnoticed."

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Cell and Goku promptly walked towards each other, staring into each other's eyes "So what now then, are you going to take a swing at me or are you just going to keep staring into my eyes like that?"

"Sorry, what was that?" Goku snapped out of his stupor "I was in the middle of staring into your eyes."

"Oh you beautiful Saiyan bastard, just punch me already why don't you?"

"Alright then, if you insist." so Goku slugged Cell square in the gut, following up with a rapid barrage of attacks that ended with Cell being sent flying across the arena.

Cell was quick to rebound and wipe the blood from his lip "Nicely done Son Goku, this is exactly the kind of battle I've been searching for. After all, what's the fun in fighting a battle if the outcome of said battle is just a foregone conclusion?"

"I can't and won't argue with you there."

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Future Gohan and the others looked on in awe at the battle unfolding before them ' _I can't believe this, Father's power is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's incredible, I never thought this level of strength could be possible to attain. To think he's putting out this much at once, I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering who I'm talking about.'_

Gohan wasn't in anywhere near as much awe as the others ' _Why is everyone so blown away by all of this? I mean sure, it's impressive but…'_

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"Let's do this!" Goku and Cell charged at each other and began trading even blows across the ring, followed by them clashing across the skies, which ended with the two of them taking part in a power struggle in mid air, and that ended with Goku kicking Cell in the torso and elbowing him in the face, and that escalated into a mid air chase between the two of them that led back down into the ring, which ended with Goku dealing Cell a solid kick to the neck that sent him hurtling towards the edge of the ring.

Cell pulled himself back to his feet, and rather than get frustrated, he simply let out a loud chuckle that turned into a full on laugh "You'd better brace yourself Goku, because you're going to have try a lot harder than that."

"Oh you don't have to worry Cell, I'll show you just how hard I can get."

"Well if we're going to get freaky, then perhaps we should make this a menage a moi?"

"...Wait what?"

"It's French, it translates to my household. Speaking of which…" on that note, Cell dropped into a stance "And speaking of academics Goku, I think it's time for us to take you straight to Perfect University. We'd say it's time to take you to school, but I think we're beyond the basics."

"Wait a second, doesn't that make it PU?"

"And we love that you got that. We are number one!"

"Hate to break it to you guys, but as much as I love that song, and seriously I listen to it like 7 times a day, RIP Stefán Karl Stefánsson by the way, I'm afraid that technique isn't going to work on me."

"Is that so?" and so the Cell clones all charged into the fray, attacking Goku all at once and forcing him on the defensive.

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Piccolo was less than impressed by what he was seeing "This has to be for shits and/ or giggles by this point, Tien's Multi Form technique essentially halves your power level with each copy you create."

"But his power level hasn't decreased in the slightest." Yamcha noted "He has the same power level now as he did when he was one person. I doubt Tien would want to hear this, but Cell has mastered that technique to a level he never even thought was possible."

"And that right there is what's wrong with your way of thinking." Kai told him flatly "Like I keep saying, limitations are only a state of mind. If you want something bad enough, you have to believe it will happen in order to make it so. How the hell do you think I surpassed you guys by like a fucking mile during the three years of training? Well that, and the fact that I had to get creative in order to compete with a Super Saiyan."

"You're a special case for a number of reasons. Anyway, at least this way we can follow the action now."

"Wait a second, were you guys having trouble?" asked Gohan.

"Yeah?"

"Well then you're gonna have a lot more when they really start getting serious."

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JF was quick to do his thing at the sight of Cell's Multi Form technique "Mr Satan, can you explain the sight of the multiplication unleashed by this malicious mutant monstrosity?"

"Well that depends Jimmy, you've ever heard of mirrors?" asked Mr Satan.

"I believe I have."

"Well there you go."

"...Oh okay, that also makes sense."

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Meanwhile, back inside the ring…

Cell and his duplicates broke off from their attack on Goku and retreated to the four corners of the arena "So how about it Goku, do you have a newfound appreciation of my power?"

"You could say that." Goku shot him a smirk "Not to bad actually."

"Oh don't worry, it gets better. I haven't even come close to unleashing my full power. But in the meantime, how about a pop quiz? Can you tell me which attack this is?" they each placed two fingers on their forehead.

"You mean the Special Beam Cannon, the move that Piccolo used to kill me before?"

"That's only the new name he gave it because it's so hard to pronounce, here's what you really call it! **Makankosapo!"** all four Cells fired a Special Beam Cannon from every direction.

Goku dodged the barrage by leaping into the air and flying away, with all four Cell's following him close behind "Alright, I think it's time for me to do some math!" he flew back and quickly dealt each a swift attack, sending them hurtling back towards the ground and causing them to merge back into one "We are number one, hey hey!"

Cell pulled himself back to his feet and let out a groan "You know I was hoping you would play along, maybe make four copies of yourself, but if you're just going to sink the showboat then I'm not going to bother."

"Sorry Cell but I'm here to win, and you're not going to beat me with a bunch of your stolen techniques."

"And what then Goku, are you going to beat me with _your_ stolen techniques?"

"Wait what? I don't steal techniques!"

"Hate to break it to you Goku, actually know I don't, but you do. A lot." Kai told him dryly.

"Wait what? What about the Kamehameha?"

"That one came from Master Roshi."

"What about the Solar Flare?"

"That came from the Triclops."

"The Spirit Bomb?"

"Goku I'm pretty sure King Kai is watching the tournament, if there's one thing you can't pull it would be that."

"What about the Kaioken, I learned that on my own didn't I?"

"You learned it from King Kai, I learned it from my sister." Yamcha pointed out flatly, failing to notice Kai flinch.

"Oh yeah. Huh."

"How about we get things back on track with this: **Death Saucer!"** Cell unleashed Frieza's own technique in the form of a razor sharp red Ki saucer.

"Oh crap!" Goku was forced to go onto the evasive "That's Frieza's move, of course you know that one didn't end very well for him."

"Oh believe me I'm well aware, but you should also be aware that simply evading won't be enough to save you. Frieza's intellect tells me that you'll try to charge towards me and veer away at the last second."

"Not how I beat him on Namek though."

"I'm aware of that as well. However, that won't work on me!" so Cell promptly attacked him with a second Death Saucer, but when they cut through Goku he just vanished "So you're using the Afterimage technique." he cut through him again, but was met with the same result "So a double afterimage huh?"

"Yep." Goku appeared a few feet away from him "Seriously though, using other people's moves isn't the way for you to beat me."

"I suppose you're right, I should finish you with something unique. You're about to see that soon enough though, so don't worry." with his golden aura flaring, he cupped his hands at his side and began gathering Ki in his palms " **Ka… Me…"**

' _Yeah, I probably should've seen this coming._ Dammit Cell don't do it, firing a blast like that from here could rip the entire planet apart!"

" **Ha… Me… HAAAAA!"** Cell promptly fired a full power Kamehameha.

' _Yeah, I should probably move._ Hey Cell, if you want me then come and get me!" Goku quickly took to the skies to lure the blast away from everone else, but he used Instant Transmission to escape right before the blast struck him, not that anyone noticed.

"Wow, to think it's actually over. After everything that's happened, I killed him using his own technique. Isn't that a kick in the-" he was silenced by a kick to the back of the head that nearly blew him clean out of the arena, but he managed to rebound before that happened "Okay first of all, that was just rude. Second of all, that blast should've hit you square on. How did you manage to deflect it?"

"To be honest I actually didn't."

"Oh yes, that ability you have to pop out of one place and into another as if by magic, quite the interesting technique."

"It's called Instant Transmission, it's pretty handy really if you know how to use it properly."

"You don't say. I can see that this technique is going to be a nuisance."

"Let me ask you something before we keep going, if I hadn't flown upwards to redirect that blast then would you have still fired anyway, even if it meant blowing apart the planet?"

"That possibility does exist, but I also knew you had no choice but to take to the air."

"So that's it, I bet you think you're pretty clever don't you?"

"I think you're failing to understand Goku, whether or not this planet ends up getting destroyed means absolutely nothing to me. Sure things might get a bit dull, but so be it!" he suddenly blitzed behind Goku and elbowed him in the face, resulting in the two of them trading even blows across the arena, with Cell doing most of the damage and leaving Goku struggling to keep up with him "Oh come on now Goku, don't tell me I'm suddenly too fast for you."

"Not a chance." and then the battle began anew, the two of them trading even blows across the ring and the skies above it far too fast for the untrained eye to even know where they were at the moment.

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JF and the others could only look on in awe at the spectacle "My god… What feats of absolutely incomparable skill and might! What power, what speed, what technique, what a battle! At least, that's what I would be saying if they were in the ring. Where the hell are they?"

"Who knows?" Larry gave a shrug "Maybe they're moving at speeds too fast for the human eye to see, I mean I could try using the high shutter camera-"

"Oh please." Mr Satan let out a scoff "Jerry, you're a terrific camera guy but you're a lousy martial artist. There's no way anybody could be that fast, they're just using camoflogue to disguise themselves like the Predator or Harry Potter."

"...Harry Potter?"

"My daughter is a big fan."

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Meanwhile, above the ring…

Goku dealt Cell a solid kick to the jaw, only to receive a fist to the face at the exact same time, resulting in both of them being blown backwards ' _Okay, that one definitely hurt.'_

Cell wiped the blood away and shot a smirk at Goku "Most impressive Goku, it seems you're going to provide me with even more amusement than I had ever dared to hope."

"Oh really?"

"This is what a true battle is supposed to feel like, wouldn't you agree? Now then, I believe we should continue."

"Fine by me." and then the battle began anew.

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Meanwhile, back on the ground…

Yamcha and the others could only look on in awe "Oh man look at them go, it's making my head spin just trying to watch them."

"Looks like they kicked things into the next gear." Raditz noted "What we were seeing before was just a warmup, but now I'm thinking we're actually seeing both of them really putting in the effort."

"Really shows how wide the gap is between us and them doesn't it?"

"That's one way of looking at it, though not particularly the right way." Cooler noted "Like your nephew stated, these types of battles shouldn't be viewed as what we've yet to achieve, but rather what is possible."

"You mean like how if Tien trained enough, he could perfect the Multi Form technique to the degree that Cell had?"

"That is one example yes." Cooler looked up to see Cell get pushed nearly out of the edge of the arena, only to retreat and for his and Goku's clash to begin anew before taking themselves to the skies once more "But be willing to explore possibilities as well."

"...You know it's kind of weird seeing Frieza's brother giving me advice."

"As opposed to trying to kill you?"

"Pretty much yeah."

"I cannot guarantee that we will always be on the same side, but I do know that at the moment, we have a common enemy, and the power that you and your companions possess will be crucial when faced with another enemy that will plague the universe at some point in the future. I just cannot say exactly when."

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Meanwhile, above the ring…

Cell took a moment to stop himself and Goku in mid air "Good Goku, very good. This is exactly what I've been waiting for. You know something Goku, when I became perfect I was a little bit scared by the thought that I'd never be able to test these abilities, as if I were a master surgeon without a patient."

"Or a grill without a burger." was what Goku offered.

"Yes, you do get it Goku! And that's exactly why we're here today! You are the only one who can truly complete me, compete with me! All of the others, they mean nothing! This entire tournament, this ring, all of it was for you, so we could have our perfect battle!"

"You didn't have to go through all of that trouble, I would've fought you either way."

"God, that's what I adore about you so much. You're so simple, that's what no one else truly understands. Such a battle cannot be ended by something so trivial as going out of bounds, wouldn't you agree? From now on we won't count that as a factor for disqualification, which means that the ring has outlived its usefulness." he held out a hand.

"Hold on a second, what exactly are you planning to do- Oh crap." Goku was quick to be hit by the realization and whipped around towards the others "GUYS THERE'S NO TIME, HURRY UP AND GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THE RING! CELL IS ABOUT TO DESTROY IT, GO NOW!"

"Too late." Cell promptly fired a simple Ki blast down at the ring, engulfing it in the explosion that followed.

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When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the ring was a massive crater too deep to see the bottom.

Fortunately, Gohan and the others were able to get out of the way of the blast before they could be incinerated "Okay, that was too close for comfort."

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Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your opnion, JF and the others had found themselves being protected from the blast by Android 16, much to their relief "Th-Thank you very much for that."

"You should all evacuate this area immediately, you are not safe here." 16 promptly walked away from them.

"But I can't very well ignore my journalistic duties, can I? And besides, Mr Satan here is going to challenge Cell to a rematch a bit later. Isn't that right Mr Satan?"

"Wait what?" Mr Satan snapped out of his stupor and started barking like an idiot again "You're goddam right Jimmy, but until then I'm gonna duck behind cover and get a good grip on his moves!"

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Back on the battlefield…

Cell and Goku promptly returned to the ground where the ring once stood "Now that that's out of the way the entire planet is our ring, we fight to the end until one of us either surrenders or dies, so until either one of us is dead."

"Duly noted." Goku shot him a smirk and started stretching "Sounds to me like you're finally ready to get serious with me."

"No less can be demanded by an opponent of a calliber as high as yours."

"Fair enough."

"Now then, what do you say we see how much fun we can have with all of this extra space going for us?" on that note, Cell flew towards Goku and unleashed a rapid barrage of Ki blasts.

Goku was quickly forced on the evasive by the sudden swarm, but once he found an opening he soared through it and promptly fired a Ki blast directly at Cell, resulting in an explosion, and once that subsided the two of them started trading even blows which resulted in them getting locked in a power struggle, the force shaking the entire battlefield.

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Future Gohan could only look on in awe "This is incredible… As if their speed alone wasn't impressive enough, the power those two are putting out is on a whole other level!"

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"Let's do this!" Goku and Cell broke off from their power struggle and began trading a fierce and even barrage of attacks, which ended when Goku slugged Cell across the face and sent him skidding backwards.

"As if you had to ask!" with a roar, Cell rebounded and attacked Goku with a barrage of two handed Ki blasts, engulfing Goku in the explosion that followed.

Goku burst upwards from within the explosion and stopped high above the battlefield, his teeth grinding furiously.

Raditz looked up and blinked "So what's he doing up there, you think he's gonna go for the Solar Flare?"

Goku slammed his hands together and placed them at his side " **Ka… Me…"**

"Okay, that's not how the Solar Flare works. Starting to get Kai flashbacks here." he was met with a finger from Kai.

" **Ha…"**

"He… He can't be serious…" Cell paused, then started laughing "Oh of course, I think I understand it now! Yes Goku, you're absolutely right! This is the only way it can end! This tournament, these fools, this planet, none of them mean anything to men like you an I! We shall go out together, in a ball of molten rock and death!"

" **Me…"**

"YES!"

And then Goku disappeared and reappeared right in front of Cell using Instant Transmission, poised to fire the Kamehameha at point blank range.

"...Oh. Somehow I completely forgot about that. Oh crapbaskets."

" **HAAAAAAA!"** with a fury and strain filled roar, Goku hit Cell with the Kamehameha at point blank range, engulfing both of them in the massive explosion that followed. When the smoke finally cleared, Goku was left standing over the form of Cell, his top half having been completely blown to hell.

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Meanwhile, with the misfits…

JF and the others looked on from afar "Larry, are you still alive?"

"Somehow sir." Larry poked his head out from behind a rock like the others.

"Then what the hell are you waiting for, get the hell back out there!"

"Alright but remind me again, what's our insurance policy?"

"The same as our ethics policy."

"Then I'm sure as hell glad I don't have a family."

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"Yes that's it!" Krillin pumped a fist "Just like that Goku totally took him down, that Instant Transmission trick really is something else isn't it? Come on guys pop the metaphorical champagne already, we won! Goku did it and the world is safe, the usual."

"No, that's definitely not the case." Cooler told him grimly "In case you weren't aware, this creature has Namekian DNA in his body, and if you combine that with the resilience and survival capabilites of my species, then…"

"...Oh crap."

"Essentially yes. In simple terms, this battle is far from over yet."

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JF was quick to report back to the audience "Ladies and gentlemen, with god as my witness, it appears that the orance clad simpleton has exploded the top of Cell! Mr Satan tell us, do you have any more explanations?"

Mr Satan gave a shrug "Well if I were a betting man, and I am and it's a serious problem, they combined the lasers and the mirrors with C4 charges…"

"And switched the body out in the ensuing chaos!"

"Now you're thinking like a Satanist Jimmy."

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Goku looked down at the bottom half of Cell, his mind racing ' _Something doesn't seem right about this, even now I can still sense a lot of Ki coming from him.'_

Sure enough, at that moment Cell's lower half sprung back up to its feet, and the top half regenerated in mere seconds "Okay time, time out, time right the hell out."

"Oh yeah I forgot, you can regenerate. But I didn't think you could without your head being intact."

"Piccolo's cells do provide a great deal of use, but the resilience of Frieza and his father's cells provide all the more use to me."

"I should've guessed you went down a bit too easily, but regenerating half of your body like that still takes up a lot of Ki, so you're not at full strength anymore."

"The same could easily be said of you as well, you were breathing pretty hard after that last attack of yours. Shall we continue? I'm sure it goes without saying that I have no intention of falling for that little trick of yours again, so I'm afraid this fight of yours is going to get dull rather quickly if that turned out to be your only ace in the hole."

"Not even close!"

"That's the spirit." the two of them continued flaring their golden auras, in which Cell easily dodged a charge attack from Goku and slammed his fist into Goku's face.

Goku retaliated with a kick to Cell's face, resulting in the two of them trading even yet considerably violent blows, some connecting with each other but others just striking air, resulting in further destruction of the landscape around them, or what was left of it.

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JF once again did his thing "Mr Satan can you make heads or tails of this, because right now I'm more confused than a homeless person under house arrest."

"First of all Jimmy, I find that offensive." Mr Satan told him.

"Why?"

"Second of all… You know what, I don't want to give away all the trade secrets! After all, if I did then what would be left for the kids Jimmy, what would be left for the kids?!"

"Pragmatism at its finest Mr Satan!"

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" _Pragmatism at its finest Mr Satan!"_

Master Roshi was less than impressed by what he was hearing ' _Bullshit at its finest is more like it, but for some reason Goku is…'_

That was when Bulma showed up "Hey guys I'm here, sorry I'm so late but I had to stop and pick up Bulla from daycare."

"Oh. You brought the baby."

"Is that a problem?"

"Uh… no it's fine."

"He is legally obligated to inform you that he's-" Turtle was promptly cut off.

"Turtle I've watched her poop, she knows what I'm about!"

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The battle of the Cell Games was raging on ferociously.

"That won't be enough to beat me!" Cell broke off from his clash with Goku, too to the air and promptly fired a Ki blast.

"We'll see about that!" Goku dodged the Ki blast, blitzed above Cell and slammed his fist straight into Cell's face, then attempted to follow up with another kick.

Cell dodged his follow up attack and dealt Goku a smash attack to the skull, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

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Nail and the others looked on in awe "Remarkable, they both spent a tremendous amount of power up to this point, but even so one would never suspect it from watching them fight right now."

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Cell and Goku dealt each other simultaneous fists to the face, leaving each other to break away and start panting heavily "Oh come now Goku, what's the matter? Don't tell me this is the best you can do."

"Not a chance in hell!" Goku burst forward and lunged at Cell, only to be met with a knee to the gut, grabbed by the front of his shirt and dealt a brutal fist to the face, sending him flying into some nearby rocks. After a moment, he burst up from beneath the rubble and attacked Cell with a massive barrage of continuous Ki blasts ' _No matter what happens, I've gotta keep this up for as long as I can!'_

 **A/N:**

 **And thus we see the first act of of the Cell Games, with Mr Satan's triumphant arrival, and miserably failure to defeat Cell, followed by Goku's fierce battle against the monstrous Cell. I would've gotten this chapter out sooner, but I spent almost a full week binging the new DBZ: Kakarot game, which is awesome by the way, so that put my writing on hiatus for about a week or so. Also, this is the last update of this story before my next semester begins, so update speed will most likely slow down from then on, which goes for all of my stories.**

 **I included some scenes from the sub story with Gohan and Android 16 from the new DBZ game Kakarot (which I had been binging for several days in my basement), mainly because it adds some world building and some character development which I really liked, and I thought it would be cool to see in there.**

 **I decided to take the TFS route for a good number of the scenes featured in this chapter, particularly in regards to Mr Satan, in which I decided to cut out his entourage of Piiza and the others because, well I find them annoying as hell, and the TFS version of Mr Satan is a lot more endearing to me. Plus it shows how much I love the writng of DBZ Abridged, season 3 in particular.**

 **Power levels:**

Super Saiyan Goku: 9.1 billion

Cooler: 6.5 billion

Android 16: 5.1 billion

Weighted Piccolo: 4 billion

Nail: 5 billion

Raditz: 800 million

Future Gohan: 1 billion

Kai: 250 million

Yamcha: 50 million

Krillin: 24 million

Upa: 30 million

Mr Satan (because I have to): 30

Cell (suppressed against Goku): 10 billion


	29. Cell Games: Act II

**Guest:** As interesting as that would be, my plan for Kai is essentially to show how far a full blooded human can go if he really puts his mind to it. After the events of Cell, I always figured that the human characters just kind of gave up, but Kai is meant to be a character that never gives up, and he's staying a full blooded human from start to finish.

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The battle continued raging on.

Yamcha and the rest looked on in anticipation "Yeah come on Goku, that's it! Just keep on going a little bit further, you've almost got him finished off! He's really doing it, he's gonna win this thing!

Gohan promptly shared a look with Cooler ' _I don't know how true that is, dad is pretty much on his last legs, so how is he going to pull through on this?'_

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' _Come on come on come on!'_ continuing from where we left off, Goku was hurling a massive barrage of Ki blasts at Cell, one after another.

"That… is… ENOUGH!" with a roar of frustration, Cell unleashed his Perfect Barrier, the entire shield cancelling out all of Goku's Ki blasts and forcing him to break off from his assault as the barrier expanded, but both were left panting heavily "Far be it for me to deny credit where credit is so obviously deserved Goku, to be able to enrage me enough to the point where I have to raise my energy shield is quite impressive. You were able to back me into a bubble, so to speak. A blast as strong as the one you fired earlier should've wiped you clean, and yet here you are still swinging at me."

"Cell… if there was one thing that I gained during the days leading up to this tournament, it was endurance."

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Meanwhile, at Mount Paozu…

"Achoo!" Chichi let out a sneeze and wiped her nose "Eesh."

"What did you do to him?" asked Ox King.

"What didn't I do to him?"

"...You're just like your mother."

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Meanwhile, at Kame House…

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Bulma slammed her fist into the coffee table "He was so close to getting him too, this is torture!"

"I don't know if he was that close." Master Roshi told her grimly "Keep in mind that Cell had appeared to look like he was on the bring but just look at him now, he's still got quite a bit of latitude left in him, at least a slight bit more than Goku."

"So what exactly does that mean?"

"I hate to say it, but I think our boy has met his match. Judging by the attitude he's been showing, I suspect he jumped into this knowing it was a fight he couldn't win. The question is, if that was the case then why?"

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Meanwhile, back at the battlefield…

Cell lowered his Perfect Barrier and shot a smirk at Goku "Correct me if I'm wrong, but if my senses are accurate then your power level dropped like a stone just now. I suggest you eat one of those little recovery beans, the last thing we want is for the festivities to get dull."

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Piccolo and the others looked on in concern "This is bad, the last time I saw Goku this winded he was having a heart attack! He can't keep this up!"

"I know, but this is our chance!" Future Gohan whipped around to the others "Just give him a Senzu Bean, once he's back to full power we can all jump in and attack together! If we do that then Cell won't stand a chance!" he received no reply "You know, the magic beans that heal all wounds but are extinct in the future?" still no reply "Okay seriously you guys, if you're just bothered by cheating then you should either loosen your moral codes or stop hinging the fate of the world on deathmatches!"

"It's not that simple." Cooler was the one to finally answer him "Son Goku has not asked for any assistance, and if you know him that even if you did provide it, he would refuse. Whether he wins or loses against Cell, this is his battle and his alone. If you throw him one of those Senzu Beans then he would throw it back in your face, because what hangs in the balance right now is not simply the fate of this world, but his pride."

"But if he keeps going as he is there's no way he'll be able to keep this up!"

"There's no question about it. This is one battle Son Goku isn't going to win."

"What?! Then how can you just sit there and do nothing!"

"Because I'm looking at this realistically. Despite all of the training I myself hae done up until now, the fact is that Son Goku has kept up easily and perhaps nearly surpassed me. He has a true gift for combat, and yet despite that Cell still exceeds even his power. He views that gift as just another one of his playthings."

"And you think we should just stand here and watch that, and do nothing while he loses this fight?!"

"Calm yourself, it's become apparent to all of us that Son Goku has a grand plan up his sleeve for this. He would never go into a battle with stakes as high as this unless he was certain we would prevail, so the question is, what is his plan?"

' _Father… whatever it is you have planned, I think I speak for everyone when I say that now is the best time for you to spring it.'_

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Cell looked down at Goku and shot him a confident smirk "Oh come now Goku, just what is the issue here? Does your pride not care for the taste of magical beans? Your little display not long ago did force me to sacrifice a considerable amount of power, and slim as your chances of defeating me might be restoring yourself to full power would at least keep things interesting. If I can't enjoy myself then all of this would've been for nothing, not eat the damn Senzu Bean, get back up here and punch me in my perfect jawline!"

"Yeah well, here's thing about that Cell…" on that note, Goku powered down his aura and then proceeded to make every single jaw present and in the fandom drop "I give up."

"I'm sorry I'm rather high up here, what the hell did you just say Goku?!"

"I'm calling it here, I've sized up your power up until now and it's pretty obvious that I can't beat you."

"But we're not finished! I'm not finished! This isn't a victory, I don't even know what the hell to call this!"

"No it's totally a victory, I'm giving up and that means you get the win. Besides, me losing tournaments is kind of a trend when you think about it."

Next came a simultaneous chorus from the two angriest characters present "Every work you just spoke has made me violently angry! Oh great, now I'm agreeing with Cell/Kai! Look at what you made me do!"

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Gohan looked between the rest of those present "Okay hold on a second, what does he think he's doing?"

"Well this is father we're talking about, so if I had to guess I'd say he's either saving all of our lives or dooming us all." Future Gohan told him dryly.

"...Yeah that sounds about right."

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Meanwhile, back at Kame House…

"What the hell man?!" Bulma bolted to her feet "The guy who never backed down from anything in her life is suddenly just calling it a day?! What the hell is he thinking?!"

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Cell looked down at Goku, his expression one of pure disgust "You mean to tell me you're actually calling it quits? That's just pathetic, you mean to end this fight before it barely even began?"

"Yeah, that's about the sum of it." Goku gave a shrug "Congrats Cell, the victory for our fight goes to you."

"Is that so? Fine I guess, but Goku I hope you're prepared to accept the consequences of you choosing to surrender."

"I know."

"You can quit if you want, but if there's no one else to challenge me then I'm going to keep my world and reduce this planet to rubble, the entire human race and everthing else on this planet wiped from existence."

"Hold your horses Cell, this is still a tournamment and there's still one fighter left so you have to take him on first if you want to blow up the planet."

"Oh is that so?" Cell paused, then let out a chuckle "Oh okay I get it, this is a prank. My god, I honestly never expected you to be a prankster Goku, but you definitely got me you clever son of a bitch!" he looked over at the sidelines "Okay so what are we talking about, is it Kai? No I doubt it, I don't even take my own sloppy seconds. The future boy? Oh I doubt that one, he looks like he's about ready to crush coal into diamonds with his spchincter. Cooler perhaps? From what I can tell, he may even be stronger than you."

"Nope, it's none of them. But I promise you Cell, one way or another this next round is going to be the last. If my pick loses then there's nobody on this planet who can beat you, that's all there is to it, but now that I've gauged your power level I'm 100% sure that my pick has what it takes to beat you, there's no contest and that's why I figured I might as well step aside and let him be the one to finish this."

"This doesn't make any sense, you're suggesting that whoever this mystery fighter of yours is they surpass even you in terms of raw power?"

"I'm not suggesting, I'm outright saying it."

"That's ridiculous, even if it were true he would have to be 10 times stronger than you if he wanted to make a difference."

"I don't know Cell, I think you just might be surprised."

"Well then by all means Goku, go ahead and surprise me. Who is this great warrior, give me a name!"

"Alright then, I'll give you the fighter you really want, the one who's finally gonna put your terror to an end." Goku looked over at the others on the sidelines, and he smiled "It's time for you to take over and finish this fight… Gohan."

"...Yep it's officially, we're all going to fucking die." Kai voiced everyone's opinion in that one sentence.

"Oh come on Kai, don't be like that."

"For the second time today, I find myself agreeing with that little shit." Cell noted dryly "I mean of all of the fighters you could've chosen, out of everyone on the entire list he's the one you choose to go with?"

"Say what you will about it now, but I doubt anyone would've guessed him." Goku promptly made his way over to the others and shot a grin at Gohan "Alright Gohan, you're up for this aren't you?"

"Goku, I think I speak for everyone when I say this: What in the name of hell do you think you're doing?!" Piccolo rounded on him.

"I'm sending in the strongest fighter we have, this is what we trained for."

"This is what you trained for, Gohan was never supposed to fight Cell one on one! He was just there to make you stronger!"

"Come on Piccolo, now you're just being insincere on Gohan's behalf!"

"Insecure, and no he's not! He's 11 years old!"

"He was 4 when you stuck him alone in the woods with Kai for 6 months."

"You're his father you idiotic bastard, you're actually supposed to care about his wellbeing from the start! I'm not denying that Gohan's abilities are far beyond what they used to be, but you're going to set him up against an opponent even you couldn't beat!"

"Okay, it's sad when I have to be the voice of reason between Gohan's two dads." Kai noted dryly "As much as I want to tell you what you're doing wrong as a parent, like what Piccolo is doing right now, how do you think your wife is going to react to this?"

"...Oh yeah. That. Oh crap."

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How Chichi reacted to this…

"I AM GOING TO CASTRATE HIM!" that was exactly how Chichi reacted to this, but at the same time she has a certain surprise in store for them.

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Goku forced himself not to shudder "Okay, that I'll deal with when the time comes. But in all seriousness I need you to trust me, Gohan has a power in him greater than anything you could possibly imagine. Just think about it, he and Kai have been fighting along side us since they were little against some of the toughest enemies the galaxy has to offer. I remember all too well what I was like back when I was his age, I wasn't even 1% as strong as he is right now. I know for a fact just how capable he is right now, I mean I spent a whole year training him last week."

"Are you really sure about this though?" asked Yamcha "I know that Gohan and Kai both have a lot of potential, but what you're asking of him right now is a pretty tall order, and it's not very realistic considering what we're up against right now."

"I realize that this is a big challenge for a boy his age, but you didn't see what I saw from him when we were in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I wouldn't be putting him out there if I didn't think he was ready." Goku knelt down in front of Gohan "What do you think about this, did you see Cell hit me with anything you didn't think you could handle? Did you see me go at him with anything you don't have?"

Gohan still appeared to be nervous about the thought "Well I don't think so, but you and him were both holding back, and if you were going all out then I'm sure it would've been a lot different."

"I doubt I could speak for Cell right now, but I was definitely giving it everything I had during that battle. You thought I was holding back, but that was only because you were gauging my Ki against your own."

"Okay back the actual fuck up a second." Kai jumped in "You mean the battle where pretty much everyone here was pissing themselves at the power you guys were putting out, and he didn't think a damn thing of it? I don't know if I should be proud or pissed right now, so I'm gonna choose to be both."

"You do that. So what do you say Gohan, I need you to get out there and win this one for us, and then we'll all be able to go home and enjoy some time off from all of the fighting."

"Well… if you really think I can, then at the very least I can try." Gohan promptly removed his weighted cape "At least I've been wished back by the dragon once, so I know what to expect if this doesn't go well."

"Let me just say one last thing before you go Gohan. I know for a fact that you're so much stronger than you think you are."

"I always did love the faith you and the others had in me dad, but right now I think it's a matter of what Cell thinks." and with that, Gohan flew down onto the battlefield.

Cell on the other hand, he was still less than impressed "So the biggest and most important fight of my life walks away, and in his place he sends in the world's strongest bookworm! Fine, so be it Goku, I'll play along with this little joke of yours. But it's only fair to let you know that while I'm busy pounding your son, I'll be thinking of you the entire time."

"...What have I gotten myself into?"

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Meanwhile, back at the Son residence (AKA, part 2 of how Chichi reacted to this…

"WITH A BUTTERKNIFE YOU SON OF A BITCH, I'LL TIE YOU TO A CHAIR FIRST AND GAG YOU WITH A GODDAMN DAIKON RADISH!"

Thus concludes this installment of how Chichi reacted to this.

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Kai studied Gohan and Cell intently, his mind racing ' _Putting the sexual innuendoes aside, now that I think about it Gohan might actually have a chance at winning this. Cell took as much of a beating as Goku did, if not more, and since Gohan spent a year in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber with Goku, along with whatever Zenkai he got when we had our fight earlier, Gohan should be at least as strong as he is now. Play his cards right, and Gohan could actually come out on top in this fight.'_

And then Goku did his thing "Hey guys I was thinking of taking a Senzu Bean, you guys have any on you?"

"Oh yeah, I stopped by Korin's place before we came." Krillin handed him a Senzu Bean "So there you go."

"Thanks. Hey Cell, heads up!" Goku promptly tossed the Senzu Bean to Cell "That right there is called a Senzu Bean, now eat up."

"Are you out of your freaking mind?!" Kai rounded on him in a rage "Did whatever brain cells you have in there suddenly die, in what universe did that seem like a bad idea?!"

"Hey take it easy guys, Cell used up a lot of his power when we went at it, so the way I see it it wouldn't be fair if he didn't fight Gohan at full strength."

"Are you officially deaf to everything you hear, he's gonna fucking kill your son!"

"Hey you said it kid, not me!" Cell shot them a smirk "Seriously Goku, even with everything at stake you still can't help but be a slave to your better nature. It's rather sickening, but all the same I will gladly accept this token of good sportsmanship. But mark my words, I'll be sure to see to it that you regret the gesture." so on that note, he promptly downed the Senzu Bean and brought himself back to full strength "Oh yeah, that's that good shit! Suck it Kale, you bush league super food. Seriously I have to thank you Goku, that does have a little kick to it. Too bad it tastes like rotten fish."

' _Well so much for a war of attrition, so I guess it's jumping into the metaphorical shark infested deep end.'_ so with a deep breath and then a mighty roar, Gohan powered up his Super Saiyan form to its max, revealing an explosive display of power. When everything finally settled back down, Gohan was standing as he was before, only now his aura and hair were glowing gold and surging slightly from the power.

' _Okay I have to admit, I wasn't expecting this at all. The kid's been hiding more power than I was expecting, he actually might be stronger than Goku. It's like the kid has become an entirely different person. Maybe Goku was onto something._ I guess your father wasn't bluffing after all when he was selling your abilities to me, this is far more appealing than I was expecting from you kid. Still though, he did go a bit far singing your praises. Hate to break it to you kid, but I'm afraid winning isn't in your cards."

"I guess there's only one way to find out." Gohan slowly dropped into a combat stance as he watched Cell return to the ground.

"You really are up for this aren't you? Well then I can only wish you the best of luck, this is going to hurt you a great deal Gohan, but I'm not without kindness. I'll make sure that the pain you have to endure only lasts a second." so on that note, Cell promptly aimed a kick.

Gohan blocked it, then went on to dodge and block a series of punches and kicks and was quick to throw Cell over his shoulder.

Cell took to the air, rebounded and blitzed towards him.

Gohan took to the air to dodge the attack, as well as the follow up kick aimed at his head, and he took the opportunity to kick Cell in the face, sending him flying away ' _Okay that's it, so far so good.'_ he soared high into the air to dodge Cell's next attack, as well as the barrage of punches that followed, before both of them broke away.

"Well you're definitely a lot more spry than the future version of you, but in the meantime let's see how you can handle yourself against my true speed!" Cell suddenly blitzed forward and quickly dealt Gohan a headbutt, then grabbed him by the front of his gi and started repeatedly punching him in the face "Thinking of you Goku!"

' _Gotta find an opening when he punches, or maybe hit his blind spot! There!'_ siezing the first chance he got, Gohan spun himself around and dealt Cell a solid kick to the face, sending him crashing to the ground in a heap, while Gohan himself returned to the ground and wiped the blood from his face ' _He got a lot of good hits in because I let down my guard and didn't expect him to be so fast, I'm gonna have to be a lot more careful from here on out.'_

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JF and the others looked on in horror as he watched the battle unfold "Good mother of god, this 10 year old child is currently fighting for his life! Me thinks the Make a Wish Foundation has gone too far this time!"

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Cell pulled himself back to his feet and wiped the blood from his lip, and he shot Gohan a smirk full of confidence "Go ahead and keep staring at me like that kid, it's not going to help you in this fight. I have to admit though, you are proving to be quite a treat to knock around, durable like your father yet soft like your mother. But it's only fair to warn you now brat, if you think that the only way to win is to not play then you're playing the wrong game!" he leapt into the air and fired a barrage of Ki blasts, forcing Gohan to go on the evasive, jumping and rolling to dodge every attack.

Gohan dodged and weaved his way around every Ki blast being thrown at him, and as he did he shot a grin over at Kai and Piccolo "You guys can't say that I can't dodge properly anymore now can you?"

Piccolo let out a very tsundere like grunt "I mean, you could be dodging better."

"Oh come on!"

"Dodge!" Cell aimed a kick at Gohan's head.

"Not this time!" Gohan weaved his way around the kick and landed back on the ground a few feet away from where Cell was doing the same.

Cell promptly blitzed behind Gohan and promptly dealt him a brutal series of punches and kicks, leaving him unable to defend himself "Game over kid, at least this way you have someone to blame for getting you into this mess. If it makes you feel any better, I would've tried saving you for last." and then he unleashed a shockwave that sent Gohan crashing clear through a plateau behind him.

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JF and the rest of the Satan entourage looked on in horror "Dear sweet merciful god, I think… I think the boy is dead! Such is the first casualty of the Cell Games, an adolescent that deserved so much better. Can we show that on network television? I mean we're still live right now, so I don't think we really have a choice."

"Pretty sure they can hear what you're saying." Larry pointed out.

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Ox King and Chichi could only look on in horror at the sight of Gohan's supposed demise, only for the former to start freaking out when the latter fainted "Chichi! Sweetheart take it easy, keep in mind that you've got another one coming!"

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Cell looked at the plateau that Gohan had crashed into, then looked back at the others "So which of those among you wants to try and describe the meaning of filicide to Goku? I mean I would just ask Gohan but, well he's been filicided."

"I'll tell you what the hell it means!" Piccolo promptly rounded on Goku in a rage "What it means is that Gohan is dead you bastard, he's fucking dead! Why couldn't you just listen to us for once, now your own son is dead because of you!"

"As much as I'm all for beating the shit out of Goku or just tearing into him, Gohan isn't dead yet." Kai pointed out dryly "If you had been paying attention, you'd notice that his Ki hasn't dropped in the slightest."

"...Oh."

"Yeah he's right." Goku pointed out.

"Enough of this already." Cell looked up at him "Just face it Goku, you're the only one worthy of the Cell Games, so just go ahead and eat a Senzu Bean already."

"Oh yeah, then who's that behind you?"

"Oh please."

Sure enough, with an explosive shockwave Gohan burst out from beneath the rubble alive and well, and he wiped the blood from his face ' _Okay that one definitely hurt.'_

"Oh joy. Quite the surprise I have to admit, I shouldn't have taken you for granted kid."

"Can I just say something?"

"I've been humoring you this entire time anyway, so why not? But if you're looking to exchange barbs, I'd recommend cutting your teeth on something similar first, like that embarrassment hiding over there." he jerked a thumb over at Mr Satan.

"Leave him out of this. I know why we're fighting right now, I know why my father threw me out to the biggest wolf on the face of these woods."

"Oh trust me, I intend fully to huff and puff and blow you down."

"I'm only 10."

"And I'm 6."

"Oh. Anyway I don't want to kill you, even if you are an evil monster we don't have to end things like this."

"Seriously? Look I understand your reluctance to continue this battle, but you thinking you could actually kill me is a whole other story. Let's face it, you couldn't make a proper dent in me if I stood here motionless."

"That's not it. My dad put me out there like this because whenever I get backed into a corner, I snap like that guy in the Shining."

"Oh really, you mind elaborating? Enlighten me, seriously."

"When I snap, when I get angry, when I lose my mind, my power skyrockets and everything just goes red. The world around me sort of just fades away. I think the first time it happened was back when Raditz and that other Saiyan Beets came to Earth for the first time, then when I was training with Piccolo, then when Vegeta and Nappa showed up, and there were a few times back on Namek, and I ended up blowing off Nappa's arm, along with one of Frieza's men. Then when the time came to battle Frieza himself, and finally when that evil Namekian Lord Slug came to Earth, and that's what let me tap into my Super Saiyan power so easily. In those moments, I saw everything go red, and I coould only see one thing: the person I wanted to kill. Of course I never actually did manage to beat anyone in the past, Kai doesn't really count, but I think my dad knows that if I snap here…"

"Let me guess, you snap here and you kill me?"

"You said it, not me."

"Is that so?" Cell paused for moment, then started laughing loudly "Threaten me with a good time you have, quite the fascinating story but not a wise one to tell. If you're trying to intimidate someone it helps to know about your audience in me, case in point: Let's just say for the sake of your argument it's true and you have some kind of hidden power just waiting to burst out of you like a volcano, but considering who I am and whose DNA I have in me, let's just assume that I'm the sort who wants to see them first hand!" he dealt Gohan a fist to the face, and elbow to the skull and promptly stomped down on Gohan's head "What the hell are you waiting for, come on and surprise me."

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"Dammit Kakarot, this is going too far!" Raditz was the next person to round on Goku "Just face it, you're the one Cell wants so just eat a Senzu Bean and get back out there before your own son gets killed!"

"Look just take it easy bro, it's going to be just fine." Goku assured him "I would never have made Gohan go out there if I didn't think he has what it takes, all he has to go is get mad and then Cell is pretty screwed."

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Cell continued stomping down on Gohan's head "Yes that's right kid, go ahead and show me this awesome power of yours I should supposedly fear so greatly! Make me suffer, make me beg for mercy, teach me a lesson I won't soon forget!" he stomped down harder, causing Gohan to scream in pain, but when that didn't work he picked up Gohan by the front of his gi and started pummeling him "Come on you little shit, get angry! Seriously, how hard should it be to piss off a 10 year old?! Show me dammit!" he dealt Gohan a brutal elbow to the stomach and sent him crashing into some rocks, and then he continued his brutal assault "Come on kid, get angry and show me your power dammit! I want to see what you're capable of!"

"Enough!" Gohan burst back up from beneath the rubble, leapt over Cell's next attack and promptly kicked him square in the face, sending him skidding backwards ' _Take things one step at a time I guess, at least he felt that one.'_

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Goku watched the spectacle unfold from the sidelines, the smirk never leaving his face ' _Yeah you got that right Cell, give him the business. It's exactly what you want, but when things finally do get ugly for you, you can't say he didn't try to warn you.'_

"Tell me." Cooler spoke up "You're reasoning for that boy being the one to vanquish this monster, would it happen to be…"

"Yep, you guessed it already. It should be any minute now."

"...I'm not so sure about that."

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Cell pulled himself back to his feet, wiped the blood from his lip and shot Gohan a smirk full of malice "Oh yeah Gohan, if I wasn't going to bring it out of you then I sure as hell am now. I hope you're prepared brat, because now I'm going to see you at full power whether you like it or not." he promptly fired a Death Beam from his fingertip.

' _That's-'_ Gohan was forced to duck to avoid the blast ' _That's Frieza's move, the one that he used to kill Uncle Raditz!'_ he was quickly forced on the evasive by a rapid barrage of Death Beams that followed.

That is, until Cell caught him in a bear hug "So just for the sake of being clear, if you break then I die is that the gist of it?"

"That would be the process of events yes."

"Well then I guess there's only one thing to do now, and that's to see which breaks first." he then started crushing Gohan in his beear hug, causing him to scream in pain "Spirit or body, taking all bets guys!"

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Goku looked on with the smile never leaving his face or even faltering ' _Yeah that's right, just according to cake.'_

This was when Piccolo finally lost his temper "In this endless pile of hay Goku, this is the last fucking straw! If things keep going like this then your son, your own flesh and blood, is going to be slaughter! I've had enough of this and I don't care what you say about it either, this fight is going to end because I'm putting a stop to it!"

"Use your head Piccolo, even if Gohan did need your help you know you wouldn't last ten seconds against Cell! Just wait a little longer, I promise he's almost there."

"Okay Kakarot, now we're all seriously getting concerned about this." Raditz told him "It's not right for you to be so calm in this situation. That's your own son getting beaten to death out there right now."

"I know guys, I get what you're saying but this is exactly what I've been planning on right from the start. Just wait and see, any second now he's going to lose his temper and then you'll see what I mean. All Gohan has to do is get mad, and once he reaches full power Cell won't stand a ghost of a chance in hell. There's no question that he's going to win, despite how bad it might look right now the fact is that he's the only one of us who can win. I'm not going to be around forever, sooner or later death is going to stick, so what then? Someone has to be here to keep things safe once I'm gone, and while I was in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, I realized that that person… is Gohan.

"...Uh huh, I get what you're saying, now let me offer this as a counterpoint while I beat you within an inch of your life. **Namek-Ken 40x!"** pushing his Namek-Ken to the max, Kai then shocked everyone present by slamming his fist into Goku's skull, forcing him to the ground and then repeatedly punching him over and over again as he screamed his lungs out "YOU FUCKING RETARD!"

"Kai what are you-"

"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN! Face the facts Goku, this is a mistake and you damn well know it! It doesn't matter how much power Gohan has, he's not a warrior like the rest of us are! And besides about this grand plan of yours to take out Cell, does Gohan even know what it is? Do you even know what's going on inside of his head right now?! He's not angry or just fucking around for fun like you and I do, he's in more pain and agony than anything he's ever known before and he's died once already and for all we know he's cursing your name for standing around up here with that stupid fucking goofy ass grin and refusing to step in and pull him out of this! Use that thick skull for a minute before I smash it open myself, all the power in the universe or not he's still just a kid like me, a child whose death warrant you're signing as we speak! All this bullshit move of yours is gonna do is get him killed and even when we do bring him back he'll be left with mental and emotional scars! And you know how I know, it's because I AM WHAT HE WOULD BECOME! I know I act like a fucking psychopath but what the fuck would you expect, my dad abandoned me before I was even born and I lost my own mother when I was three, and the only family that I had was a guy who's part of this whole dysfunctional bullshit of a group! I've seen people die with my own 5 year old eyes before and I've killed people before, yeah I'm only 10 and I have the blood of at least a dozen people on my hands! I've seen the only blood family that I have die by the hand of an alien warrior and my best friend die by the hand of an evil space emperor, both of which when I was a fucking toddler! And now fast forward, I'm 10 and even I get what you don't! GOHAN DOESN'T EVEN LIKE FIGHTING YOU RETARDED WORTHLESS EXCUSE FOR A WARRIOR!" Kai promptly grabbed Goku by the hair and held him up towards the battle "Do you know what he's thinking right now? He's not angry or fighting for fun or playing for time, he's in greater agony than anything he's ever known, and he's probably wondering why his own father, the man he looks up to more than anyone else in this entire fucking universe, refuses to step in and help him when he needs it. Open your eyes and pull that stick out of your ass, no matter how much power he's packing away he's just a scared kid, a kid you abandoned time and time again despite how much he needed you. My dad abandoned me before I was even born, but you're still here right now, so what excuse do you have?"

Goku was forced to look down at Gohan being tortured by Cell, and his expression turned to one of of shock and horror as he listened to Gohan's screams of agony ' _Oh god, what the hell have I done?_ Someone toss me a Senzu Bean. Now." and yet instead of a Senzu Bean, he received a Nail Gun through the chest, courtesy of a still thoroughly enraged Kai.

"Not a chance Palm Tree, you had your shot and you blew it. Keep the Senzu Beans on standby guys, I'm going down there and pulling Gohan out of there myself." Kai's Namek-Ken flared as high as it could, but then he shot a look at Piccolo "That hole in the chest, that one came out of your book Piccolo." he shot him a thumbs up, then charged down towards the battlefield and promptly kicked Cell square in the face hard enough to send him flying, then quickly rushed over and caught Gohan and helped him to the ground "Hey man, you okay?"

Gohan spat out a considerably amount of blood, then looked up at Kai as he staggered his way back to his feet "Kai go back, you shouldn't be down here."

"Forget it, unlike your dad I'm not going to sit here and watched you get killed over a plan that probably won't even work. Short version, your dad is even more retarded than I thought and we're fighting Cell together."

"Kai you really shouldn't be-"

"Fuck, get down!" Kai shoved Gohan out of the way just in time to get a Special Beam Cannon to the shoulder, sending him flying back into a plateau and leaving him in a bloody heap.

"KAI NO!"

As it turns out, that Special Beam Cannon came from Cell "Okay seriously, if that didn't awaken this hidden power then I'm done trying to do this stuff for you. You now leave me no choice but to take out my frustration on your friends over there." so on that note, Cell blitzed over to the sidelines and snatched the bag of Senzu Beans from Krillin right as he pulled it out "Okay just a quick update everyone, like with the actual World Martial Arts Tournament, these are now tournament illegal. Alright, thank you." and he leapt back down onto the battlefield.

"NO!"

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What Cell didn't notice (either that or didn't care about) was Yamcha pulling one last Senzu Bean out of his gi and picking up Kai's blood covered form in his arms "Hey easy buddy, just stay with me long enough to swallow this okay? I promised I won't let anything happen to you, and I won't.

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Cell floated back down to Gohan with the bag of Senzu Beans in hand "Okay, I think it's safe to say that I've learned today that not all roads lead to Rome. Torturing you won't do the trick, so let's change up the game plan shall we? I'm going to drag each one of your friends down here and murder them right in front of you until you finally give me what I want from you."

Gohan could only look on in horror "No no no, please don't!"

"Take it easy kid, I'll save your BFF and your dad for last? Hey Kai, Piccolo, you guys hearing that one okay?"

"...I don't get that."

"Of course you don't."

"Please don't do this, leave them out of this! I lied okay, I don't have any hidden power! What you're seeing now is everything I've got!"

"Oh there's no need for you to underestimate yourself, I'm betting a little bit extra motivation is going to be just what you need to really get serious with me."

"Stay away from them!" Gohan pounced at Cell, only to be kicked in the face and send tumbling backwards.

"Stop wasting my time with this pitiful act and sit down, this is going to take awhile. I want to make this nice and slow."

"ENOUGH!" that was when 16 suddenly popped up and grabbed Cell in a brutal bear hug from behind.

"16 what the hell?! Listen buddy, as thrilled as I should be that you're finally coming around to me, but you're timing is anything but ideal!"

"Brobot be careful!" Raditz called out to him "And I don't care what any of you say about me calling him that, you don't judge the robromance!"

"First of all Raditz, no robo. Seriously though 16, what the hell are you doing?!"

"What needs to be done." 16 turned to face the others as well "I know several of you are thinking of taking part in this battle, but all ofyou must stay back! I am going to engage my self destruct sequence! You must take cover! Within my system is a high-yield nuclear explosive! I am going to detonate it, and I will take Cell with me, as is my programmed last resort measure! Do not come any closer, it is highly unlikely you could survive such a blast!"

"I do not consent to this!"

"Your compliance is not a factor."

"You had a chunk of your head missing, how do you remember that?!"

"My systems are more durable than you believed!"

"Brobot don't do this, you still have so much to live for!" Raditz protested.

"It is okay my friend, I see now that this is how it has to be. As long as he lives, Cell will continue to kill and destroy. I see now that this world must be ridded of his evil, regardless of the cost. Cell and I will both perish, and with us this nightmare will end! All of Dr Gero's ambitions, his intentions to conquer the world and shed countless amounts of blood in his quest for revenge upon Son Goku, they come to an end here and now! My countdown has started!" his body began glowing as he prepared to self destruct.

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JF and his camermaman just took in what 16 was about to do, and they were surprisingly calm about what was about to happen "So out of curiosity, what are the odds of outrunning a nuclear explosion?"

Mr Satan, well he was the exact opposite "Find me a bomb shelter, no wait a fridge!"

"I'm guessing that's a 0. Well then what do you say Larry, how about we do it one more time for old time's sake?"

Larry wiped away some of his tears and forced on a brave face "Where there's smoke, there's firecracker sir."

"You're goddamn right."

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"GOODBYE!" 16's body was glowing gold as he prepared to self destruct, leaving everyone to prepare for the inevitable blast that would follow… only for the blast to never come, and for the glowing to subside, leaving 16 as confused as everyone else "A critical error has occured. What has malfunctioned, why have I not self destructed?"

This was when Future Gohan finally chose to speak up "You didn't know 16? It didn't work because you don't have an explosive in your body anymore! It used to be there but Bulma and her father found it when they were repairing you, and they decided to take it out."

"Who gave her the right?!"

"I'm sorry 16, but you can't self destruct anymore!"

"But-"

"Well that's interesting." Cell let out a chuckle "You know 16, not that this embrace of yours hasn't been heartwarming and all, I mean my endorphins are just going crazy right now, but I have a child to break. Besides, a mere bomb wouldn't have been enough to destroy me to begin with. Now then, correct me if I wrong but I believe you were looking for a kaboom?"

"If I said no, would you still-" 16 was promptly cut off by a simple Ki blast from Cell that was powerful enough to blast his body to bits, leaving only his head still intact as it rolled over to where Mr Satan and the others were hiding out.

"For the record, the answer to that is yes. Too bad 16, but I'm afraid you'll be joining the growing list of failures created by Dr Gero."

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"Son of a-!" Bulma slammed her fists down on the coffee table "If I had known he was gonna go nuclear on Cell then I would've left the stupid thing in him!"

"Why did you even take it out in the first place?" asked Master Roshi.

"What are you kidding? Imagine if he had decided to blow his payload the first time he laid eyes on Goku, try explaining that to Chichi! Whoops, sorry I let your husband and child get nuked, but the hypocratic oath and all of that crap."

"You know what Bulma I think you need to relax more, how's about a brewski?"

"I'm still breast feeding."

"Well then two of us are thirsty!" this was met with Bulla cooing in response "Oh yeah, you go baby."

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Cell looked around at what was left of 16 and let out a sigh of disappointment "Oh 16, part of me hoped for you to be the wind beneath my wings, but all you've done is take the wings right out of my snails. Now I don't even feel like killing any of the fools over there, except Goku but that's obvious."

Gohan's face lit up with a small bit of hope "So then does that mean…?"

"Yes kiddo, I'm not going to kill your daddies and your bestie. _They_ are."

"The implication being?"

"Let's see here, between Goku, Kai, Cooler, Piccolo, Nail, Yamcha, Krillin, Upa, Raditz nd your future self that makes 10 in total I believe. Now then…" the hole in Cell's tail opened up and started shooting out one slime covered form after another "Oh. OH. Oh my god, I'm never having kids after this."

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JF and the rest of the Satan entourage looked on in a mix of horror and disgust at what Cell was doing "Ladies and gentlemen at home, it would appear that the terrible Perfect Cell is in the process of… doing one of two things, I'm not sure which one but I'm pretty sure we can't show either one of them on network television."

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The Z fighters on the sidelines had their own thoughts.

"I don't understand, how do they just come out without the egg?!" that one came from both Nail and Piccolo.

Yamcha and Krillin shared a look "Life always finds a way…"

"To make me vomit." Kai muttered.

"Wow, this actually seems pretty easy." Goku commented "I don't get what Chichi had been complaining about back then."

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"Oh god… Okay… I'm done…" Cell finally stopped doing what he was doing and his tail returned to normal, only for his tail to shudder "Oh that's just perfect, it's going to be doing that for the rest of today. You know Goku I've been thinking, and I've decided that your insistence on fighting your progency should be returned in kind. So now I'd like to give you: my children!" he gestured to the small creatures pulling themselves to their feet, looking like small identical copies of Cell, only they were blue "I give you Norio, Dameon, Travis, Curtis, Dale, Jonathan and three others I don't have names for. The last one however, I dubbed as Vegeta Jr Jr."

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"Oh dear mother of god." Kai voiced everyone's horror "It's like every single nightmare I've ever had fused into one, cloned itself, fucked the clone and then made those!"

"That is so accurate it's horrifying." Nail muttered.

"So you agree."

"I do, also how are you-"

"Yamcha had an extra Senzu Bean."

"...Oh."

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"Gather around children." Cell was quick to round up the 10 Cell Jr's "Listen up, daddy has set up a play date for you. Now I want all of you to make sure that you share your toys, you don't leave daddy's sight… and you bring me the bodies. But most importantly, have fun!"

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"Dammit this is bad!" Goku quickly braced himself "Be careful you guys, these little things are stronger than they look!"

"Tell that to the ones who can't take a punch!" Kai powered up his Namek-Ken 40x and broke off from the group, with one of the Cell Jr's following him "Those who can take them on your own, spread out! Those who can't, stick around so you don't die alone!"

"Agreed!" Cooler kicked one in the face and sent it flying, and he promptly followed right after it, with Future Gohan doing the same to another, leaving Goku and the others to fend off the last seven of them.

"You're too slow!" one dodged one of Krillin's attacks with ease.

"You blue blurry little bastard!" pushing his Kaioken up to 20x, Krillin charged at the Cell Jr but was still having no luck.

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Meanwhile, down on the main battlefield…

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Meanwhile, with Kai and Cell Jr 1…

Kai stared down his own Cell Jr a short distance away from the rest of the group, his Namek-Ken being pushed high enough to match his opponent "Alright you little shit, come at me!"

The Cell Jr gladly obliged and charged at Kai, unleashing a furious volley of punches and kicks at him in an explosive collision.

Kai weaved his way around every blow and dealt the Cell Jr a kick to the torso, blowing it back into a nearby plateau.

The Cell Jr burst out from the rubble and charged at him again.

Kai dodged and blocked every blow while dealing a few himself, repeatedly striking him in the face.

Eventually, the Cell Jr broke off from his assault and took to the skies, with Kai following right after him, but once they were up there above the clouds they continued trading blows, the shockwaves blowing apart a few nearby plateaus.

Kai quickly broke off their clash when he slugged the Cell Jr in the face and hurled it towards the ground.

The Cell Jr burst back upwards and charged at Kai at full speed, its rage growing as they resumed their clash.

' _Well this is honestly pretty disappointing, I mean if I was fighting these things before I had my potential unlocked by that old Namekian with Cooler then maybe, but right now they've got nothing on me.'_ Kai weaved his way around every strike and dealt the Cell Jr a smash attack to the head, sending it crashing to the ground, only to see a Ki blast burst up from beneath the rubble, but he quickly countered it with one of his own, and then he deflected the second one with ease, as well as the barrage of blasts that followed.

"Die!" the Cell Jr blitzed above Kai while he was preoccupied with the barrage of Ki blasts and attempted to pierce through him with a Special Beam Cannon with a quick but powerful Special Beam Cannon.

" **Nail Gun!"** Kai quickly countered with a Nail Gun that ripped through the Special Beam Cannon and pierced through the Cell Jr, leaving a gaping hole in its chest "In the worlds of the Terminator: Hasta la vista, baby." he promptly fired an Explosive Demon Wave, which was more than enough to vaporize every trace of the Cell Jr on the spot "Oh come on, was that seriously all it could do?"

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Meanwhile, with Cooler and Cell Jr 2…

Cooler stared down his Cell Jr as he dropped into a combat stance "I already know of one monster threatening to destroy the entire universe because of a wretched fool bent on revenge, I don't need to deal with another. You and your master will perish here today!"

"You die here!" the Cell Jr let out a snarl and charged at Cooler in a blind rage.

Cooler cranked his neck to the side to dodge the attack and buried his fist in the Cell Jr's gut with ease, causing it to cough up blood, and then he slugged it in the face hard enough to send it flying into a plateau, before following up with with a simple Death Beam that blew the plateau apart in a matter of seconds.

The Cell Jr rebounded, blitzed above Cell and dealt him a brutal smash attack that sent him crashing to the ground.

Cooler blitzed above the Cell Jr and dealt it a brutal kick to the neck, sending it crashing through a plateau, and then the two of them quickly charged at each other, grappling in a brief power struggle that ended when Cooler flipped the Cell Jr around and slammed his knee square in its face, resulting in the two of them trading even blows that ended when Cooler used his tail to smack the Cell Jr across the face and send it flying.

The Cell Jr rebounded, spat out some blood and then charged at Cooler as it launched a series of punches at him.

Cooler cranked his neck to dodge every blow and started repeatedly dealing the Cell Jr a series of brutal punches and kicks all over its body that nearly left it winded "You're persistent if nothing else, but if your master wished for results he should've made you more powerful. **Death Wave!"** he fired a death wave that not only blew off half of the Cell Jr's body, but also the entire plateau behind them "Your master clearly overestimated your capabilities, either that or he underestimated my capabilities. Either way, while you have put up a valiant struggle, this is where it ends for you." and on that note, he promptly

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Meanwhile, with Future Gohan and Cell Jr 3…

Future Gohan stared down the Cell Jr in front of him as he flashed into Super Saiyan "For as long as I can remember, my father is the one who enjoys a good battle, the thrill of the fight, and for as long as I'd known him Kai was always the same way. I can't say I enjoy fighting like they do, but if I have to fight to avoid any blood being shed then I will without hesitation. I'm not wasting time, if you're going to come at me then do it already."

The Cell Jr let out a howl as it charged at Future Gohan at full speed, dodging a series of punches but receiving a shallow cut across its cheek, so it let a fist fly forward.

Future Gohan blocked the fist and dealt the Cell Jr a kick to the face, blocking a counter kick in the process and dealing it a swift punch to the gut, before soaring away from it clear across the horizon.

The Cell Jr soared after him at full speed, dodged the series of Ki blasts that followed, blitzed behind Future Gohan and slugged him hard enough to send him flying.

Future Gohan stopped himself in mid air, charged at the Cell Jr and unleashed a rapid barrage of punches that sent the Cell Jr flying, and then he blitzed towards it and followed up with a brutal knee to the stomach.

The Cell Jr winced in pain, but grabbed Future Gohan by the ankle and hit him at point blank range with a Ki blast.

When the smoke cleared, Future Gohan was revealed to have blocked the Ki blast with ease and then slugged the Cell Jr in the face hard enough to get it to let go, and then he promptly flew away again.

Growing frustrated, the Cell Jr soared after him and fired a series of Ki blasts.

Future Gohan danced across the skies in a series of rapid and graceful movements, leaving each one of them to detonate in the distance.

With a fury filled snarl, the Cell Jr burst in front of Future Gohan and slammed its fist directly into his face, only for it to not even affect him.

Future Gohan slowly turned, grabbed the Cell Jr by the arm and slammed his own fist straight into its gut, sending a shockwave coursing through its body and causing it to cough up blood, and then he followed up with a spin kick to the head that sent him crashing to the ground, and then Future Gohan cupped his hands at his side " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he promptly fired a full power Kamehameha downwards at full speed.

The Cell Jr rebounded, flew up to the Kamehameha and attempted to catch it, but he was slowly pushed down towards the ground, and once it hit the ground its strength gave out and it was engulfed in the Kamehameha, vaporizing it on the spot.

Future Gohan breathed a sigh as he powered back down to his base form ' _Looks like it didn't have enough power to fight back anymore, and from what I can tell Kai and Cooler have already wrapped up their fights too.'_

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Meanwhile, back at the main battlefield…

Cell watched with a sense of pride as he watched the remaining 7 Cell Jr's beat the every loving crap out of Goku and the others "Are they not precious, my own little family. At least now once I'm through with this worthless little planet, I'll have someone to accompany me as I trounce around the stars. Perhaps I'll try conquering Namek, wear that hat for a little while."

"No… No…" Gohan's voice was filled with nothing but dread and horror.

"Yeah you're right, that's just the Frieza in me talking."

"Please stop this, I take back what I said about my hidden power! I don't want to fight you, my dad is the one who lives fighting not me! So I'm begging you, I'll get down on my knees if I have to, just rein them in! Give my dad a Senzu Bean and-"

"And there it is, that right there is exactly why I despise you as much as I do! You know what all of them have in common? The Saiyans might be wretched fools, the Namekians might not belong, and the humans might not have a chance in hell, but despite these things all of them are still out there fighting. Not just for their lives, but for this dung hill of a world. But none of them boy, not a one of them, shares that trait with you so vile it drives me to wretch. You Gohan, you are nothing but a coward."

"No, I'm just a pacifist!"

"So a coward patting himself on the back. Congratulations pint size, you can stand tall and proud next to the bodies."

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Meanwhile, with the other Z fighters…

Piccolo reeled back from a fist to the face from his Cell Jr, but he quickly retaliated with a smash attack that sent him crashing to the ground, and then he looked over to see that Goku wasn't having much luck "Dammit, this is bad. Yamcha, Nail, listen up! Goku used most of his strength when he was fighting Cell, we're gonna need to back him up!" he hurled his Cell Jr right into another Cell Jr and knocked both of them to the ground "Now go!"

"I'm on it! **Kaioken… times… THIRTY!"** pushing his Kaioken as high as his body could handle it, Yamcha blitzed in front of the Cell Jr, activated his Wolf Fang Saber, and in a few swift movements he used his Ki blade to cut its body into various pieces "NOW!"

"RIGHT! **MYSTIC FLASH!"** Nail packed as much power as he could into the Mystic Flash he unleashed, which proved to be enough to vaporize every bit of the Cell Jr on the spot "Quite the impressive move using that blade."

"Thanks, it helps to have a lot of experience as a swordsman, it kind of reminds me of the days before I met Goku and the others."

"I see, well you'd best put that to use."

"No arguments here." with his Kaioken still flaring, Yamcha charged at another Cell Jr, his Wolf Fang Saber blazing as a second one grew on his free hand.

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Gohan however, was more focused and equally horrified by the sight of Krillin and Upa both being brutally tortured by one of the Cell Jr's on the ground a short distance away from where he was standing "KRILLIN! UPA!"

"You see what I'm talking about?" Cell jerked a thumb over at the scene "Even those two schmucks are doing their best! Truth be told, I'm surprised they lasted for this long, and by the fact that Yamcha is actually holding his own. I guess Ki blades are gonna become a new trend or something."

' _This is bad everyone is in so much trouble! Aside from Upa and Piccolo, none of them up there can be brought back with the Dragon Balls if anything happens to them! What do I do, what the hell do I do?!'_ his hair standing upwards slightly, which didn't go unnoticed by Cell.

"Well now, it seems that your power level is beginning to flare up a little bit. Perfect, it seems that the rage is building up inside of you Gohan. You'd better show me what you're capable of, your friends can't hold out much longer. Don't be naive boy, Raditz and the others are barely fending them off and any strength your father has has long since been spent. He will fall, and it will be soon. Observe." he jerked a thumb over at where Krillin and Upa were still being beaten senseless by two Cell Jr's.

' _Everyone, they're all going to die… all of them… If there really is some awesome power hidden within me… I want to let it out… I have to stop Cell before it's too late… But if I do have this power, then how do I release it?! How do I get angry enough to save my dad, my future self and my friends?! Somebody tell me how!'_

"I… won't… I won't let this go on!" Upa gathered enough strength to attack the Cell Jr, only for his leg to be caught with ease "Uh… please don't break my leg."

"Hmm… okay." so the Cell Jr promptly blasted Upa through the chest, leaving his lifeless body to fall to the ground, only for the Cell Jr to get one of its arms and both its wings blasted off almost immediately after.

As it turns out, that blast came from Future Gohan, standing a short distance away from the others with Kai and Cooler by his side "As long as I'm still breathing, no one else is going to be killed by you monsters!"

"Long story short, we're going to town on these freaks." Kai's Namek-Ken aura sured "You guys ready to do this?"

"As if you had to ask." so the two of them promptly charged into the fray.

"So it would seem I was right, they really are two sides of the same coin." Cooler promptly charged after them.

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Meanwhile…

JF and the rest of the Satan entourage looked on in horror "Dear viewers, it looks like the terrifying Perfect Cell has gone full septo-mom, with seven sinister spawns at his command to do his bidding! Tell us Mr Satan, do you have a plan to deal with these terrifying toddlers, these chilling children, these prepubescent predators?"

"Uh…" Mr Satan was quick too pull another excuse out of his ass "You see Jimmy, those things aren't actually children, they're just a bunch of dwarves paid to fight on his behalf! And I'm going to be honest with you, I bet they're not even paying them industry rates. I'm telling you now Jimmy, the way little people are treated in show business is just downright criminal! You know what, I'm gonna go right now and look up their agents, and give them a damn solid piece of my-"

"Excuse me." a voice promptly stopped him in his tracks, and when they looked around they found that it belonged to none other than Android 16, or what was left of him, his head sitting a few feet away from them "I seem to be without a body. Would you mind lending me yours?" he was met with lots of screaming from them "Why are you screaming?"

"Because you're a talking head!" JF pointed out.

"So are you."

"...That is cutting sir."

"I need one of you to give me a hand. I must get close to Cell and the boy, so one of you will need to get me there. I believe I know of a way to finally end this madness."

"What are you crazy, what makes you think any of us are going anywhere near that war zone out there?!"

"...I'll do it." that was when Mr Satan made everyone's jaws drop.

"Mr Satan?"

"I have a daughter at home Jimmy, a little girl about the age of that boy out there. And right now I'm being told I might be able to save the world, and all I have to do is throw this robot's head in spitting distance of that crazy killer bug monster? Sure that may sound crazy."

"No it's definitely crazy, I'm pretty sure Larry and I have been finding God throughout this entire experience."

"Well then, who better to leave it to then the World Martial Arts champion Mr Satan, am I right boys? And besides I told you before Jimmy, it's all a bunch of tricks."

"They are not. You could die." 16 told him flatly.

"Do you have a mute button or something?"

"Not anymore."

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Meanwhile, back on the main battlefield…

Cell looked on as the battle against the Cell Jrs continued ' _My children have certainly kicked the ever loving shit out of most of them, it's kind of like a metaphor or something. Honestly some of them don't even deserve it, but it's still kind of funny.'_

"Hey!" of course Gohan wasn't done trying, though by now it was getting embarrassing "I swear I'm gonna… I'm gonna rip off your head and, uh…"

"Yeah come on kid, you can do it. Just keep pushing a little further."

"And defecate… on your… lunch?"

"Oh for the love of- Now you're just embarrassing both of us. Seriously, how hard is it supposed to be to piss off a 10 year old?"

"Why don't you ask Twitter?" Kai called to him while backhanding a Cell Jr with considerable ease.

"You should be a stomping mess from me taking a toy away, meanwhile your friends and family and even you from the future are fighting for their lives and getting beaten into mulch as we speak all you can do is… cry?" he grew more enraged at the sight of Gohan with tears streaming down his face "And now he's crying like a bitch, are you serious right now?! That's it! Kids put your toys away, we're going home!"

"Wait!" Gohan's cries went unheard.

"And just for the sake of being clear, when I say that I mean just kill them all so I can blow up this shithole and find something better to do. Waste of my fucking Sunday, maybe that bald guy with the cape was right when he said I should wait until Monday."

"Please, just hold on! I'm one step closer to the edge, and I'm about to-!"

"Okay seriously, everything you say to me is pissing me off! You had your chance kid, and in the end it didn't even matter."

"Wait!" that was when 16's head suddenly dropped down onto the scene, having been thrown there by Mr Satan as requested "Thank you for your assistance Mr Satan."

"Oh for fuck's sake, I thought I saw the last of the Hype. New plan kids, when you're done with them I want you to draw and quarter that buffoon." Cell looked down at 16 "As for you, I'm actually quite surprised you're still… Well I was gonna say kicking but-"

"Gohan."

"Alright fine, you talk to him and see if you can get through to him."

"Gohan. Listen to me."

"Android 16…" Gohan looked at him disbelief "What are you-"

"Grow. Up."

"Huh?"

"You act like you are the only one suffering, but I believe that your future self has some stories for you, and I can assume they all end with: And then he died too. And before you start whining about your father, again- and I get it- take a moment to consider that my father made me a soulless killing machine to kill your father. And that doesn't even come close to the complete tragedy resulting from fatherhood that is Kai."

"HEY!" Kai rounded on him from his place stomping down on a Cell Jr "You wanna come up here and say that?!"

"I am a head."

"Then maybe you should quit while you are!"

16 promptly turned his attention back to Gohan "Cell was right. You think you're better than everyone else, but there you stand, the good man doing nothing. And while evil triumphs, and your rigid pacifism crumbles into blood stained dust, the only victory afforded to you was that you stuck true to your guns. You were a coward, to your last whimper."

"So politics in a nutshell, sounds about right." Cell promptly walked up to him "That's pretty sound advice, better than I was expecting from an appliance."

"Of fear and love, I fear not that I will die, but all that I've come to love, the birds, the animals, the nature of this planet, will perish with me. So please Gohan, for the sake of this world and for the sake of yourself, stop holding back."

Once that speech was finished, Cell suddenly stomped down on 16's head, smashing it to blood covered pieces, thus ending him "You know I would say he's gone to a better place, but let's just face it: We both know he never had a soul."

Gohan was too horrified by 16's death to register what Cell said' _Android 16… You loved all forms of life…'_

 **Venit aevus ille**

 **O Messiah, O Messiah**

 **Yuduliya~Vele**

' _You gave up everything to save this world, even if you were just an Android… You died because I let you…'_

' _I can't do that… I won't watch anymore…'_

 **Yuduliya~Vele**

"Hm?" Cell looked up from the remains of 16's head

 **Yuduliya~Vele**

 **Yuduliya~Iyaliya**

' _I can feel it slipping… and I won't watch this anymore!'_

 **Feel it drawing nearer, an endless fear that takes you hold**

Once the damn finally burst, Gohan let out a primal roar, his golden aura exploding around him as the ground shattered beneaeth him, with even Cell being taken aback by the massive increase in power.

 **Feel it getting closer, revealing such an evil soul**

Even those still battling the Cell Jr's, as well as the Cell Jr's themselves, stopped what they were doing and looked down at the main battlefield, though only Piccolo actually found what it took to speak "Gohan…"

Kai on the other hand, his expression was less stunned and more smirking ' _Yeah now we're talking, now go wreck some shit pal.'_

 **I can't surrender at the turning point of destiny**

 **Right now it's do or die; my life is on the line and I will not flee**

When the smoke cleared, Gohan was standing in the same place as before, only now his hair was standing on end with the acception of a single bang, his aura was surging and crackling with electricity, the tears brimming in his eyes slowly evaporating into the aura. Gohan had at last completed his transformation into a Super Saiyan 2.

 **By my power!**

 **Woah~woah, it's clear to me**

 **My spirit grows and I will face this demon**

 **Woah~woah, with burning energy**

 **The Day of Fate has finally come**

With his transformation now complete, the last of the tears in Gohan's eyes slowly evaporated into his aura, and his expression hardened ever so slightly in the direction of Cell.

The Day of Fate had come at last, and now the true battle was about to begin.

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 **This was a secret we have known about Gohan before he was even able to form words in his mouth. Through one battle after another, with the likes of Beets, Vegeta and Nappa, the Ginyu Force, and even the likes of Frieza and Lord Slug, we've caught glimpses of the child's limitless potential. But like with an explosion, it always vanished with the moment it appeared. It couldn't be controlled, until now that is. At last, the beast has awakened and the power has been unleased. Gohan has awoken, leaving Cell to battle a warrior 10 years in the making, but will it be enough to finally put an end to the unyielding chaos this monster has caused? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we see the events of the second act of the Cell Games, as well as the moment in which DBZ peaked: Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2, TFS style because let's face it, TFS had the best version of that scene. I'm serious, let me put each version in order: Tfs Z sub Z dub Kai. I grew up with Kai, but it's honestly the weakest of the lot in that moment, but the moment where Gohan transforms is still the moment where DBZ peaked as far as I'm concerned.**

 **Kai tearing into Goku both physically and emotionally was something I knew I was going to do right from the start, both to make Goku realize how big of a mistake it was to give a look at the turmoil he's going through that he's been mostly hiding up until now. Going to town on Goku and beating him within an inch of his life was probably too much, but that's what I see him doing, so I went with it.**

 **I'm just going to clarify that I killed Upa in this chapter for the same reason that I killed Tarble and Tien before, to add a level of suspense and dread that I felt the canon version lacked in some areas. Seriously, aside from Goku and Future Trunks, none of the Z fighters actually died in this arc, as opposed to the Saiyan Saga and the whole ordeal on Namek.**

 **Power levels:**

Super Saiyan Gohan: 11.2 billion

Super Saiyan Goku (drained): 2.8 billion

Super Saiyan Goku (crippled by Kai) 1.4 billion

Cooler: 6.5 billion

Android 16: 5.1 billion

Weighted Piccolo: 4 billion

Unweighted Piccolo: 5.2 billion

Nail: 5 billion

Nail (Mystic Flash, full power): 7.5 billion

Future Gohan: 1 billion

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 7 billion

Kai: 250 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 30x): 7.5 billion

Yamcha: 50 million

Yamcha (Kaioken 20x): 1 billion

Yamcha (Kaioken 30x): 1.5 billion

Yamcha (Kaioken 230x, Wolf Fang Saber): 1.8 billion

Krillin: 24 million

Krillin (Kaioken 20x): 480 million

Upa: 30 million

Upa (Kaioken 20x): 600 million

Cell (against Gohan): 12.5 billion

Cell Jrs: 6 billion each


	30. Cell Games: Act III

**Ericsofly2:** Thanks, I'm glad you rated last chapter so high.

 **Guest:** Maybe. You'll just have to wait and see.

 **Guest:** Yeah, that's part of Kai's character arc. Just read this chapter and you should find what you're looking for.

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With the death of Android 16 by Cell's hands, or foot, Gohan had at last let his inner rage burst forth, and with it came his ascension into the Super Saiyan 2 form, and now he was promptly staring down Cell and looking incredibly menacing ' _I've had just about enough of his shit, now it's my turn.'_

It took Cell a moment, but he eventually found his voice and gave a grin at the sight standing before him "Dear lord in Piccolo, it's about freaking time! And here I thought killing 16 was harder for me than it was for you. I'm confused though, were you guys friends? Did you guys talk about birds together, were you a couple of bird nerds?"

"The murder of ones own child or children." Gohan promptly snatched the bag of Senzu Beans back from Cell, then blitzed over to the sidelines where the battle with the Cell Jrs was still paused somewhat "You wanted me to define filicide, and now I'll provide an example." and in said example, with one swift movement he decapitated a Cell Jr without even looking at it, causing it to explode, leaving almost everyone present stunned into silence.

Raditz was the first one to find his voice again "Okay, I don't suppose anyone would care to explain as to WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"Not really no." Kai gave a shrug "I mean I would if it wasn't for the fact that it would involve giving Goku credit for all of this."

"The key takeaway here is, you're welcome." Goku gave them a grin, only to be blasted in the back by a Cell Jr.

"Yeah it checks out, even these little shits don't want that. The ends don't justify the means you dumbass." Kai looked down at the carnage unfolding ' _Huh. This is a somewhat familiar feeling, pride in someone else. Alright Gohan, now that we're here you go wreck some shit.'_

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Gohan on the other hand, he turned his attention to the Cell Jrs that were still in the middle of torturing Krillin ' _We do not condone child violence but let's face it, pretty much everyone finds it amusing.'_

One of the Cell Jr's held up Krillin by his gi and pointed its sharpened nails at his neck "Uh uh uh."

"...Really? You're using Krillin as a hostage. His death is a daytrip for us and a free ice cream sundae for him, go ahead." Gohan promptly extended his hand out to give the implication he was going to blast them.

"Actually, I'm lactose intolerant." Krillin told him.

"No one is lactose intolerant in Heaven Krillin, it's called Heaven for a reason."

One of the Cell Jr's was actually scared enough to the point where it tried to fly away "Nope nope nope!"

"Too little too late."

Now scared out of its wits, the other Cell Jr flew up and attacked Gohan by firing a volley of Ki blasts, only to look up and see Gohan holding Krillin high above him, having dodged the onslaught with ease "Uh…"

"Bitch move." in two swift movements, Gohan set Krillin and the beans down away from the action, then he ripped the Cell Jr in half with a single kick, and then promptly returned to the ground.

Cell studied Gohan in a mix of awe and disbelief, but then his eyes narrowed ' _Remarkable, it would seem that the boy's temper is indeed a force to be reckoned with. Very well then, why don't we see how hot this fire burns.'_ he made one swift hand movement, which signalled the five surviving Cell Jr's to swoop in and gang up on him.

Without even breaking a sweat, Gohan unleashed a small Explosive Wave that sent all of them flying away from him.

' _Okay, definitely not something I was expecting from the kid. He's putting out all of this power and yet he's still as calm as can be.'_

Gohan threw the bag of Senzu Beans into the air, and in one swift movement he easily knocked each of the remaining Cell Jr's to the ground before the bag returned to his hand.

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JF and the rest of the Satan entourage looked on in disbelief "Jimmy Firecracker here reporting from this tree, the young man has apparently undergone a harrowing transformation, and is currently in the process of dismantling these demented delinquents, one after the-"

"Hate to break it to you sir, but that big explosion from earlier wrecked the camera, so we're totally dark right now." Larry told him.

"...Oh. Well let's just hope the people don't overreact to this."

"They probably will."

"Yeah I know, my guess is they're rioting right now. Either that or starting an orgy."

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Meanwhile, back at the main battlefield…

Gohan looked around at the downed form of the Cell Jr's ' _Still five left, they're getting frustrated now.'_

Sure enough, the Cell Jr's rebounded and tried a coordinated attack, with one of them firing a Kienzan, one of them firing a Kamehameha and one of them firing a Special Beam Cannon, and once they finished those blasts they each followed up with two simultaneous Tri Beams, quickly engulfing Gohan in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Gohan hadn't even taken so much as a scratch from their combined assault, and with a quick roar he unleashed a massive barrage of Ki blasts all over the area, and he quickly blitzed behind one of the Cell Jr's "Like your Proud Perfect Papa would say, sink or swim bitch." with one swift move he ripped the Cell Jr in half, then did the same to another with a kick, and then proceeded to swiftly annihilate the next two, allowing him to focus his attention on the last one "Don't."

The last Cell Jr promptly tried to run away in fear, only to see Gohan blitz in front of him faster than he could blink.

"Bitch move." with two swift movements, Gohan annihilated the Cell Jr with a single kick, and then stomped down on the remaining arm so they couldn't regenerate.

Cell studied Gohan intently from the sidelines, his expression more irritable ' _The hesitation and the unwillingness to fight, it's like they've vanished into thin air. It's as if he's become an entirely different person.'_

"Kai, hand these out." he promptly tossed the Senzu Beans aside.

Kai quickly caught them "Okay yeah, works for me."

"Try to forget that you're you for now, and don't fuck it up."

"Fucking- Alright fine, you get that one."

Gohan on the other hand, he turned his attention onto his main pray: Cell.

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"Alright assclowns, gather round for magic healing beans." Kai quickly dolled out Senzu Beans to Krillin and the others "Seriously, at this rate I feel like Senzu Beans could become some kind of running gag."

"Wouldn't be surprised, so how's the younger me doing?" asked Future Gohan.

"It's honestly kind of bullshit, I guess it always is the quiet ones. I feel useless right now, and how useful I am against a big bad compared to the other morons is what defines me as a character dammit!"

"I've been feeling that way for about 8 years now, trust me when I tell you it sucks a lot worse than you believe." Future Gohan looked down at Present Gohan "Do you think that this power is why Father was so unconcerned?"

"It doesn't change my desire to blast a hole through your dad's skull. Whatever, Upa got offed by one of the Cell Jr's so take him and the others and clear the hell out of here. I'm gonna get the last of the Senzu Beans to the others, saving Goku for last for the record, and then we'll catch up with you."

"Yeah, yeah you're right." so Future Gohan flew down, grabbed Upa's body and promptly flew off, but not before sparing one last glance at the younger Gohan ' _So much power and he's almost a full decade younger than I am. I can't help but wonder, do I have just as much potential as he does?'_

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Still not completely aware of exactly how screwed he was right now, Cell wasted no time in goading on Gohan even further "Well take a look at you! I'm gonna call you whooping goth because you just devastated my children! And for a second there I thought that yarn you were spinning was going to come up short, but here you are! My final challenger-" he cut himself short when he realized two things: Gohan was no longer standing in front of him, and Cell was now missing about about half his torso and one of his wings, a gaping hole where they were supposed to be.

As it tusn out, Gohan was standing behind Cell a short distance away, Cell's arm in hand and standing on top of his wing "I hope you're ready Cell, the real fight starts now."

"So it shall, come at me kid."

"Fine." so in one swift movement, Gohan blitzed past Cell faster than he was able to react, leaving a wide cut on his face and exploding the plateau behind him ' _Just like I thought, his speed, strength and reflexes are above the Cell Jr's but still not enough for him to be able to follow my attacks. Plus the fact that dad fought Cell first to give me a chance to analyze his moves and attack pattern before I had to face him myself. Now I can see his attacks coming at me plain as day.'_

"Don't think a simple power increase will allow you to become complacent!" Cell regenerated his lost limbs and charged at Gohan with a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Gohan easily blocked, dodged and weaved his way around every strike Cell was throwing at him, though eventually he cut of Cell's attack pattern with a chop to the neck and and a kick to the chest that sent Cell skidding backwards.

Cell quickly stopped himself, and with a quick roar attacked Gohan by hurling a Death Ball right at him, straight out of Frieza's handbook.

" **Masenko!"** Gohan unleashed a simple one handed Masenko that ripped the Death Ball apart in a matter of seconds, leaving it to explode above the battlefield.

"Cancelling out one attack won't be enough to stop me!" Cell charged at Gohan and quickly went on the defensive, dodging and blocking most attacks, but he was still met with a knee to the chest, a fist to the jaw and a kick to the head, forcing him to retreat a short distance, and then he followed up with a massive barrage of Ki blasts.

Gohan dodged every blast with ease using a series of backflips and blitzing away, and once he cleared through the barrage he charged at Cell and went on the offensive again.

Cell strained himself to dodge and block Gohan's attacks, though once he did go on the offensive and let a full force fist fly forward it collided with Gohan's forehead, but it didn't do anything to hurt him.

Gohan swept Cell aside and dealt him a chop to the neck, a kick to the back and finally a full force fist to the gut, the force behind the blow sending Cell crashing through several plateaus all at once.

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Goku and the others looked on as the battle unfoled "Yeah that's it Gohan, it's all on you to take him down now."

"You did better than I expected." Cooler noted "After watching you fight, the boy has been able to anticipate every move Cell has made."

"No don't get the wrong idea Cooler, I can't take any credit for this. Gohan is responsible for all of this, he's fighting at a level way above Cell's now. I caught a glimpse of this power while we were inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but that was enough to convince me that he had what it takes to take out Cell."

"It seems you were correct. _Remarkable, and he's only a child as he is right now. Even the power I'm at right now pales in comparison. Who knows, when the time comes he could very well be a vital asset in the battle to come.'_

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

Cell burst out from beneath the rubble and promptly regenerated himself "Don't get too comfortable kid, even with luck on your side the odds of you being able to beat me are hardly in your favor."

"You're wrong." was all Gohan said.

"Oh yes that's the spirit, of course it's too bad you're going to lose it once you witness me in all of my petrifying glory!" with a roar, Cell's golden aura flared as he powered up to his absolute maximum, the force shaking the battlefield like a tidal wave.

' _So it looks like he's finally about to get serious, it took him long enough. The moment of truth is here, I'm finally going to see this bastard giving me his maximum power.'_

Cell finally finished powering up and shot a menacing smirk at Gohan "So what do you say to that kid, still feel like today is your lucky day?"

"I can't say that I'm impressed." Gohan simply cranked his neck to the side to dodge Cell's next attack ' _Looks like his power level isn't the only thing that's increased now that he's fighting at 100%, his speed has at least doubled. Let's see about his defences.'_ so on that note, he promptly buried his fist in Cell's gut "Careful Cell, your Vegeta is showing." he quickly followed up with an upper cut to Cell's jaw, the force sending him flying before he finally skidded to a stop.

"Y-You know… you're not wrong…" Cell tried to stumble back on his feet, only to fall flat on his ass as a result of the pain he was feeling from Gohan's attacks "Ooh boy, nothing like a concussion… to really get the blood flowing-" and then some green blood promptly gushed out of his mouth.

"Cell, you don't get it. I _hate_ this. The vibrations coursing through my fists on contact, the taste of my own blood in my mouth, the sound of my own heart pounding in my ears, I hate it. I always have, and I probably always will. Though right now, in this exact moment, there's only one thing I hate more than it, and that's you."

"Wow, put that on a valentine."

"It's because you were right about me. I was a coward, to my last whimper, who was scared of what would happen if I snapped. I was afraid that if I lost it this time, then I might never come back, that I would finally kill someone. But I'm not scared anymore Cell."

"Well… I'm glad I could-" Cell was cut off by a kick to the neck that sent him crashing across the battlefield.

"After all, there's no point in being afraid of the inevitable." Gohan easily caught the two Kienzan discs released by Cell and evaporated them using his Ki alone, and he swatted away the Special Beam Cannon that followed.

"...Okay you know what, fuck this." so on that note, Cell burst upwards high into the air, his golden aura flaring as he cupped his hands and started channeling blue Ki in his palms " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

' _Yeah he's going for the whole "World Destroyer" move, so is this the Vegeta or the Frieza in him making him do this? Probably both.'_

"You definitely pack a bigger punch than your daddy dearest, but let's see how you can handle this, a full power Kamehameha! Dodge it and the Earth blows to bits!"

' _No wait, maybe it's what Kai would be if he was raised like Vegeta or something. Either way, I should probably do something about this.'_

"I could've just done this from the beginning, instead I thought I would have some fun and throw a tournament but FUCK YOU! Suck my perfect dick! **HAAAAAAAA!"** he promptly fired a full power Earth Destroying Kamehameha, leaving it to soar downwards towards its target.

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HAAAAAAAAA!"** calm as can be and not moving an inch from where he was standing, Gohan promptly countered the Earth Destroying Kamehameha with his own Ultimate Kamehameha, the shockwaves from the blast engulfing most of those present in a massive sandstorm while the blast itself easily engulfed Cell's Kamehameha, and Cell himself promptly followed in a matter of seconds, before finally detonating in the upper atmosphere, exploding like a star.

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It took a few moments before everything calmed down.

Kai was the first one to unbury himself from the dirt "Okay, I have sand in places I didn't know I had places, and I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to have places there."

"That's more than I need to know about human anatomy." Cooler noted dryly.

"How the hell do you not have sand in your-"

"Do not finish that sentence, and for the record it's because I flew up during the sandstorm as soon as I saw Cell lose that struggle."

"Clever dick. Well since you're so smart, what's the ETA?"

"Well on one hand, you can all still sense Cell's energy signature, so we know that the battle has yet to end. On the other hand." he looked up and motioned for everyone to follow his gaze, which they did.

"Oh. Holy shit."

"Rather crude, but still fair."

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"HEY KID!" as it turns out, Cell had survived the blast, though about half of his body, along with something else, had been obliterated as a result.

Gohan gave him a rather sinister smirk at the sight 'So what was I supposed to suck? Well I can't if there's nothing to suck."

"Gohan remember why we came here!" Goku called out to him "It's time for you to finish this once and for all!"

"Hold that thought, I'm not done ripping the wings off this butterfly."

"...Wait what, come again?"

"Yeah that's a major red flag." Kai noted.

"Hey Gohan, I understand that you're angry but-"

"But what?" Gohan cut him off sharply "You're joking, are you actually trying to give me advice right now? Let me guess, I should let him go so he can give me an even better fight later. Or how about I let him power up to 100% so I can teach him humility! Oh wait I know, I should throw him a goddamn Senzu Bean and let YOU fight him!"

"Huh. Okay, I see what you're getting at Gohan…"

"Then shut up and put on your poncho. You're in the splash zone."

"...Is that also a red flag?"

"Crimson." Kai told him dryly.

"Just checking."

"And I'm just gonna say it now, that right there is coming from your wife."

"Probably."

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With some considerable strain, Cell regenerated the missing half of his body, though now he was weaker than he was before due to the loss of energy ' _Alright Cell, we saw what losing your cool got you, so why don't you tone down on the Frieza and chill the hell-'_

"Are you done getting your shit together up there?" Gohan suddenly snapped him out of his thoughts "Because I'm starting to get bored."

"...WHAT?!" in his blind rage, Cell suddenly bulked up to his power weighted form and burst downwards towards the ground "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME YOU HAPLESS LITTLE SHIT?!"

"I said I'm bored. You're boring me."

"SILENCE! I AM PERFECTION INCARNATE, MY ULTIMATE FORM WILL NOT BE TESTED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!"

"Whatever lets you sleep at night Professor Hulk." Gohan dodged every attack being thrown at him without even batting an eye ' _He's so blinded by his rage and arrogance that he's sacrificed way too much speed for raw power. At least he has an excuse, the same can't be said for my future self.'_ he dealt Cell a solid kick to the face, and then he buried his leg deep in Cell's gut, leaving him an absolute mess.

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Kai let out a low whistle "Hot damn, anyone else feel that one?"

"I'm pretty sure my pity well has bottomed out." Future Gohan told him dryly.

"Who said anything about pity, but still I felt that one." Kai looked over to see Cell drooling like a mess all over the place "Okay now what the hell is he doing? He looks like he's about to puke his guts out."

"Oh no, guys I'm starting to think he wasn't kidding about the Splash Zone-" Goku was promptly cut off by Cell vomiting all over the place, though he actually missed them by just a few inches.

"Oh. Wow."

"Wait a second is that- Oh crap it's 18!" seeing her, Raditz attempted to charge in.

"Hold it!" Nail quickly held him back "Later."

"But my Baeteen!"

"First of all, never say that again. Second of all, don't make me get the hose."

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Gohan looked down at the slime covered unconscious form of Android 18 lying in front of him, and then he looked back up at Cell "It's a girl. Mazal tov."

Without one of the two key components he needed, Cell could only do one thing: Scream at the top of his lungs like a maniac "FUUUUUUUUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK! NO NO NO! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!" his body started shrinking and morphing.

' _So it he doesn't have 18 anymore, then that would mean…'_

Sure enough, within a matter of moments Cell had reverted back to his Semi Perfect Form, of course against his will.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Piccolo studied Cell's Semi Perfect Form for a moment "Is that what he turned into after he took me down? I'm kind of offended by his lips, am I allowed to be offended by his lips?"

"Well that depends." Kai gave a shrug "Are you offended by Mr Popo's lips?"

"Wait a second, can we talk about that?"

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Now back in his Semi Perfect form, Cell looked down at the unconscious form of 18 "So… you gonna eat that?"

"No." was all Gohan said.

"Well then in that case, you think I could-"

"No." Gohan promptly buried his leg into Cell's gut, once again leaving him a slobbering mind fucked wreck "I only did that just to see what would happen."

Sure enough, like before, Cell's chest swelled up, and in a gross slobbering mess he once again vomitted his guts out, this time puking up Android 17 in the process, leaving him in a slobber covered mess lying near where 18 was "FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK NO NO NO NOT AGAIN FUUUUUUCK!" and in what looked like a very painful process, he regressed one step further, back to where he started: his Imperfect Form. Now stuck as the hideous bug creature he was to begin with, he looked down at 17 and 18 in desperation, and he lunged for them.

"Nope." Gohan dealt Cell a brutal kick to the face, blowing off part of his body and sending him flying backwards through several plateaus before he finally came to a stop.

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Meanwhile, with the Satan entourage…

JF finally found his voice again after all of the chaos that had ensued "Mr Satan, I'm going to be straight with you. What the hell is going on?!"

"That camera is broken right?" asked Mr Satan.

"Big time fubar."

"Well in that case, I have no fucking idea."

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By this point, Goku and the others were growing restless "Gohan stop wasting time, do it now and end this already!"

"Alright alright, fine." Gohan just rolled his eyes "Christ, if you want him to die so badly then why don't you kill him yourself? I'm pretty sure anyone over there could as he is now, blonde hair or not."

Unfortunately, hearing that proved to be the last straw for Cell ' _Kill me? No, no no no no no! I can't die to this, he's a middle school brat throwing a tantrum and I am the perfect being! At least, I was. Then he took it away, he took it away from me!_ You took my purpose away from me you little shit, so now I'm going to take everything away from you!" so in his rage, Cell's aura started surging like a hurricane, his body expanding to grotesque proportions.

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"Wait a second, I've seen this before!" Kai apparently came across a sudden realization at the sight of Cell's desperate tactic "Hey cueball, if he turns blue then you've gotta go sing a ridiculously catchy song."

"For the last time, I am not an Oompa Loompa." Krillin told him dryly "But yeah, those songs are pretty catchy."

"My point exactly!"

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JF had to get one last crack in at the sight of what Cell was doing "Hey Larry check it out, it's your mother!"

"She's diabetic dude." Larry pointed out.

"Yeah, cause she's fat!"

"She lost a foot."

"And now she's 50 pounds lighter."

"DUDE!"

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Gohan looked up at Cell's expanding form, though he didn't look convinced of the peral "So what exactly was the plan here, become so grotesque I wouldn't want to touch you? Because I'll be honest, it's working."

"Oh my dear boy." Cell let out a chuckle "I think I finally realized what it is that I inherited from you."

"It wasn't my BMI obviously."

"No Gohan, it was your explosive temper!"

"Oh. OH. Oh no."

"OH YEAH! You see, in less than a minute from now I'm going to burst and take you and this whole wretched world with me!"

"Not so fast boy, any attack could set me off! A punch, a kick, a leaf of thin meat! So how about you savor the time you have left before I go pop! Hope you enjoyed the Cell Games, by everybody and go fuck yourselves!"

"But…" as the sudden realization dawned on him, Gohan promptly fell to his knees "You've gotta be kidding me… I did the exact same thing as what my dad would do, or what my future self did. WHAT IS THIS SHIT, GENETIC?!"

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"Dammit, this is bad." Yamcha muttered "What the hell do we do? There's gotta be something we can do!"

"Hate to break it to you, but it's hopeless." Piccolo told him grimly "There's nothing any of us can do now. It's alread started, all of us are history."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Kai suddenly spoke up and shot a look at Goku "You know exactly what I'm thinking don't you?"

"Yeah, I do know." Goku turned towards the others and gave a sad smile "Sorry guys, I've thought this over and there's only one chance we have of making it out of this alive." he looked over at Kai "Just make sure you take care of Gohan for me okay?"

"You got it man, just go clean up your mess."

"I know. All of you, just make sure you take care of yourselves okay?" then Goku suddenly disappeared via Instant Transmission, much to the clear horror and dismay of most of those present.

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Goku suddenly popped up in between Gohan and Cell and spared a glance back at Gohan "Hey son."

"Dad?" Gohan's head snapped up in shock "Wh… What are you-"

"Look, before I do this, I just want to say… I'm really sorry. Fighting is… well it's what makes me happy, and I just thought it would make you happy too. And I want you to know, that year we spent together in the time chamber, it was the best year of my life. Take care of your mom for me, okay?"

"Hold on, what are you going to-"

"I'm proud of you, and I love you Gohan. Bye son." and with a small sad smile, Goku placed a hand on Cell and teleported both of them away with Instant Transmission.

"DAD NO!"

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Meanwhile, in Other World…

Scarlet looked up at the screen and let out a sad sigh ' _Goku… for the sake of your friends, your family and your planet… You gave yourself… I guess I'll be seeing you here soon enough my friend. I wonder where he took him though.'_ then the explosion could be felt throughout all of Otherworld ' _I think I just found my answer.'_

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On King Kai's planet, about 10 seconds earlier…

King Kai and his pets were less than pleased to see Goku pop up with Cell out of nowhere "What the hell were you thinking Goku?! You can't just bring him here of all places!"

"Yeah, but…" Goku gave a shrug "Sorry King Kai but I didn't have a choice, I was short on time and options."

"And my house was one of them?!"

"I never said I had any good options." and on that note, Cell finally exploded, destroying the entire planet and claiming the lives of all of those present.

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The scene of the Cell Games had grown deathly silent.

Cooler was the first one to speak after everything died down "Both of their energy signatures have disappeared. It's over."

' _Dad… no…'_ with tears streaming down his face, Gohan let out a blood curdling scream filled with absolute anguish.

Piccolo was the first of the actual team of Z fighters to regain his voice "Is it a bad time to point out Goku just stole that win?"

"To be fair, if you didn't then I would've." Kai promptly made his way over towards Gohan "So listen."

"Stupid, selfish, impulsive hypocrite!" Gohan slammed his fists into the ground "You had one freaking job, get angry and kill Cell!"

"Yeah, join the club."

"But no! You didn't just take a page from Kai, you wrote a sequel to his freaking book!"

"Okay low blow, but seriously listen to me."

"Chapter 1, kill you own goddam dad!"

"DUDE!"

"What?!"

"Dragon Balls!"

"...Oh. Huh."

"Yeah."

"I mean I still screwed up though."

"Join the fucking club, the population being everyone except for Yamcha, Cooler and the cueball over there."

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JF and the Satan Entourage were left stunned by what happend "It would seem that Cell has totally disappeared, along with the blonde man in the orange getup. Truth be told, I'm frankly lost for words."

"Either of you want some weed?" asked Larry.

"Oh hell yeah."

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Meanwhile, up in Otherworld…

Now with a halo over his head, Goku floated with King Kai and the rest of his entourage over the end of Snake Way "I really am sorry about this Bubbles, Gregory. I never meant to drag you guys into this mess along with me."

King Kai was, well less than forgiving over the whole ordeal "Honestly Goku, what you did was just absolutely ludircous! I mean I'm King Kai for crying out loud, I have an entire galaxy that I have to watch over! It's kind of a big deal, in case you weren't aware! I'm not just livid, I'm totally furious right now! You took advantage of me for the sake of a single planet, you exploited me like a nameless lawnmower!"

"Hey take it easy King Kai, I told you I was sorry. What else is there I can do, and in my position I would've done the same thing."

"Oh yeah?! Well I'm glad you apparently know me so well, now do all of us a favor and shut the hell up!"

"Okay okay, no need to get so worked up."

"You realize who were talking about right?" that was when Scarlet showed up on the scene "I mean this is the guy you spent about 6 months training with before, so you'd know he's not particularly forgiving over stuff like this. Plus he's still salty about Piccolo getting himself wished to Namek to fight Frieza."

"Ouch. Hey by the way Scarlet, do you see Cell anywhere up here or do you think he got sent straight to Hell?"

"No no that's how it works, no matter who you might be or what you've done in life you always have to go through the Check In Station and get judged by King Yemma before you get to be sent to Heaven, Hell or to Snake Way."

"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?"

"Cell isn't here, and I checked and he wasn't in the line at the Check In Station, so that can only mean one thing."

"Wait what?!"

"Oh this isn't good. You wait here, I'm going to head over to the Check In Station." and so on that note, Scarlet promptly disappeared via Instantaneous Movement.

"King Kai please tell me that she's wrong, she has to be! We all saw Cell blow himself to bits, how the hell could he still be alive?"

King Kai slowly shook his head "I don't know how it's possible just yet, but there isn't much room for doubt here."

"But that's not fair! Are you seriously telling me I did all of that for nothing?!"

"I wish that weren't the case."

"Dammit, this is bad. We've already lost Tarble, Tien, Upa and now me. How many more of us have to die before this is over?"

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Meanwhile, back on Earth…

Raditz knelt down and picked up 18 in his arms bridal style, with Nail doing the same for 17 "I guess this gives a knew meaning to picking up chicks."

"I take it these are the Androids that Cell absorbed." Cooler noted "Which raises the question, what do you plan to do with them Raditz? Do you plan to restore them, or would you rather destroy them?"

"I doubt many of us here would be against destroying them, Kai is the first one that comes to mind. But still, neither of them are really that bad once you get to know them. Dr Gero up and stole their lives away from them, I got a second chance so why shouldn't they?"

"If you insist, then I have no place in arguing with you." unfortunately, that was when their conversation was cut short by a sudden burst of wind kicking up a sandstorm, a figure flashing among the winds "Such incredible power… But how could he have survived?"

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me."

That was when a very familiar voice started singing within the storm, its tone far too ominous for their liking " **P is for Priceless, the look upon your faces… E is for Extinction, all your puny races… R for Revolution, which has been televised… F is for how Fucked you are, now allow me to reprise…"** and then two full power Death Beams shot through the sandstorm, one of them striking Nail and blowing him backwards, leaving what was left of his body a gorey mess, and the other one was aiming for Gohan, when…

"Oh crapbaskets, get the hell down!" Kai shoved Gohan to the ground and took the full force of the Death Beam himself, leaving it to blow a giant hole clear through his chest and send his body flying backwards before it hit the ground with a thud.

"So who did I hit with those? Kai and Nail I assume." the smoke cleared to reveal Cell, alive and well and back in his Perfect Form, his body crackling with bioelectricity "Let me take a wild guess, you're all surprised to see that I survived my little kamikaze attack? Well allow me to explain. Believe it or not, this is what you might have referred to as a happy accident. Deep inside the depths of my skull there resides a small lump of matter, I suppose you might refer to it as a nucleus. If left untouched then it can prove to be extremely useful, and as long as it's intact I can restore myself indefinitely. Now fortunately for me, that nasty little explosion didn't manage to damage it in the slightest. And here's the part that's really going to get you, I wasn't even planning on this. It was pure luck that this worked, nothing more. What's even luckier still is the fact that even without 17 and 18, I was able to regenerate into my Perfect Form. Or should I say, my more perfect form. Like with Gohan here, my power level increased exponentially, so it would seem that my body had taken a cue from Saiyan biology and recovered from being as close to death as biologically possible. I believe the term that is used is a Zenkai boost, and as an added bonus I even managed to pick up the Instant Transmission technique from Goku, which allowed me to appear before all of you. Thus I've returned before all of you, and in the best shape of my life so far. Triumph may have been what Goku was intending, but I never would've guessed he meant for me to have it all to myself."

"...A fascinating story, but unwise to tell." Gohan promptly powered his Super Saiyan 2 form up to its max "You know something, I'm not even mad that you're still alive. It's because of my mistakes that we're in this situation, it's my fault that my father had to sacrifice himself, and it's my fault that my best friend is lying in a pool of his own blood. I would've given anything to have a chance to do it over again, and now I have that chance. To put it simply, I have some serious shit to work through, as Kai would say."

"Well now, is that cat in the cradle? Here, allow me to put you in a grave. Luck isn't going to be on your side this time."

"We'll see about that." Gohan shot a quick glance back at the others "Get Kai and Nail away from here."

"On it." Raditz was quick to rush over to Kai's form "I've been where you are kid, believe me when I tell you it's not fun- Oh great. It's official, he's dead."

That was pretty much all Future Gohan heard before he started seeing red ' _He's dead… I let him die again…'_

"I've definitely been there before you know, though to be honest the afterlife part wasn't really too bad. The whole dying part on the other hand, it's pretty haunting. Everything sort of just slows down, and you feel yourself slip the mortal coil. Even to this day, I still can't help but wonder if I've ever been brought back to life or if I'm still in the process of dying."

"Oh thank god!" Krillin let out a sigh "It's about time someone finally put it into words."

"Is it any easier the second time?"

"Believe it or not, it's even worse the second time."

"GOD DAMMIT!" taking everyone by surprise, without even thinking Future Gohan powered up to Super Saiyan and surged forward in a blind rage "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS YOU HEAR ME?!" he promptly attacked Cell with a Gekiretsu Madan barrage packed with as much Ki as he was able to put into it, engulfing Cell in the massive explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, Cell charged towards Future Gohan, having not taken a single ounce of damage from the assault, and simply backhanded him away, leaving him in a crumbled heap on the ground "Well I suppose this is goodbye Marty McFly, and when you get to hell you'd better remember to tell them to make some room." he promptly fired a Ki blast packed with enough power to finish him in one strike.

"GET DOWN!" Gohan promptly rushed over to the aid of his future self and reached him right before the blast detonated, the force nearly blowing everyone away. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Gohan had shielded his future self from the blast, although his gi had been damaged and his arm was bleeding heavily while hanging limp as he struggled to get back to his feet ' _Dammit… Cell's power increased more than I was expecting, and if I had to guess I'd say they used up the last of the Senzu Beans…'_

"Well what do you know, I'm receiving all kinds of gifts today. Still though, it looks like that fighting spirit of yours hasn't been damaged in the slightest, though the same can't be said for your body."

"You can forget about winning Cell… as long as I'm still breathing… you won't be killing anyone else…"

"That won't be too much of a problem, I think I can free up about 5 minutes. Or however long it will take me to charge this." he dropped into a familiar stance and cupped his hands at his side, much to the horror of everyone present "I want you to know that this blast is meant for more than just you Gohan, it goes out to the entire planet. My Swan Song to this planet!"

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Meanwhile, in Otherworld…

Kai opened his eyes and looked around at the scenery and at himself "Let's see… Giant office building, gold clouds as far as the eye can see, halo over head… Huh, looks like Yu Yu Hakusho did a better job with the afterlife than I thought."

"Looks like you haven't changed as much as I was afraid of." a voice commented, which promptly caused Kai to freeze in his tracks.

' _That voice…'_ Kai looked ahead slightly and his expression turned rather wistful "It's really you… mom."

Sure enough, Scarlet stood before him, her expression just as wistful as the one her son had been carrying, and she gave him a sad smile before embracing him "Hi honey."

"After all this time… I can't believe I'm actually seeing him again." Kai leaned into the embrace and let a single tear roll down his cheek ' _It's really her…'_

"You know I saw your uncle and trained him myself when he and Goku trained here in Otherworld for a year. He said you were turning out well, and I'm just glad that now I see that he was right." they sat down on a bench outside of the Check In Station

"I guess. You know I've always tried to distract myself from the pain, but what happened to you still hurts, even if it was almost a decade ago. I just don't know when it's gonna stop, I keep thinking that the pain is going to go away but it doesn't, it just gets worse. Yamcha kept showing me pictures of you all the time, I know he was trying to help but it just made me get this empty feeling inside of me. I just feel like I could've done something."

"No sweetie, don't beat yourself up with things like that. You know what the doctor said, there was no cure for the disease that killed me. Goku on the other hand, he was lucky."

"Don't remind me."

"Besides I know the feeling, your uncle and I lost our parents and then my husband, your father, left me before you were born. I don't think that feeling ever goes away, and I'm so sorry I put you through so much pain."

"I really do miss you mom, it's not easy for me to talk about."

"It hurts me too, the thought that I put you through so much pain and that I won't get to be there with you and watch you grow up. But know this if nothing else, even if I can't be there with you physically I promose I'll watch over you to the best of my ability and be there for you when it really counts."

"I know that mom, I've always felt you there with me." the two of them hugged it out in a touching moment.

"Well we'd better get going, I need to drop you off with Goku and King Kai, and then I'm going to pick up Tien Shinhan and Tarble from Hell. They've been down there for almost a week, so chances are they're going to be mad."

"I knew I got that from somebody." and so they disappeared from the Check In Station in a quick flash.

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Meanwhile, back on Earth…

Having dropped into a certain stance, Cell continued taunting the heavily injured Gohan "Now do you understand? This planet will share your fate, in a moment the Earth will be wiped from existence!"

Gohan wasted no time in tearing into his future self over his folley "Dammit future me, what the hell were you thinking you brain dead idiot?! Kai could easily be brought back with the Dragon Balls no problem, but no you pick now to snap like I did?! Well look at me, I don't have any right to talk, I'm the one who snapped first and a hell of a lot worse! I could've just went ahead and let you bite it, but now I'm monoplegic and Cell is going to kill all of us!"

"I…" Future Gohan looked up at him and spat out some blood "I'm sorry…"

"...Yeah it's just like I thought, we're fucked and you know that just as well as I do. I could've ended this sooner and protected everyone if only I had acted faster, if only I had done more. We all tried our best, but in the end it wasn't good enough."

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"Well since this is the end…" Raditz looked down at 18 in his arms "I love you…"

"GOD DAMMIT!" Piccolo let out a roar of frustration "Come on, how the hell can I let myself be so helpless?!"

"Join the club." Krillin told him dryly "We've been this way pretty much ever since you showed up."

"And now I know what it feels like to be you, and it sucks."

"I know."

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Cell continued taunting Gohan as he charged his Solar Kamehameha "Yep this is it for all of you, the end of the world. Why stop there though, as I am right now I have enough energy to annihilate your entire solar system! Oh what's the matter Gohan, let's see your valiant last stand even if it is in vain!"

Gohan gritted his teeth and shook his head "Not a chance Cell, there's no point in me fighting you so just go ahead and get it over with. My dad sacrificed himself for nothing, my best friend is dead because of me, so frankly I deserve to join them."

"What a coward, I never expected this finaly to be so anticlimactic. Still though, if you're in such a rush to die then please allow me to oblige you! Honestly Gohan, the maraschino cherry on top of all of this, besides wiping you from this plain of existence, is that because I am not burdened by the evolutionary failure of aging, I will live forever, free to roam the stars! **From here to the stars, with my candy bars rides a bug with a knack for perfection!** See if you guys can guess what that's from!"

"This is it, I'll be seeing you soon guys. I'm so sorry I let you down."

" _The only way you let any of us down is if you give up, and as long as I'm around that's not going to happen. I spent so much time turning you into a warrior with balls of steel, so pull that stick out of your ass already!"_

"What the-" Gohan's head snapped up at the sound of the voice "Kai is that you, I mean is that really you?"

" _Take it easy, I'm using King Kai to talk to you from Otherworld using telepathy. Your dad would be here but I kicked him in the crotch and told him to let me handle it. Come on you idiot, we didn't spend as much time as we did training for all of it to be for nothing did we? And for the record that's rhetorical. Just pull out the biggest Kamehameha you've got, make sure yours is bigger than his and there's no way you can lose this whole thing.'_

"But Kai, I can't do this! My left arm is hurt so bad I don't think I can move it, and I have less than half of my energy left. And now everyone is looking at me like they think I'm crazy."

" _I'm tuning into you not them, you're really the only one I care about right now. The fact is that right now, you're the most powerful being in the entire universe, and you're the only one who can take Cell down. Wow it hurts saying that. My point is that you need to get a grip and snap the hell out of it, me and the others wouldn't take it and neither should you! Do you want to do right by us? Then don't let that bastard scare you! Besides, it's like you said to Cell when you were still going off the deep end, there's no point in being afraid of the inevitable."_

"...Yeah you know what Kai, I guess you're right. If you think so then I'll give it my best shot, even if I can't win I doubt I'd be able to live with myself if I didn't at least try."

" _And don't worry about me while I'm up here okay, I'm doing just fine up here in Otherworld, and get this. I got to see my mom again, so frankly I'm fine."_

"Still though Kai, I really am sorry. It's my fault that you're up there, you wouldn't have had to take that shot for me if I hadn't gotten so drunk off my own power."

" _Hey you did it back on Namek, as far as I'm concerned the most this does is finally make the two of us even. Besides, just because we're not gonna go back out and train anymore doesn't mean I won't have your back every step of the way. Face it dude, you're stuck with me and I'm with you till the end of the line, whether you like it or not. And if you're still pissy about it then just use that anger and take it out on Cell in the way only a Saiyan can. Give him everything you've got, and show him why you don't settle for being better when you could be the best! You hear me?!"_

"Oh I hear you loud and clear!" Gohan spiked his golden aura and dropped into a stance, one hand at his side "Maybe I can't beat you Cell, maybe you killing me is inevitable, but I'll be damned if I don't give you everything I've got first! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

"Yes, now that's more like it boy!" Cell shot him a smirk "Absolutely magnificent, one last stand against me! A climactic showdown to end all climactic showdowns! GIVE ME WHAT YOUR FATHER AND YOUR BESTIE COULDN'T, BEFORE I SEND YOU TO JOIN THE TWO OF THEM IN HELL!" on that note, Cell promptly unleashed the full fury of his Solar Kamehameha towards Gohan.

" **HAAAAAAAA!"** using all of the Ki that he had at his disposal, Gohan finally unleashed the most powerful Kamehameha he could muster, the Best Friends Kamehameha, the blast colliding with Cell's attack in a moment of blazing glory, which signalled the beginning of the final struggle against Cell.

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"New plan you guys, grab your bodies and move!" Raditz hoisted 18 up in his arms and flew away from the clash, with Yamcha carrying Kai's body, Krillin carrying Upa and Cooler taking the form of 17 with him.

Future Gohan pulled himself up into the air as the clash went underway, watching his younger self struggle with all of his might "Don't make the same mistakes I made…" and then he flew off to join the others.

Piccolo did something similar from a further distance away "Kill him runt." he was about to follow the others, but stopped when he noticed something "What the hell?"

As it turns out it was Nail, still barely hanging on to what little life was left in him, weakly calling out to Piccolo with what little strength he had left "Piccolo… please… come to me… quickly… We don't… have much time… before we… lose everything…"

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Raditz and the rest looked on at the energy clash from a safe distance "You know, it's times like these I'm glad beams don't just explode on impact with each other."

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Gohan continued struggling against Cell's Kamehameha, though now he was starting to feel himself losing ground ' _Come on come on, at this rate I feel like I'm going to give out! What the hell am I supposed to do?!'_

Of course, this was when Cell started taunting him "Hey, feel free to tell me when that arm of yours starts feeling numb brat, and then I'll start trying! The worst case scenario is that you die and get stronger, god knows it did wonders for me!" he packed more power into his blast and started pushing back even harder against Gohan's blast.

"Is it too much to ask that you just shut up and fight, the one thing that no one I know ever seems to be able to do?!"

"Sorry brat I can't make out what you're saying, try using sign language! Wait no, if someone with one arm speaks with sign language then could that be considered a speech impediment or an accent?"

' _Dammit! It feels like my legs are about to give out, I can't feel one of my arms and the other one is gettinig numb, and not a single person here is shutting the hell up!'_

" _I thought you already realized that shutting the hell up isn't exactly something I'm very well know for."_

Gohan's head snapped up "Kai, I thought you were-"

" _I'm seeing my mom for the first time in almost a decade, I want to enjoy it, and frankly you were busy. Last I saw you were holding your own, so what the fuck gives?"_

"Kai, I… I don't think I have what it takes to do this… He's so much stronger now than he was before, and it's all my fault! It was my cowardice, then my hubris, and now my weakness! We're all going to-"

" _Gohan listen to me, you need to hear this. I want to tell you that if you don't do this, Piccolo is going to die. Your mom is going to die. Your uncle is going to die. But before all of that, if you don't do this then you're going to die. And you're better than that. You're better than him. You're better than me, as hard as it is to say."_

"But-" Gohan suddenly unleashed another burst of power that pushed back Cell's blast "Woah, I wasn't expecting that."

" _The level of power you're putting out right now, I'm not even close to that strong, not yet at least. You've already proven to all of us and to yourself today that you're a lot more than just the son of Son Goku, you're more than just a student of Piccolo, and you're more than just my best friend. You are Son Gohan! Now plant your feet, grit your teeth, and EAT THAT MOTHER FUCKING HORSE!"_

"RIGHT!" with a roar, Gohan unleashed another surge of power that pushed back Cell and his Kamehameha even further.

Cell gritted his teeth as he stopped himself from being pushed back "So what are we looking at now brat, your second wind or your dying gasp? Either way it doesn't really matter, behold the power of two hands!" he put more power into his blast and pushed Gohan back slightly "Eat your heart out Black Lagoon! I can feel you slipping away kid, it's only a matter of time before you finally give out and fail miserably!"

' _Dammit!'_

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Yamcha stood a full cliffside closer to the battlefield than the rest of those that were waiting on the sidelines "This isn't right…"

"Hm?" Krillin spared a glance over at Yamcha "Okay dude, what are you thinking? Whatever it is, please just don't do anything stupid."

"Not in the job description Krillin. I promised my sister I would look after Kai and protect him with my life, and I couldn't even do that. I promise, I'm not going to make that same mistake with Gohan. I'm going down there, and I'm gonna help him win this however I can. Don't try and stop me." so with his Kaioken 20x aura blazing, Yamcha promptly soared down towards the battlefield.

"Yamcha don't do it, you're gonna get yourself killed! What about Bulma and Puar, what do we tell them?!" but Krillin's cries went unheard.

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Down on the battlefield…

"HEY CELL, SEE HOW YOU LIKE A GIANT HEAPING OF SPIRIT BALL!" and so with his Kaioken blazing, Yamcha promptly hurlted a gigantic Spirit Ball right at Cell's back, only for it to do absolutely nothing "Oh crap."

"Stay the hell out of my way weakling!" Cell promptly released a surge of energy from his wings that sent Yamcha flying and crashing to the ground.

"Yamcha no!" Gohan looked on in horror, but still held his ground in the struggle "Please just be okay."

"D-Dammit…" Yamcha spat out some blood and pulled himself back to his feet, his Kaioken still blazing.

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Krillin gritted his teeth in frustration "Dammit, that might be brave and all but he doesn't have a chance in hell of standing up to Cell! He's totally crazy, we can't even touch him he's so far out of our league!"

"He knew that fully well." Cooler told him "And despite that, he still charged into the heat of battle regardless. There is a massive difference between being defeated and giving up, the difference being that you at least try in one of them."

"You mean…"

"Yes."

"Well it's like the Triclops said." Raditz flashed back into Super Saiyan "We're not spectators, we're warriors. I'm not just going to stand around and do nothing while my nephew is fighting out there all on his own because we're not good enough. That and sitting on the sidelines for so long really hurts us right in the pride."

"Indeed it does, and we have nothing to lose. If I do die, then I would be content knowing that I gave it my all, and my men are loyal enough to finish the mission I started. I take it you wish to join me then Raditz?"

"You bet I do." so on that note, Raditz and Cooler promtly charged into the fray ' _At least I got to see 18 one last time before everything goes to shit.'_

By this point, Krillin had been left all alone on the cliffside ' _Well, if you can't beat them then you might as well join them.'_ and so he flew off after the others.

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Meanwhile, across the wasteland…

Piccolo got down on one knee in front of Nail's charred form, gripping onto one of Nail's hands but with great reluctance "Are you sure you want to do this? You know what it means if you go through with this."

"Yes…" Nail managed to give him a weak nod "Cell is too dangerous… we need to put a stop to him… whatever it takes… Gohan and Kai… they both need you far more than they could ever need me… Besides… we have nothing to lose… right?"

"I know that, whatever it takes." Piccolo tightened his grip on Nail's hand "I promise, no matter what happens no one will forget about the sacrifice you made today."

"It will only matter… unless we are victorious…" Nail's body suddenly started glowing white, and he looked over in the direction of Raditz and sent him a telepathic message ' _This is goodbye, my friend.'_ he gave him a small smile as the white glow completely engulfed his body, and once the glowing was gone… so was he.

Now that the process was over, Piccolo stood straight back up, his features slightly more stern as he took a moment to get a grip on what had just happend ' _Your sacrifice won't be in vain, I intend to make sure of that. I hope you're ready Cell, we're going to put an end to this once and for all. Gohan, there's no way I'm going to let you die all alone out there. You were the first person who ever saw me as anything but a monster, and I'm proud to call you my friend.'_

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Cell continued taunting Gohan as he pushed him back one inch at a time, his Kamehameha slowly overtaking the beam struggle "I hope you're ready boy, these are you final seconds in the land of the living! I say do your best to make them count!"

" **KAMEHAMEHA!"** with his Kaioken blazing, Yamcha hit Cell square in the back with a full power Kamehameha, with the others joining in soon after.

" **DEATH FLASH!"** Cooler dropped down next to Yamcha, giving him a small nod of respect, and hit Cell in the back with a Death Flash at full power.

" **KAMEHAMEHA!"** Krillin boosted his Kaioken up to 20x and hit Cell in the back with a full power Kamehameha.

" **VACATION DELETE!"** Raditz put as much power as he could into a Vacation Delete blast that struck Cell in between his wings, though it did nothing.

"You pesky little bastards, if you're in such a rush to be claimed by the jaws of death then I'm more than happy to hurry you along!" Cell spiked his golden aura, which proved to be enough to send all of them flying.

Raditz was the first one to pull himself back to his feet as he spat out some blood "You can forget it kid, there's no way I'm going to let you die all alone out there. You and your father, you were the ones who gave me a chance to break free from Frieza's rule, give me a home and a family again, and I'll forever be grateful to you for that."

Krillin let out a bitter chuckle as he struggle to get back to his feet "I don't know why I'm getting back up again… It would be a hell of a lot easier just to stay down… Yeah, back in the old days I so would've given up by now… I guess it's Goku and Gohan's fault I'm like this… Thanks to the two of them, now I don't know when to give up… And you know what, I swear I'm going to get them for that…"

Yamcha pulled himself back to his feet and fired another Kamehameha at Cell, his mind drifting to his regrets ' _Goku, you've been my inspiration as a warrior and a martial artist for as long as I can remember… All that I have now, the people I call my friends, my wife and my daughter… I wouldn't have any of them if it wasn't for you. And how did I thank you? I stood there and watched you die! I couldn't do anything to save my sister… I couldn't do anything to keep her son safe… I promise Goku, there's no way I'll make the same mistake with your son!'_

Cooler floated upwards and attacked Cell with a Death Flash to the back ' _Son Goku, the power your son wields is unlike anything I've ever encountered before. I truly believe he will be an invaluable asset when the time comes, the final battle for the fate of this universe. But right now, securing the fate of your planet comes first.'_

"Why the hell won't all of you just stay down?!" Cell unleashed another surge of energy that blew Cooler and Yamcha backwards off their feet, only to be met with Raditz and Krillin both firing simultaneous Ki blasts at him "How dare you challenge ultimate perfection!" he blew both of them backwards and then went back to taunting Gohan "Take solace Gohan, though you have fought alone up until now, you will not die alone! That is the last gift I can bestow upon you, a perfect death!" he was about to give the final push to finish Gohan once and for all, when…

" **KAMEHAMEHA!"**

" **SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"**

Cell felt two simultaneous blasts plow straight into the back of him, blowing off one of his arms and both of his wings, and he looked up to see who was the cause "Oh shit."

As it turns out, it was Future Gohan and the newly merged Piccolo, panting heavily from the sheer exhaustion they were feeling, though mostly the former "DO IT NOW! FINISH HIM OFF!"

"Oh shit."

"IT'S OVER!" with every last ounce of Ki he was able to muster, Gohan gave his Kamehameha the last necessary push, ripping Cell's Kamehameha apart and engulfing Cell himself further and further as he continued to inch his way forward.

"Oh shit! _Well, since this is the end I might as well go out in blaze of glory with one of the best songs to ever exist.'_ and so on that note, Cell prepared to go out in the exact same way he came in: singing.

" **And now, the end is near**

 **And so I face the final curtain**

 **My friend, I'll say it clear**

 **I'll state my case, of which I'm certain**

 **I've lived a life that's full**

 **I've travelled each and every highway**

 **Oh, and more, much more than this**

 **I did it my way**

 **Regrets, I've had a few**

 **But then again, too few to mention**

 **I did what I had to do**

 **And saw it through without exception**

 **I planned each charted course**

 **Each careful step along the byway**

 **But more, much more than this**

 **I did it my way**

 **Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew**

 **When I bit off more than I could chew**

 **But through it all, when there was doubt**

 **I ate it up and spit it out**

 **The record shows, I took the blows! And did it…My~ way~!"** and so as he finished his swan song on a high note, Cell was promptly disintegrated by Gohan's Kamehameha, every last cell in his body being obliterated as the blast travelled into the upper atmosphere before it finally dissipated, leaving nothing behind in its wake. At long last, Cell was finally dead and the Earth was safe again.

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Once the climactic beam struggle had finally come to an end, things had at last settled down on the battlefield.

Gohan was left nearly gasping for air, so exhausted to the point where he couldn't even maintain his Super Saiyan form, and he promptly powered back down to his base form "The horse… has been… eaten…" and he promptly fell to the ground from exhaustion.

Future Gohan was the first one to find his voice again "I think it's over… I don't think I feel his energy anymore… Not like I have any energy left to concentrate either."

"Not surprising, but you're right. It's finally over." Piccolo assured him "There isn't even a single scrap left of him this time, Cell is gone for good."

"Is anyone going to hold it against me if I start crying?"

"Better now than 5 minutes ago." Piccolo looked down at Gohan and gave him a small smile filled to the brim with pride ' _You've come a long way Gohan, and you've made all of us proud today.'_

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Meanwhile, up in Otherworld…

Kai took his hand off of King Kai's back and promptly shot a smirk at Goku "I told you he didn't need you to win this one, he did it all on his own, even if I was a kickass life coach. Looks like I was right when I said you wouldn't be the one to kill Cell."

"I can't argue with that." Goku looked on and gave a small smile ' _Great job Gohan, I've never been more proud of you than I am right now.'_

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 **At long last, Cell has been defeated and the Earth is safe again. But there are still a few loose ends left to be wrapped up. Tune in for the aftermath of the war against Dr Gero and his creations, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we reach the epic conclusion of the Cell Games, and it truly deserves to call itself epic, though it did not come without its fair share of sacrifices along the way. Not only do we see Gohan finally defeat Cell once and for all, but we see Kai reunite with his mother Scarlet, a critical step in his character arc. Now all we have to do is see where the characters go from here, which will be covered next chapter in an epilogue to the Cell saga.**

 **Going back to the sacrifices, I knew going into this that I was going to have Nail fuse with Piccolo. As much as I love the character of Nail and I got to keep him around, there really wasn't much I could have him do, so I think this was the most fitting end for him, giving up everything for the sake of the greater good. But I believe I gave him a fitting sendoff, and his sacrifice allowed Piccolo to help turn the tide of the beam struggle.**

 **One significant change from canon is how I included Gohan making Cell also puke up Android 17. I never thought much of him at first, but throughout the Universe Survival Arc in Super, he easily became one of my favorite characters, and I always thought that he should've been included a hell of a lot more, so I decided to keep him around, maybe do something rather similar to what was done with him in the What If Nappa Turned Good series by MasakoX. Plus if my plans work out, he'll have a major role when we get to the Majin Buu Saga.**

 **Power levels:**

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan: 77 billion

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan (one arm): 30 billion

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan (Best Friend Kamehameha): 100 billion

Piccolo: 5.2 billion

Piccolo (fused with Nail): 26 billion

Future Gohan: 1 billion

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 7 billion

Super Saiyan Future Gohan (enraged): 10.5 billion

Yamcha: 50 milliob

Yamcha (Kaioken 20x): 1 billion

Krillin: 24 million

Krillin (Kaioken 20x): 480 million

Raditz: 800 million

Super Saiyan Raditz: 5.6 billion

Cooler: 6.5 billion

Perfect Cell (full power): 25 billion

Perfect Cell (power stressed): 50 billion

Super Perfect Cell: 75 billion

Super Perfect Cell (Solar Kamehameha): 80 billion


	31. End of the Cell Games, Kai's Resolve

**Darkjaden:** Trust me, I have no intention of letting that happen.

 **Guest:** I'll make sure Gohan keeps training, I think that's a good place to start. As for him being blackmailed, I already established he and Videl won't be a thing, but in regards to the blackmail, that won't happen, at least not with Gohan.

 **Vukk:** Yeah, it's been established that no one cares about power levels anymore, but aside from that, Gohan defating Cell was essentially his coming of age, and frankly it was way too good to pass up. In regards to the three questions, two of them will be answered in this chapter, and the last one will be answered next chapter.

 **Guest:** I actually do plan to go into Dragon Ball Super territory after the Z portion is done, but you'll have to wait and see until then.

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** Well, doing a review of all three acts in one would be a time saver, so I get why you're doing that. I'm glad to see you took a liking to the Cell Vs references, and for the record, the one about the homeless man was a nod to Cell vs Kenshiro, the main guy from Fist of the North Star. Yes, I added in that scene with Gohan and 16 from Kakarot so that it would make his death more impactful. I honestly preferred the abridged scenes with Mr Satan and the others over the ones from canon, and yes his entourage of students and his manager were pretty annoying, so I had Cell go through with killing them. The TFS references are always golden, and way too good to pass up. Kai's outburst to Goku was something I had planned out ahead of time, and it's a pretty big step in his character arc. Upa's death was meant to add more tension to the arc, like with Tien and Tarble. And yes, I still firmly believe TFS had the best version of Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transformation, and it was my favorite scene to write. Kai's long awaited reunion with his mother was another big step in his character arc, and it was definitely one of the scenes I looked forward to the most. And yes, the climax where everyone jumps in and shows their inner turmoil was a great addition by the anime. I'm glad you enjoyed the Cell Games chapters, and I hope the epilogues also please you.

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At last, Cell had been defeated by Gohan, and the Earth was safe once more.

Piccolo looked down at Gohan's injured form, his expression filled with pride "You actually did it, you defeated Cell and saved the Earth. You did good Gohan, you did good."

Yamcha nodded "Yeah no kidding, that was totally awesome. I'm not just kidding around, that was a definite thing of beauty."

"I just can't believe we're all still here." Future Gohan muttered "I mean truth be told, it hasn't really sunk in yet."

"I know how you feel. Anyway come on buddy, we'd better get you up to the Lookout. We might be out of Senzu Beans sure, but Dende and his healing abilities are the next best thing."

"You'll be up and about in no time." Piccolo knelt down and picked up Gohan in his arms "No need to worry, I'll get you there."

"Thanks… Piccolo…" and then Gohan promptly passed out.

"Looks like it's really getting to him now, he passed out from exhaustion."

"Speaking of which Piccolo, are you going to be okay for the trip?" asked Yamcha "I doubt any of us are at 100% right now."

"All you need to know right now is that I got a power up during all of that chaos, though it did come at a price."

"Fair enough I guess. Upa and Kai's bodies faded away, so they probably got to keep them when they died, so I doubt we have to worry about them."

"That makes it easier for us, in the meantime I'll grab 18 and take her with us, so one of you guys get 17 okay?" Future Gohan was met with several odd looks "What, Father always believed in giving people second chances, and when you think about it they haven't really killed anyone in this timeline." he was met with more looks "Alright fine, Raditz asked me to get them while he's busy brooding over there." he jerked a thumb over towards Raditz.

"Okay that makes more sense."

Cooler looked over to see Raditz staring off into the distance ' _I wonder, would he be willing? No perhaps not, he's clearly been won over by the female Android, at least from what I've heard so far. The Namekian on the other hand, and Tien Shinhan…'_

"Cooler, we're heading out. Are you coming with us?" asked Yamcha.

"Go ahead and revive your fallen comrades, I'll join you shortly. I have something I need to consider first."

"Suit yourself." so Yamcha, Piccolo and the rest of the survivors took off towards the Lookout to revive the fallen.

Cooler promptly flew his way over towards Raditz "You should feel pride for your fallen comrade, he honore the pride of the Namekian race."

"Perhaps." Radit knelt down in a puddle of purple blood and soaked a cloth in it before tying it around his arm "Nail might not have been a Saiyan, but he was my comrade and my friend regardless."

"His sacrifice was not in vain, it may very well be what allowed us to win today."

"I know." Raditz looked down at the purple armband, then looked at Cooler "I know what you're going to ask of me, what you want my help with, but right now you're going to have to look somewhere else. I can't help you with your search, not as I am right now. I have to get a hell of a lot stronger. But tell me one thing. This creature you're searching for, how does he compare to the likes of Cell?"

"Based on my knowledge, I would assume that Cell is an insect compared to him."

"...Good to know." Raditz promptly blasted off after the others.

' _This world truly does hold many mysteries does it not? To think that a half Saiyan would be capable of this much power. This cannot go unheard, I must inform the Supreme Kai about this development. For all I know, Son Goku and his companions may be the very key to ridding the universe of the plague known as Majin Buu once and for all.'_ on that note, Cooler promptly blasted off in the direction of his ship.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Mr Satan finally snapped out of his incredibly long stupor once he saw that Gohan and the others were long gone ' _We're… We're still alive… After all that's happened…_ Yeah, I definitely need to rethink my life."

"Mr Satan!" that was when Jimmy Firecracker and Larry rushed towards him "Mr Satan we found some working equipment in the van, or what's left of it. We only have audio, but the people of the world can still hear you! Would you like to tell the people of the world what just happened?"

"Uh, well… I don't… I'm not really-"

"Mr Satan. Would you like to tell the world, including your millions of scared, confused and apparently rioting fans what. Just. Happened?"

"...Well Jimmy, and all of you at home, I won't lie to you. Cell is dead. AND I AM THE ONE WHO TOOK HIM DOWN!"

"YES! So is there a body Mr Satan?"

"NO! I mean no of course not Jimmy, the green bastard exploded without a trace on impact, and that's why I call it my Mr Satan Megaton Punch! But if he weren't such a chump, then I would've given him a punch for every last one of my wonderful Satanists out there!"

"Yes, you said it champ! Hail Satan!"

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

Raditz dropped down onto the Lookout and met up with Dende and the others "Looks like I got here at just the right time, everyone okay? Let me rephrase that, is everyone that's still alive okay?"

"Yes they'll be fine in a moment, I'm about to heal Gohan right now." so Dende quickly got to work on healing Gohan's injuries.

"Oh god…" after a moment, Gohan's eyes slowly fluttered open and he sat up "Dende?"

"Gohan you're okay, what a relief!" Dende breathed a sigh, but then his face fell "I saw what happened to your father and Kai, and Upa too. I'm so sorry."

"...No Dende, there's no reason for you to be sorry." Gohan stood up and looked up at the skies above "I could feel both of them watching over me, and Kai was talking me through the fight and pushing me forward every step of the way. I could hear his voice plain as day urging me to keep going, and I could feel his Ki all around me, and my dad's too. I could practically smell him he was so close, like he was actually physically there. The whole time I was fighting Cell, he was there guiding me to get the win, telling me that I had to get back up and eat that horse. I think that metaphor came from dad."

"Well regardless Gohan, in any case the fact is that you've made all of us very proud with what you did today." Piccolo placed a hand on Gohan's head and gave him a small smile "You did a great job out there kid, you really have gotten strong."

"I had a good teacher and good friends backing me up."

That was when 17 and 18 both finally regained consciousness "What the hell?!"

"And now they're awake." Raditz noted dryly.

"Back the hell up, don't make me turn you into a glory hole in an airport bathroom!"

"Relax, Kai already used that line. Look, you were both out cold when we found you so we brought you here for God to heal you." he pointed at where Dende was waving at them "You're both safe here, and Gohan was the one who took out Cell."

"Gohan, are you serious right now?" asked 18.

"Yeah, but with the good comes the bad news. Gohan took out Cell sure, but 16… he didn't make it."

"...How did it happen?" 17 spoke again "And did he suffer?"

"He attempted to self destruct and take Cell with him, but it turns out Bulma's family took the bomb out while they were repairing him, so Cell blasted him apart, and later he crushed 16's head underneath his foot. I doubt he felt any pain though."

"Oh. Good to know." 17 shot a glance at Piccolo "So how about it, you wanna pick up where we left off?"

"Hate to break it to you, but since you've been inside Cell I've powered up, and so have the rest of us." Piccolo told him dryly "To put it bluntly, any of us here could defeat you both without too much trouble."

"Oh that's just bullshit."

"No, it's plot progressing. Anyway you should be thanking Raditz here for the two of you even being alive, after Cell spat you guys out he defended you."

"...Good to know, seriously." 17 shot a glance at Raditz, along with a small smirk "I guess you aren't all bad."

"Look, it's just… I already gave me life story to 18, so she can tell you."

"We've got bigger stuff to worry about." 18 pointed out flatly "You were throwing a lot at me then, and you're throwing a lot at us now."

"Yeah, well…"

"So that's why he did it!" Gohan blurted out suddenly "Raditz was protecting you guys because he's totally got a crush on 18!"

"Did you seriously do that on purpose, or are you just as dense as Kakarot is?"

"And that's officially my limit." 18 told him dryly "I've been taking in a lot over the past 5 minutes and I already feel like I'm a normal person who's having someone explain anime to them for the first time. So thanks, and bye."

"God dammit, I'm so horrible at this."

"Join the club." and so she blasted off.

"And suddenly I'm elated that Kai is dead."

"Dude!" Yamcha shot him a look.

"Think about it, if he saw that he'd never let me live it down."

"Maybe, but still."

"Agree to disagree."

"Speaking of which…" 17 walked up to Raditz and held up a fist "I saw bits and pieces of what you did for 18 before when I was inside of Cell, so thanks. I guess that means I owe you. But in all seriousness, I don't buy for a second that any of you guys could take me down as easily as you claim, so unless you can prove it-" he was cut off by a sudden kick to the chest that sent him skidding across the floor of the Lookout.

"That enough proof for you?"

"...Yeah that works." 17 pulled himself back to his feet "Alright fine, that's enough for me. I guess I'll just have to do what you guys do to get so strong."

"Train till your bones crack?"

"Works for me, and better you than some random jackass that tries to run me off the road. At least this way I'm surrounded by people who realize how horrible country music is."

"You have no idea."

"We'll deal with 17 and 18 later." Piccolo cut into their conversation "I think our first priority for now should be to wish back Kai and everyone who died because of Cell and any of Dr Gero's other creations with the Dragon Balls.

"Yeah just throwing this out there, we didn't kill anybody." 17 pointed out "Granted we did screw with a bunch of jackasses and talk about making country music extinct, but those never really went anywhere."

"I'll keep that in mind."

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Meanwhile, up in Otherworld…

Kai took his hand off of King Kai's back and looked towards Scarlet "Well mom, I guess this is gonna be it for now. They're about to use the Dragon Balls to bring all of us back, so we'll be heading back in a few minutes at the most."

"I know, it was only a matter of time." Scarlet pulled Kai into a tight hug "Good luck sweetie. I wish there was a way that I could go with you, but I guess fate just decided that I belong here now. I know you'll make me proud, I have faith that you'll excel and surpass everyone's expectations. This may very well be the last time I get to see you, at least before you make your final journey over to this world, but that won't be for a very long time."

"That depends on how tough the next big bad is gonna turn out to be. Alright assclowns 1 to 4, you ready to head back down to Earth?"

"Yeah, about that…" Goku's smile quickly faded from his face "I don't think I want them to wish me back this time."

"You wanna run that by me again? You've got way too much waiting for you down there to stay up here."

"Listen, I know that the Namekian Dragon Balls could still wish me back, the truth is that I think I should stay in Otherworld. Face it guys, me being on Earth always attracts all kinds of trouble to it. I mean Raditz and Beets came because of me, the other Saiyans came because of me, and even Frieza came to Earth because of me. The Androids were made because of me, and Cell was made because of me too. Face it, the Earth will be better of if I stay up here. Besides, Gohan is a lot more powerful than me, and so is Piccolo, and you probably are too. You guys don't need to depend on me anymore."  
"...Okay it's official, there's stupid, there's retarded, and then there's you."

"Wait what?"

"Do you realize how selfish you sound, what you think you're the only reason a new threat comes to Earth? So what if you're not number one anymore, there's always someone stronger and that applies to assclowns bent on universal domination and/ or destruction. Who knows how much time we've got before someone as powerful as Cell shows up, in that case we'll all have to band together."

"I… I guess I never thought of that. But Kai it's not that simple, the Androids were actually made because I killed Gero's son. He modeled 16 after him because of how much he hates me. Face it, I caused all of that so who knows what other deranged madmen are gonna target the Earth because of me-"

"Your wife is pregnant." that caught Upa, Tien and Tarble off guard almost as much as Goku.

"...Wh-What?"

"I found out while you were in a coma from the Heart Virus and we were all hiding out at Kame House, she wanted to wait to tell you until all of this crap was over with, and then you go and do something like this. Even if you're not number one anymore like Stefán Karl Stefánsson, may he rest in peace, you still have responsibilities to your family. You don't want your second kid to go through life without knowing who his dad was, or else he might end up becoming like me, and there can only be one of me."  
"I… I never thought of it like that."

"Language aside, I can vouce for what he's telling you Goku. I cherish the years I had with my son more than anything, and my only regret is that I couldn't be there watching him grow into the young man he is now." Scarlet put a hand on Kai's shoulder "I lost those years, but you still have a chance to get them, so don't waste it."

"...You know what, you guys are right." Goku gripped Kai by the shoulder "I guess that's one more I owe you, stopping me from making the second biggest mistake of my life. I guess we'd better contact Namek and let them know that I need to be wished back."

"King Kai should be on that soon enough, but first…" Scarlet pulled Kai aside and handed him a book "Take this, it'll help."

"What is it?" asked Kai.

"It's just some notes and ideas for training and techniques that I worked on back when I was still alive, and since I've been up here. There's one technique in here I've been working on since I've been dead, but I think you might be able to crack it."

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Meanwhile, back on the Lookout…

"Actually, do you guys mind if I do this?" Gohan stepped up to the Dragon Balls as they started glowing brightly "Eternal Dragon Shenron, by your name I summon your forth to grant our wishes!"

The skies grew dark, the blows glowed brighter, and Shenron burst forth from within the balls in a brilliant display " **I have been summoned forth. Speak your wishes, and I shall grant any that are within my power. Do this so that I may return to my slumber."**

"Great Shenron, our first wish is to bring back everyone on Earth killed by Cell and any of the other Androids created by Dr Gero!"

" **Such a wish is a simple matter."** Shenron's eyes glowed bright red as he granted the wish, reviving all of those that had died in the past two weeks.

"Did it work?"

"I was afraid of this." Piccolo muttered.

"Afraid of what?"

"Since Dende had created a new Earth dragon, I was hoping that Goku would be revived along with everyone else, but this dragon was made from the same model as the one that was originally used by Kami, so their powers must have similar limitations. I'm sorry Gohan, but I doubt this dragon can bring your father back."

"Oh yeah, I was afraid of that."

" **What is your second wish? I do not like to be kept waiting."**

"I have to ask Shenron, is it possible for you to bring the Saiyan known as Son Goku back a second time? We would really appreciate it if you did."

" **That wish is beyond my power. Son Goku has already been resurrected by the Earth's Dragon Balls once before, and I cannot revive someone a second time. Now speak a new wish."**

"Well that didn't work, so what now?"

"Well I do have one idea." Future Gohan spoke up "Could we have Shenron turn back time to before Father died, so that maybe we could prevent it."

"That sort of wish would do more harm than good, if we turn back time that far then dad might be brought back sure, but Cell would be brought back too and we could never make a move as risky as that one. Plus I doubt 17 and 18 would be thrilled about being back inside Cell, and frankly they're not that bad."

"Oh yeah. What about the dragon on New Namek, Porunga? If my memory is correct then that dragon can bring a person back multiple times as long as they don't die of natural causes, so maybe we could wish ourselves there."

"Yeah that's a great idea, he doesn't have the same limitations as Shenron, so he's more than capable of doing it!"

"It would be a good idea, if it wasn't fucking useless."

Gohan and the others whipped around, and his eyes lit up at the sight before him "Kai, dad, everyone!"

Sure enough, it was Kai and Goku and everyone else, alive and well, having zapped back to the Lookout via Goku's Instant Transmission "What's up assholes?" he was promptly pulled into a tight hug by Gohan.

"Please don't die on me again. I can't stand the thought of losing my best friend again. Please just don't."

"Alright alright, take it easy dude. Hold that thought for a second, I'm gonna deal with some unfinished business" without another word Kai looked over at 17, flashed into Kaioken and promptly kicked him in the gut, sending him crashing to the Lookout building "Not gonna lie, that felt really good."

"That was payback for the arms wasn't it?" 17 pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood "Okay, I probably had that coming."

"Damn right you did, just stick around so that I can keep doing that."

"You say that like it's going to be a regular thing. Forget it, next time we go at it I'm beating you within an inch of your life."

"...That your way of saying you gonna stick around?"

"I don't have anywhere else to be."

"Fair enough."

" **Um… you do know that I've been waiting for your second wish all along right? Feel free to make that wish any time now."**

Kai looked up at Shenron "Oh yeah, I forgot how these dragons always acted like it was their time of the month."

" **So how about it, speak your second wish. Whatever it is you desire, I shall grant it so long as it is within my power."**

"Well I don't know about you guys, but if no one else has a wish then I'm gonna go ahead and go for it. Any objections?" he received various shrugs "Good, in that case I'm gonna ask for a three foot-"

"Hey dragon!" Raditz cut him off "Is there any chance of you turning 17 and 18 back into normal humans, like they were before Dr Gero went blade runner on them?"

"What the fuck is it with you people refusing to let me wish for a three foot hoagie?!"

"Shut up kid, so dragon can you do it?"

17 shot a look at Raditz like he was crazy "What the hell are you thinking? This isn't one of those things where you want to turn us human again and make us weaker is it? I mean that's not objectively a bad idea, but…"

"It's not like that. Look, Frieza did to me what Dr Gero did to you guys, so I understand it better than you think."

"Went blade runner on you?"

"Took your lives away and made you into something you never wanted to be, tools meant to be used for the sake of conquest. I broke free of his influence and now I have a decent life here on Earth, you broke free from Dr Gero so why wouldn't you guys deserve the same?"

" **...That wish is beyond my power."**

"Oh that's just straight bullshit!"

" **I am sorry. The ones called Android 17 and Android 18 are beings with power far surpassing my own. I cannot revert them to the humans they once were."**

"Yeah, to be honest I was afraid you would say something like that."

"Truth be told, it shouldn't be that bad." Kai pointed out "I mean I personally don't see the downside to being an Android, aside from the fact that they way they get their power is basically cheating, and there's the fact that they both walk around with a bunch of nukes stuffed into their chests."

"Wait a second, Kai I think you might be onto something there. Shenron tell me, even if you can't turn them back into humans, it should be possible for you to get rid of the bombs they have in their chests so they don't have to worry about that right?"

" **Yes, such a request is a simple matter."** Shenron's eyes glowed red as he granted the wish given to him by Raditz " **I have removed the explosive devices. Your wishes have now been granted. I bid you farewell."** so on that note, Shenron disappeared in a brilliant golden light as the black clouds throughout the skies disappeared and the Dragon Balls scatted across the skies down towards the Earth below.

"Well that's done, so what now, catch a movie or something?"

"Hold up a second." 17 got his attention "I don't get you man, letting us live is one thing but why the hell would you go out of your way for us like that?"

"I don't know man, I guess I just felt bad for you. I just wanted to do right by you guys and maybe put you on a better path, like Kakarot and his friends did for me."

"I think it's kind of sweet to be honest." Goku wrapped an arm around Raditz "You really a decent guy bro."

"Leave it to you to see the bright side of things Kakarot. I appreciate it, but still it kind of sucks to think that 18 is never gonna know." Raditz breathed a sigh "I just wish I had one more chance to talk to her."

"Okay hold up!" that was when 18 burst out of her hiding place "What in the name of hell was that supposed to be?!"

"Thank you Shenron."

"Oh yeah I forgot to mention, 18 actually showed back up when the dragon popped out of the magic balls." 17 pointed out nonchalantly "Yes I know what I said, I worded it that way on purpose."

"Nice."

"Will you just give me an answer?!" 18 rounded on him "You could've wished for a billion Zeni, or eternal life or to not look like a hedgehog or any of that stuff! Butt instead, you used a magical wish granting dragon… and you did it for us."

"Asking the real questions here." Piccolo muttered "Seriously, love is one human emotion I don't want to understand."

"So why?"

"I… I don't know." Raditz let out a sigh "It just made sense you know, and I think sense is something we need after everything that's happened."

"...Okay look, I've gotta go clear my head after everything that's happened. But anyway, about you and me, let's talk later okay?"

"Wait a second, what's your number?"

"18!" and so she jumped off the edge of the Lookout and soared down towards the Earth below them.

"...Dammit I walked right into that one."

"You and about 20 other guys." 17 patted him on the shoulder "Look on the bright side though, if she says she wants to talk later then that means she actually likes you. That's progress."

"And I suppose you're an expert on chicks." Kai let out a snort "It only makes sense since you look like one."

"You want me to break your arms again?"

"You want me to rip you in half?"

"I seriously don't get all of this love stuff." Piccolo muttered.

"Take my advice and stick to fighting Big Green, it's pretty much the only thing you could do but you could be doing it a lot worse."

Future Gohan looked on at the scene and gave a small smile "It feels so weird being able to laugh like this with all of you again, I really miss having that in my timeline." this was followed by an awkward silence for a few moments.

This was when Upa spoke up "I should probably return home, I can imagine how worried my Father must."

"So where do you go from here?" asked Goku.

"Since the world is finally safe again, my duties lie in my training to become the next chief of my people. I can't say for certain when I'm going to see all of you again. All of you, please take care of yourselves."

"Yeah, you be sure to take care of yourself too, and say hi to your dad for me."

"Of course Goku, you're all welcome in my village any time. I promise I'll keep honing my skills as well, and I'll never forget everything all of us have been through together. Also…" he spared a glance over at Future Gohan "Listen Gohan, you've become more than powerful enough to defeat the Androids in your time with ease. Make good use of what you've learned in this time, and you'll do fine following in Goku's footsteps."

Future Gohan nodded "Of course, I plan to. Thank you so much for all you've done to help us until now Upa."

"Of course. Farewell my friends." and with that, Upa took his leave from the Lookout.

' _Another one goes, but he leaves on a high note.'_

"We should probably head home now." Yamcha commented "Bulma said that she was preparing this big celebration for when we win, because she was so confident in us coming out on top today."

"After everything that's happened, celebrating sounds like a dream. I mean, Namek of all places has shorter days than this has been.

"I know what you mean. So what about you, when are you heading back to your timeline to take care of your set of Androids?" asked Tien.

"I'm thinking I'll stick around for the celebration, then get a full night's sleep, and then I'll head back in the morning."

"Fair enough, how about we come buy to see you off in the morning?"

"I'd really like that. Before I came back here all I had was stories and a bunch of memories that probably would've just faded over time, but this… this is definitely something I'll never forget about."

Gohan glanced over at Piccolo "So what about you Piccolo, I mean are you going to stay up here on the Lookout from now on?"

Piccolo nodded "Yeah that was the plan, why do you ask?"

"I was hoping it would be alright if I stop by and see you guys once in awhile?"

"You'd better, if you don't then I'll hunt you down and drag you here myself."

"I'm used to something like that, Kai actually does it all the time anyway. In the meantime we should head out. Piccolo, Dende, Mr Popo, all of you take care." Gohan waved at them, then shared a nod with Kai and turned to the others "Come on everybody let's get going, tomorrow is a whole new day!" and with that, all of them blasted off of the Lookout and headed down towards the Earth below "Alright remember the deal guys, we'll see you for the celebration at Capsule Corp in a few hours okay, and if you're not coming then Capsule Corp bright and early tomorrow! Until we meet again you guys!" and so all of them promptly blasted off in different directions.

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Kai glanced over at Gohan with a raised eyebrow "So your future self really went Scarface all over Cell like that?"

Gohan nodded "Yeah and it would've been amazing if it had done something, was it that terrifiyng when I transformed like that?"

"Yours was more like quiet rage."

"Makes sense I guess. Hey by the way, I'm kind of surprised you're not at me for getting the win over Cell."

"I'd be a lot more pissed if it was your dad instead of you, especially if he actually did steal the win before, the son of a bitch."

"You know I'm flying right behind you guys right?"

"Yeah I know. Besides, after all this time I finally got to see my mom again, so frankly I'm content for today." Kai looked at the book Scarlet gave him, stashed away in his gi "Though I can't say the same about tomorrow."

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A few hours went by, and the group had all gathered together at Capsule Corp to celebrate their victory.

Tien was listening intently to the others telling him about Cell "So he managed to absorb both Androids and achieved his Perfect Form, and he was really as powerful as you say he was?"

"He was at first, and then he regenerated." Cooler told him simply "Thanks to the Saiyan biology in his system, he returned far more powerful than before. Son Gohan was the only one able to stand against him, even after the rest of your Earthling companions had their dormant powers awakened by Forte."

"I see, so I've really fallen behind, even after the training I did in the Otherworld."

"Your power has increased to an extent, but not enough. If you wish for it, I can have Forte use his abilities to unlock your potential as well."

"I would be grateful to you for that."

"It's not entirely selfless I will admit, I have been considering the prospect of recruiting you and some of your allies for a new mission I've been working on for at least a few years."

"What kind of mission exactly?"

"The kind that prevents a universal crisis before it even begins. I believe that some prime candidates would include yourself and the Namekian amongst your ranks. I did actually offer this to Son Goku once he had been revived, but he declined due to the discovery of something personal that would opt for him to remain here."

"So if we were to take part in this mission of yours, we would have to leave Earth?"

"The one orchestratin this threat could very well be anywhere in the universe, so our search cannot be narrow. You would have to leave for a year at least."

"Which means leaving Chiaotzu behind." Tien frowned in thought "I'll have to think about this for awhile."

"Such an answer does not surprise me." Cooler handed him a small device "This will allow to communicate with me any time you decide to join me. I gave one to Son Goku as well in case he comes to a similar decision."

"I understand."

"Hey you guys come on!" Bulma waved to all of them from above "That big feast I promised you guys is ready, celebrate saving the world by eating your body weight in barbecue with five dipping sauces to choose from!"

"But still, after everything that's happened I think one night off just to have fun will do all of us some good."

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Soon enough, everyone was enjoying themselves and cooling down from the long struggle with the Androids.

Goku was wasting no time in binging to his heart's content "Man, any food you have right after you come back to life is always the best food you could ever have!"

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Meanwhile, on another side of the party…

"Alright, thre you go guys." the chef handed some food to Cooler and Salza "Two shrip and vegetable tempuras as requested."

"Quite the intriguing aroma." Cooler took a bite of his tempura "I can't help but wonder how this planet was never targeted before, culinary capabilities aside it seems to be quite rich in various types of resources.

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17 made his way up to the balcony where he found Future Gohan standing by himself and staring off into the distance "Hey, you want a tempura?"

"I'm not really that hungry right now." Future Gohan told him quietly.

"You don't have to hide anything from me, I heard from Piccolo about you being from the future and what my future self has been putting you through until now. Look, I get why you're not exactly fond of me, but I'm not like that one is. I'm not a psychopath."

"I know, looking back this timeline's version of you and your sister aren't anywhere near as bad as the monsters that have been terrorizing my world for almost a decade. Speaking of which, where is 18 right now?"

"Same as where Raditz is, observe." he pulled out a walkie talkie and turned it on.

" _I'm surprised you knew I'd be in here instead of binging like everyone else."_

" _Seemed like the obvious pick when you think about it._

" _Fair enough I guess. So what can I do ya for?"_

" _I made a promise to myself before and I'm going to keep it."_

" _Okay, so how do you want to-"_

" _Just shut up and drop your pants."_

" _Yeah I should've seen that coming, but just for the sake of being clear in no way am I compensating with my hair."_ and cue a thud.

" _Oh. My. God."_

" _So?"_

" _Get on the bed."_

" _Good enough for me."_

17 promptly crushed the walkie talkie in his hand "Yeah, I think that's enough of that."

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Gohan looked back to see Kai handing him a tempura "Thanks, but truth be told I'm not really hungry right now."

"Suit yourself, I'm fucking starving." Kai promptly downed both of them "Who knew dying could work up such an appetite. Seriously though, what's up your ass, and why are you surging with Super Saiyan Ki again?"

"I don't really know how to explain it, but I think I'm going to continue with my training."

"Is this because you blame yourself for what happened with Cell earlier? I told you already that I'm glad I died, I got to see my mom again if only for a little while.'

"It's not just that. From what I heard you already knew about this, but my mom is pregnant. I'm going to have a new little brother or sister soon. We only one against Cell because of that new Super Saiyan form I discovered, but when I did tap into it I lost control and let my emotions get the better of my judgement. Power isn't enough to win a fight, unless I know how to control that power properly. I have a growing family I need to protect, and that means that I need to make sure that I not only power up as much as I possibly can, but that I can control it."'

"Makes sense, I've been looking through this book my mom gave me and it says that I've gotta start with training with the old perv, so we'll go from there."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day came, and everyone had come to see Future Gohan off and say their goodbyes before he left.

Bulma patted Future Gohan on the shoulder "So you're heading out already huh? Well be sure to tell the future me she did a good job on pulling you out of your funk."

"Oh believe me." Future Gohan let out a sigh "I know just how much I plan to tell you when I get there."

Goku stepped up next and gave Future Gohan a firm handshake and a gentle hug "You really should be proud of yourself Gohan, you've taken huge leaps in strength in a really short amount of time. The Androids in your time won't stand a chance against you, and no matter what other threats you face I know you'll always find a way to overcome them."

"I hope you're right about that Father, but I promise I'll give it everything I have to make sure that the world lives on in peace."

"Just one more thing before you go." Chich stepped up to Future Gohan and handed him a small box "Take these with you, lots of food and other goodies to help you get started once things calm down in your time. Call it a sort of new housewarming gift."

"Still taking care of me, I guess I shouldn't be surprised mom."

"Just hang in there for a little while, and I promise you'll find what makes you happy. Truth be told I actually like this whole thing about having a son from the future, it means way less time I have to wait until I get grandkids."

"Mom come on!" that made his face go red.

"Looks like the future me did a pretty good job."

"I never doubted that for even a second." Future Gohan turned around and found Kai standing next to the time machine "I was worried you wouldn't come."

"I wouldn't let you leave without getting to do this!" Kai powered up his Namek-Ken and let a fist fly forward.

Future Gohan blocked the fist with one hand, earning a smirk of approval "I can't help but wonder how much stronger you'll be the next time I see you."

"Stronger than you, count on it."

"Believe me, I do."

"Alright, now take care of things back in the future McFly, and go wreck some Android shit for all of us okay?"

"Count on it." so on that note, Future Gohan hopped into his time machine and started it up, waving to everyone as it lifted up off the ground "Goodbye everyone, I promise I'll never forget you!"

"Don't come back without wrecking some shit!"

Future Gohan gave them a thumbs up before the time machine finally disappeared from their sight and the timeline.

"And there goes a brave son of a bitch."

"Yeah." Gohan let out a sigh "We have to make sure that we follow his lead."

"Yep, and according to my mother's notes the first step in that is training with Master Roshi."

"Just like my dad and Krillin used to do." Gohan glanced over at Chichi "So about that…"

"It's alright." Chichi let out a sigh "Just two days though, no more than that or else you call alright?"

"Good enough for me."

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The next day came.

Gohan and Kai were flying across the ocean in the direction of Kame House "This reminds me a lot of the days when we were training and surviving together under Piccolo. I can't believe everything that's happened since then."

"Yeah, you became a powerhouse with my levels of mental stability." Kai noted dryly "You had to learn the hard way that there's more to fighting than just power and experience, you've gotta have the experience to back it up. That's what Master Roshi has and that's what we need right now, for you to get your shit together and for me to follow these notes my mom gave me, and with any luck they'll help me to surpass a Super Saiyan."

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Master Roshi looked up from eating his breakfast and found Kai and Gohan sitting in front of him "Okay, why the heck are you two here so early in the morning on a Saturday?"

"Sorry about this Master Roshi, I know it's probably inconvenient for you." Gohan promptly bowed in respect "But I have to humbly ask you to take the two of us under your wing like you did with my father and his uncle. I know it's not much but I did bring you a little something." he was handed something by Kai and promptly handed it to Master Roshi "I don't really get it, but I know you like these."

"...Oh my lord those are some prime cuts of babe, they're even tastier than my breakfast and that's some damn fine toast!"

"Dude did you seriously just copy what the Cueball did the first time?" Kai was promptly whacked upside the head by Master Roshi "Hey what the hell was that for?"

"Because you never bothered to pay your respects to me, you would think the blood relative of one of my prized pupils would know how to treat his elders well."

"Alright alright, you don't have to resort to child abuse. Master Roshi, I would be humbled and honored if you would take my under your wing as well."

"Alright, that's much better."

"Good, now what do we do for sparring?"

"Oh please Kai, if you've already obtained power to stomp the likes of those Cell Jrs then I don't really think I can give you what you're looking for."

"But there is a way for both me and Kai to get what we need." Gohan pointed out "If you train us then we'll be able to grow stronger together and he'll receive the closure that he needs right now. Maybe I've learned all that I can from you Master Roshi but I really do think that the two of us can benefit from you, he's already proven himself to be far beyond both of us in power but he still lacks the experience that we have. Please, help him however you can."

"...Very well then, both of you come with me."

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10 minutes later…

Gohan found himself in a rather embarrassing situation "No disrespect Master Roshi, but why did you have me put on a giant goofy turtle costume? Plus it's pretty heavy, it makes it hard to move around in."

Master Roshi let out a cackle "You know something Gohan, that thing looks a lot better on you than it ever did on me."

"How do I even walk in this thing?"

"We're toning this thing way down for the time being." Kai told him flatly "Neither of us are flying or using our power up techniques like Namek-Ken or Super Saiyan, to be brutally honest neither one of us can be trusted to pull on our punches."

"Well then how is this going to be training?"

"Just get to it already." Master Roshi told him "Right now we're going to be starting with some freestyle."

"If you rhink it helps then I'm willing to give this a shot, now Kai come at me hard."

"Just remember that you asked for it!" Kai burst forward and let a fist fly.

Gohan dodged the punch as the two of them took their clash to the water, with him dodging every punch and kick being thrown at him.

Kai followed Gohan across the water, his mind racing ' _I don't get it, normally I can follow him like it's nothing but now that he's wearing that stupid costume I can barely keep up with him at all!'_

"Come on Kai, you weren't this sloppy a few hours ago!" Gohan dealt Kai a swift kick to the chest, sending him tumbling back onto the beach and moved to finish the fight, when…

"ENOUGH!" Master Roshi stopped the fight with a simple tap of his cane.

Kai dropped to his knees and began sweating heavily ' _What's going on with me? It's like I'm losing my touch.'_

"You did a good job out there." Gohan held out a hand to him "Don't worry, we'll get all of this figured out in no time.

"Yeah sure." Kai accepted the hand, albeit reluctantly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nightfall came, and almost everyone else was fast asleep.

Kai was out on the beach throwing one punch and kick after another and getting more frustrated as a result ' _What the hell is wrong with me?!'_

"I can tell that you're lost son."

Kai looked back and noticed Master Roshi standing in the doorway "Yeah well tell me something I don't know."

"Your spirit is oozing with confusion, your heart was one firm with resolve but now your long locked away insecurities are forcing their way to the surface, which causes you to get more and more frustrated as a result. I know all of that just from witnessing the lack of conviction in your attacks over the course of the day."

"...When I died during the Cell Games I saw my mother for the first time in almost a full decade, I was happy when I saw her but now that it's over… instead of going back to training again I something inside of me changed, like I'm back to being the same scared little kid that I was all those years ago."

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Sunrise came early next morning, and training was about to begin.

Master Roshi gathered Kai and Gohan out on the beach just as the sun was rising "I should warn you both in advance, today's training is not going to be easy."

Kai looked over at Gohan, then shot a smirk at Master Roshi "We're ready for anything that you can throw at us."

"Good. Now then… I'm sending the two of you to run an errand."

"...You wanna run that by me again?"

"Yeal well the truth is boys, I'm actually not as young as I may look to the two of you so I need the two of you to go and pick up a rare medicinal herb to help me boost my strength."

"What the hell do you mean pick it? Like pick it up in a store or some crap like that?"

"Nope, they don't sell these bad boys in stores." he held up an herb "Take a look at one of these babies."

"Woah, I don't think I've ever seen an herb like that before." Gohan muttered "So what is it exactly?"

"They call it the Plant of Paradise, it's a rare and precious plant found on only one island and on that island it's found in only the deepest and darkest part of the forest."

"Sounds like this is gonna be interesting."

"But there's more to it, this errand is also a race between you two."

"And what do we get out of it if we win?" asked Kai.

"The winner of this race who gets the herb and brings it back first will win the greatest prize I can offer." he held up said prize "My treasured magazine collection, each one of them having been approved by yours truly!"

"Master Roshi your porn stash is nothing compared to mine, come on Gohan help me out with this will you?"

"You mean you can imagine a better prize than this masterpiece? This _is_ the masterpiece, I can't believe young fellas like you have no need for my magazines!"

"Hey man if we don't want them then we don't want them, that's all there is to it."

"Alright fine, and here I was thinking that I might also give the winner a bonus prize in the form of me giving him an ultimate super secret technique that secretly boosts his Ki reserves."

"And now you have my attention."

"Well then good luck boys, now go go go!"

"Sir yes sir!" they took off to the skies above, only for Kai to realize something "What in the name of fuck did I just do?"

"Don't think too much into it." Gohan waved him off and let out a chuckle "He's a pretty funny guy, Master Roshi never does change."

"And neither do you by the looks of it."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, the only difference is that now you seem to have your drive again like you did back when we first met.

"...Hey check it out, we're almost at the island."

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Soon enough, Kai and Gohan had arrived in the surprisingly thick forest "Oh good god, you mean we've gotta search all of this for one little plant?"

"I just wish he gave us some kind of hint or something." Gohan muttered.

"Yeah tell me about it, I know it takes a lot of wisdom to get his lessons but this one is just weird." they prepared to make their way when…

"Hold it right there!" the wind started howling across the forest, and then with a flash of light in front of them was none other than Fortuneteller Baba herself "Hey there, long time no see tall one."

"Wait I know, you're Master Roshi's older sister! You're the fortune-smeller!" this prompted her to fall off her crystal ball in a stupor.

"That's fortuneteller you little- I swear Goku must have influenced you and turned you into a bigger moron than him!"

"No he's just an idiot, I do it to screw with people. So what are you doing here?"

"I only came here because my brother asked me to, he wants me to use my crystal ball to watch let him watch the rest of the race."

"So then that means we've gotta go even deeper to reach this sacred marijuana that he wants us to get?"

"I'm not going to tell you where it is because then it wouldn't be training now would it? You had better start looking boys, the herb is somewhere in that forest."

"Oh you'd better get ready Gohan, the race is on!"

"And go go go!" she sent them on their way.

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Soon enough Gohan and Kai were racing onto their way deeper into the forest "You know they said it was a race, but it feels more to me like it's some kind of marathon."

Kai nodded "Yeah I know what you mean, for all we know we could spend days running around this island in circles until we find this super Weed!"

"It's not weed!"

"An old guy in shades wants it and it's called Paradise, I'm pretty sure it's weed!" they stopped when they noticed a giant sculpture "Well that's all kinds of fucked up, who in their right mind would want to see a gigantic sculpture of Baba's face!"

" _I heard that!"_ Baba's voice echoed throughout the forest " _I hope you're ready you two, this is where your true training begins!"_

"...So this is it."

"Let's go." was all Gohan said.

"Right." and so they leapt over the mouth of the sculpture.

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It wasn't long the two of them had reached a much darker section of the forest with a much more menacing vibe to it.

Kai looked up at Gohan "Hey dude quick question, is it just me or does this place give off some kind of super creepy vibe?"

Gohan nodded "No doubt about it, this place is oozing with the creepy vibe, and it kind of makes my skin crawl."

"I'm honestly getting kind of unnerved by this whole thing." he touched the ground and noticed images appearing from the day before "What the hell is this, what's going on?"

"I don't know but somehow this place just got even creepier." this was when the mist started rolling in and taking on the physical forms of Frieza, Slug, Garlic Jr and many others.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me, why the thell are they here?"

"It's all of the important guys that we've ever fought all in one spot. Beets, Vegeta, Nappa, the Saibamen, the Ginyu Force guys, Dr Gero's androids, Cell, the Cell Jr's, Frieza and Slug! All of them here at once!"

Kai suddenly found himself petrified ' _What the hell is going on with me? Why won't my body just move?!'_ he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground " _Dammit, of all the times and places for this to happen, why here, why now? Now what the hell are we gonna do?"_ he seemed even more frozen in front of of the likes of Cell "What the hell is going on, why the hell is this happening?"

"Come on Kai, just take a deep breath and calm down. The only explanation is that these are some kind of illusions. See for yourself." he aimed a fist at the fake Cell, only to be backhanded by it and sent flying into a tree "Ow…"

"You alright man?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just living in the nostalgia of my greatest shame. But I still know that these are fakes, there's no way that the likes of Raditz would be here." he punched the fake Slug square in the face "Come on Kai let's take these guys out and get out of here, if we don't then we're never going to find that plant for Master Roshi!"

"Well I can try, but in case it wasn't clear I'm not exactly at 100% right now!" Kai kicked the fake Nappa in the face but when he was faced with the fake Frieza he just froze up, and then started running, only to be faced with the fake Cell, which led him to end up being slammed against a tree.

Gohan kicked the two fakes away "Kai I need you to get a grip, whatever problem you have you have to put it aside for now and just fight!"

"Yeah I know but-" he suddenly started cowering when a fake of Chichi suddenly showed up out of nowhere "And now things are getting to be like a horror movie."

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Master Roshi turned to face Baba as she floated down on her crystal ball "Ah sis, you know I really do appreciate you doing this for me."

"Yeah whatever." Baba grumbled "Just don't forget that this isn't a charity case, my fee is 10 million zeni."

"Well it's plain to me that you're just as money grubbing as ever."

"And I can see that you have no intention of paying me so I'll just have to put that on your tab instead." she used her crystal ball to display an image of Kai freaking out "I do have to admit though, this is a pretty bold move on your part taking measures as drastic as this."

"Well I-"

"What do you mean drastic measures?"

Master Roshi looked back and saw Yamcha drop down on the island "Oh hey there Yamcha, how's it going?"

"What's up is that I could feel Kai's Ki coming off like he's having a stroke, and now I know why." he looked at the crystal ball "What exactly am I looking at?"

"That there happens to be the Forest of Terror."

"Well that sounds unnervingly ominous."

"It's a place that's been nestled between this world and Other World which gives forth to the memories that haunt the deepest recesses of our hearts. The former enemies that you see gathered together here are the memories of the past battles that Gohan and Kai have fought manifesting physical forms."

"And considering what today is, Kai is probably at his lowest point right now."

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By this point Gohan was flying across the forest and carrying Kai by the back of his gi "This isn't going to work Kai, let's try and take all of them out at once with a combined attack from above!"

Kai took a minute to try and calm himself down "For real, even your own mother dude? I know that she's a harpy, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who started that."

"That's not the issue! And besides that's not really her!" he pulled Kai up to the point where they were higher than the trees "Are you ready?"

"Yeah I guess but-"

"Good, now let's do this!" they both cupped their hands, Kai rather reluctantly.

"Alright I get it, but…"

"For the record Kai that's not really my mother, that's literally the onlyl reason why I'm so cool with doing this?" they fired their simultaneous Kamehameha blasts, engulfing the fake Ginyu Force and all of the other fakes, and once they disappeared within the blasts Kai fell back to the ground gasping for air "Are you alright Kai? Come on, you have to pull yourself together."

"Yeah, yeah sorry about that. I'm just a little bit out of it right now, but I'll be fine."

"Okay good now come on, let's get back to looking for that herb. After all Master Roshi did say that it's a race?"

"I for one just hope that those bastards don't come back."

"And here I thought I had a handle on your personality, after everything I've seen you do over the past few years why are you letting this get to you?" he paused for a moment "Is there something else going on right now?"

"...It's today, it's been 10 years since my mom died. Every year I just seclude myself in the forest and try to be alone, because I don't want you or anyone else to see me like that."

"In pain? Kai I've seen you in pain before."

"Not in pain you idiot, weak. That's my biggest fear in life okay, I'm scared of anybody seeing me as weak. It's like there's this voice in the back of my head that tells me that if I don't get stronger then I'll lose everything, and it keeps telling me that if I hadn't been so weak and helpless then maybe I could've done something to save my mom! I just didn't think it would get to me so bad, but now that I've seen her it just makes me feel that much worse!" he was left panting after his rant before he finally calmed down "I'm out of here."

"But what about the herb? Master Roshi is still waiting for us, and it is still a race you have to keep in mind."

"You can have it then, I'm going home. I'm not like you or Gohan or any of the rest, I can't afford to be seen as weak. My heart just can't take it." and he started flying off.

"Kai hold on, wait!" Gohan chased after him "Come on, just stop so you and I can just talk this out! You said you wanted to get stronger with what your mother gave you, what would she say if she saw you just up and quitting like this?" their exit was blocked off when the branches and the trees suddenly moved on their own and covered the sky.

"Well that's just fucking perfect, now what?" and then the flowers started releasing a purple mist, which then took the form of Frieza and Cell and the others, only now they were the size of great apes.

"And once again fate decides to slap me."

"Tell me about it, this whole damn _chapter_ has been bitch slapping me-" and then he got bitch slapped and swatted aside by the giant Cell.

"Kai! What did I tell you about breaking the fourth wall!" Gohan wasted no time as he flashed into Super Saiyan "Get out of my way, my best friend needs me! KAI!"

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By this point Kai had crashed into a nearby plateau and looked up at the sky that had been sealed off by the forest "So really Master Roshi, you're really not gonna let us out of here until we get your stupid plant? Fine then." he stood up and stepped forward, only to find more of the fake villains in front of him "Oh come on, this is my punishment for breaking the fourth wall isn't it?!" he was promptly bitch slapped by the fake Cell, sending him falling into a dark ravine below.

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Yamcha gripped his fists tightly to the point where he was digging into his own skin "Dammit, come on Kai."

"Wow." Baba muttered "I have to admit I didn't expect this to turn into quite a show, that boy does not fail to entertain."

"This looks more like a torture porn in my eyes."

"So what then?" asked Master Roshi "You don't think your own nephew can take it? Right now this a battle that Kai needs to fight more than any other, a battle within himself. What do you think then?"

"...You're right Master Roshi, Kai needs to figure this out for himself or he won't be able to move forward."

"And he will, have faith in him."

"I always do."

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By this point Kai had washed up on a small chunk of land in the middle of a river at the bottom of a waterfall "Well it's official, I've inherited Yamcha's dumbass gene. Now what the hell am I supposed to do?"

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" **Masenko!"** with his Super Saiyan aura blazing even higher than before, Gohan blasted clear through the fake enemies with ease, only for them to keep coming back even bigger "There's no end to these guys is there? You know what forget this, I'm not messing around when my friend needs me!" he flared his golden aura as high as it could go, only for them to grow even bigger as a result, which ended up making him realize something "Wait, of course that's it! How did I not see it before?" he powered down his Super Saiyan aura and relaxed his Ki, which in turn caused the fakes to disappear "Yeah that's it just like I thought."

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Master Roshi observed this and looked on in approval "Well what do you know, it looks like our dear Gohan finally figured it out."

"Wait what do you mean he figured it out?" asked Yamcha "What's going on?"

"Just keep watching, now we'll wait and see how long it takes for our very own boy wonder to catch on."

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Meanwhile, with Kai…

Kai found himself frozen in place when several gigantic Friezafigures "Oh or fuck's sake, how many times is this damn forest gonna try and torture me?!" and then he saw something that resulted in a primal roar being released all around him.

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Gohan heard the roar from a fair distance away "Kai! Dammit, I can't fly or they'll just keep coming back, they're like that cult of Yamcha's ex girlfriends. Wait a second… yeah I think that could work. Hey, Flying Nimbus!"

Sure enough, from within the trees appeared a certain Flying Nimbus.

"Wow I wasn't sure that was actually gonna work for me, I mean dad hasn't used you in years so why would you work for me?" he hopped onto the Nimbus and started singing a certain familiar song " **Cha-La! Head-Cha-La!** You know it's weird, I think I've heard of that song somewhere before." then he turned serious "Alright Nimbus enough screwing around, we have to find my friend." and so he took off on the Nimbus "Kai where are you? KAI!"

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Kai looked on and recoiled as the fakes morphed into Frieza, Cell and various others slowly closed in on him "I just don't get it Master Roshi, why the hell are you making me fight all these guys again and why the hell am I so damn scared? Look at me, I'm pathetic!"

"Maybe that's your problem."

Kai looked back and nearly fell over in disbelief "What the hell… you're… me?"

Sure enough, before him stood the 3 year old version of Kai, with the crimson red gi and everything "I am you in a sense, or rather who you used to be. But now you see me as what you're afraid of becoming. I know everything about you, your dreams and your desires… and your fears. You've excelled as a warrior in not even half the time it took our mother or or uncle, and you've come far in that time, not because you desire success but because you fear the possibility of failure. You keep thinking that if you slack off for even a second you'll lose everything, and yet because of that you've forgotten the most important lesson that mom taught us."

"...No matter how strong you may be, it takes others to make you even stronger."

"The thoughts and feelings of mom, Yamcha, Gohan, Piccolo, and everyone else, hell even the likes of Cooler of all people, you embody their spirits and beliefs. You have them backing you every step of the way whether they're there in person or not. Even if mom isn't right there by your side anymore, she's still there for us in spirit. Just like everyone else." and with that, the younger Kai disappeared.

Kai found himself alone again ' _That's enough wallowing in self pity Kai, you have to focus. If you can't beat this then how can you hope to face mom again?'_ he looked up at the fakes looking down on him ' _When Gohan and I fired our attacks at these guys earlier they just came back even bigger, they must be feeding off of whatever Ki that we hit them with.'_ he sat down in a meditative stance and subdued his Ki, and when he opened his eyes the fakes in front of him had stopped moving altogether "Looks like I was right, once I cleared my head and got rid of my self doubts the fakes all stopped moving altogether. I guess it makes sense, the more afraid I was of my own failure the bigger those bastards were getting and the bigger their numbers. I think I get it now Master Roshi, so thanks." he stood up and began to slowly step forward "I have to get control of my fears of the past, my fears of my own weakness, because if I don't then I'll just keep on running from it." a white glow surrounded his body entirely "You hear this freaks? This glow represents my fighting spirit and my unbreakable will! _I have to control my Ki, if I can do that then they won't be able to move!_ Now get ready, the era of Kai Sapien, the Crimson Dragon of the Earth, is about to begin!" he charged forward and punched the fake Cell square in the face, causing it to evaporate.

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Yamcha watched this unfold and smirked "Now that's what I'm talking about, I just didn't expect him to take this long to figure it out."

"And now comes one final push for this training." Master Roshi told him.

"Which is what exactly?"

"Just keep watching and you'll see." with a smirk plastered across her face, Baba held up her hands to the crystal ball as it began glowing.

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Gohan was still searching through the forest for Kai atop the Flying Nimbus "Kai come on, give me some kind of sign! Where are you?" he was answered by a roarand was suddenly caught in the grasp of a fake gigantic Cell in his final giant form "Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised after all it can't be called a Forest of Terror without Cell of all people. Hey Nimbus just hang on, I'll find us a way out of this." he received a dose of breath "Okay, whatever that was I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be a thing!"

"Try being on the receiving end!" that was when Kai showed up "So dude… how's it hanging up there?"

"Now's not the time for any snark Kai, I'm trapped in the clutches in Giant Cell! It's okay though, he's a fake like the others! He's only about half the size of a Great Ape but his breath is really bad, like you on sushi night!"

"Hey that was one time and we've been over this before, that catfish came onto me! And besides, why don't you just oneshot the big guy?"

"Because then it would take out the Flying Nimbus too!"

"Well then don't move, I'll take this guy down." a white glow began to surround Kai's body and took on the form of an aura "This new technique is the embodiment of my fighting spirit, I call it the Spirit Ken!" the white aura began burning higher and brighter as he charged forward and dealt one fist to Giant Cell's head, resulting in an explosion that freed Gohan and the Flying Nimbus from its grasp.

"Alright Kai that was awesome!" Gohan landed safely on the ground and with a roar, he powered up to Super Saiyan 2 "Thanks for the save, and it's good to have you back."

"Good to be back, but let's save the small talk for later." Kai powered up his new Spirit Ken to coincide with Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 "Double Kamehameha?"

"Double Kamehameha." they both cupped their hands as blue Ki began to build on itself in between their palms " **Ka…"**

" **Me…"**

" **Ha…"**

" **Me…"**

" **HA!"** they both fired their Ki blasts that began to wrap around each other, allowing it to easily engulf Giant Cell and eradicate him, in a brilliant flash of light, turning it into various smaller lights that turned into Paradise Plants "Woah, these things are sprouting up like they're some kind of weeds

"Wow what do you know, it really is sacred Weed. Told ya."

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Yamcha looked on at the scene with his jaw dropped "Spirit Ken? I've gotta get him to teach me that, and who knows, maybe that's the key we need to keeping up with the Super Saiyans."

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Sunset came.

Gohan and Kai were making their way back towards Kame House "Man Master Roshi is gonna be thrilled when he sees just how much we got. But still, I'm just glad to have the old you back now Kai. Seeing you so freaked out was really unexpected."

"For you and me both, but this isn't the same me." Kai told him "It's kind of weird, but now that I have this Spirit Ken power I somehow feel free, like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. All this time I've been striving to be the best, because part of me felt like if I got as strong as I possibly could, surpassed everyone around me, then I'd finally be able to see my mom again. But now that I've seen her, and now that I have this power, somehow I seem more relaxed now. I think this is what she wanted me to undestand. I don't need to keep getting stronger just to see her again. From now on, when I aim to be the best, I'm gonna be doing it for myself. Besides, it's like what we always say."

"Don't settle for being better when we could be the best."

"And that's why I'm gonna keep on this path that I'm on right now, to become a great warrior, to become the best that surpasses even the likes of you. Goku is already beneath both of us, and the only ones ahead of me now would have to be Cooler and Piccolo."

"Which reminds me, how do you feel about having Frieza's brother on our side?"

"As long as he doesn't turn on us I'm fine, and if he does then we'll kill him."

"You ever wonder why that has to be the solution to all of our problems?"

"Cut the crap, it's that kind of thinking that got you in trouble with Cell and why 16 gave you a mechanical tongue lashing." they dropped down onto the island of Kame House where they found Gohan and the others waiting "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Watching you." Yamcha clasped a hand on Kai's shoulder "You did one hell of a job out there, really, even if you did take awhile to get there."

"...You saw none of me losing my shit back there, got it? Gohan that goes for you too."

"Duly noted."

"Damn right."

Kai set down the bag of Paradise Herbs.

Master Roshi nearly dove into the pile "Well hot damn I've gotta give it to you, the two of you really outdid yourselves!"

"Yeah but we really didn't compete against each other or anything though." Gohan told him.

"Oh is that right? In that case I guess I can't teach either of you the secret to boosting your Ki reserves."

"So you're just gonna keep it to yourself?"

"Well granted if something like that did exist, then I would want to be the first one to get my hands on it."

"Wait a second, so you made that whole thing up and you sent us on a wild goose chase?"

"Well big fat lie or not it was far from a waste of time." Kai pointed out "The whole point is to control your energy and push past your fears so that you can go beyond your limits, once I got myself under control and broke through my inner limit they all just stopped coming. That's what he wanted me to get out of this the whole time. I don't know how, but he knew exactly what I needed before either one of us did. Just like my mom did, she knew what I needed and where to find it."

Master Roshi let out a chuckle "Why of course I did, who do you think I am?"

"See that, he even cares enough to lie to my face. But seriously though, what's with all the Paradise Pot?"

"For the last time it's not Pot, and I wouldn't say that." he snatched the herbs up and began to devour them "And like that I feel so alive, talk about an energy boost! I feel younger already, I could go on living for another thousand years!"

"Yeah well you'd better." Baba grumbled "For all I know that's how long it's going to take for you to pay off the tab that you owe me." and this killed the mood.

"Why can't I have a sister who likes to help me for free?"

Gohan watched this and let out a chuckle "Yeah dad was right, things never get boring when you're hanging around with Master Roshi."

"You said it. And by the way Gohan." Kai held out his hand to him "Just remember, one of these days I'm gonna surpass you for real."

"And I look forward to that day." Gohan gladly accepted the hand "But don't think I'm gonna make it easy on you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Yamcha just looked on at the scene with a small smile ' _Looks like you came through for him again sis, maybe this is what he needs to finally move forward.'_

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we finally get to see life returning to normal for our heroes, but with some considerable changes, such Goku choose to come back to life after hearing that Chichi is pregnant, 17 and 18 joining the Z fighters, Future Gohan returning to his timeline, and everyone moving on from the brutal conflict in their own way, the ways of which are being covered in this chapter, and will be covered in another timeline in the next chapter. So yes, Cooler is already aware of the threat of Majin Buu, and he has connections to the Supreme Kai. This is going to come up in the next arc taking place in the present timeline, and it's going to give some of the more B-tier characters a chance to shine for once, especially some of those that have died in this arc, and even a few of those that didn't.**

 **One other character we had to say goodbye to was Upa, a character from the original Dragon Ball series that I thought it would be fun to include, but looking back I realized there wasn't much I could do for him, so in the end I decided to give him a sendoff similar to the one Tien got in canon.**

 **Gohan and Kai's little training expedition is inspired by the Forest of Terror episodes in Dragon Ball Super episodes 75 and 76. I thought it would be good to give each of them some more character development, and to have Kai sub out using the Namek-Ken that he learned from Nail to his newest technique: the Spirit Ken, which he learned about from his mother. I tried to make sure Kai didn't seem too out of character, but keep in mind that he's only 10 like Gohan, and he does have some serious emotional scars, as eluded to by his beatdown of Goku a few chapters ago.**

 **Speaking of the Spirit Ken, I attempted to use that idea for the original Rise of a New Generation fic, but that never really panned out. Remember when Krillin's body started glowing white, and some people thought it might be a new power up, even though it turned out to be nothing? Well I decided to expand on that, and show that what can hold the human characters back isn't something as simple as a lack of strength, but lack of faith in their own capabilities. The theory is that when they manage to cast aside their fears and doubts, and combine that with very precise levels of Ki control, they can push themselves to a new level of power. At least that's the general idea.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 250 million

Kai (Spirit Ken, first use): 37.5 billion

Gohan: 1.8 billion

Super Saiyan Gohan: 12.6 billion

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan: 81.9 billion


	32. Free the Future, Life Goes On

**Ericsofly2:** I assume you mean Videl. You'll just have to wait and see.

 **Vukk:** Thanks, I didn't catch that before I uploaded it. I went back and fixed it though, so it should be good now.

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A full day had come and gone since the Cell Games ended with Cell finally being destroyed once and for all, and everyone had come to see Future Gohan off and say their goodbyes before he left.

Bulma patted Future Gohan on the shoulder "So you're heading out already huh? Well be sure to tell the future me she did a good job on pulling you out of your funk."

"Oh believe me." Future Gohan let out a sigh "I know just how much I plan to tell you when I get there."

Goku stepped up next and gave Future Gohan a firm handshake and a gentle hug "You really should be proud of yourself Gohan, you've taken huge leaps in strength in a really short amount of time. The Androids in your time won't stand a chance against you, and no matter what other threats you face I know you'll always find a way to overcome them."

"I hope you're right about that Father, but I promise I'll give it everything I have to make sure that the world lives on in peace."

"Just one more thing before you go." Chich stepped up to Future Gohan and handed him a small box "Take these with you, lots of food and other goodies to help you get started once things calm down in your time. Call it a sort of new housewarming gift."

"Still taking care of me, I guess I shouldn't be surprised mom."

"Just hang in there for a little while, and I promise you'll find what makes you happy. Truth be told I actually like this whole thing about having a son from the future, it means way less time I have to wait until I get grandkids."

"Mom come on!" that made his face go red.

"Looks like the future me did a pretty good job."

"I never doubted that for even a second." Future Gohan turned around and found Kai standing next to the time machine "I was worried you wouldn't come."

"I wouldn't let you leave without getting to do this!" Kai powered up his Namek-Ken and let a fist fly forward.

Future Gohan blocked the fist with one hand, earning a smirk of approval "I can't help but wonder how much stronger you'll be the next time I see you."

"Stronger than you, count on it."

"Believe me, I do."

"Alright, now take care of things back in the future McFly, and go wreck some Android shit for all of us okay?"

"Count on it." so on that note, Future Gohan hopped into his time machine and started it up, waving to everyone as it lifted up off the ground "Goodbye everyone, I promise I'll never forget you!"

"Don't come back without wrecking some shit!"

Future Gohan gave them a thumbs up before the time machine finally disappeared from their sight and the timeline.

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In the future timeline…

West City had long since been decimated, and Capsule Corp was all that remained, but even it had sustained considerably damage.

Once the time machine appeared and touched the ground, Gohan quickly stepped out and put it back in its capsule, his mind drifting to the events in the past ' _When you think about it, the set of Androids I faced in the past weren't actually that bad, but the Androids from my own time are a completely different story. The Cell who reached his perfect form might be out of the picture, but my toughest battles still lie ahead, not on a physical level, but on an emotional one of me. I won't let the Android 17 of my time cause any more suffering. The next time I see him, I'm going to end this once and for all.'_ and on that note, he promptly made his way inside.

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Inside Capsule Corp…

Bulma was in the middle of reading some certain material, though her reaction was rather questionable "Ha, suck on that vurst Einstein! Go ahead and collapse that wave function all over your pasty German-"

"Please don't finish that sentence, seriously."

Bulma looked up from her material and instantly lit up at the sight of Gohan standing in the doorway "Gohan you're back, thank goodness. You really had me worried there, you've been gone for so long." she got up and studied him from a few different angles "Hang on a second, is it just me or have you gotten taller?"

"I'm afraid so. You see, without into that much detail there's this room hidden up on Kami's Lookout called the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, that basically allows you to do a year's worth of training in a day, and the conditions in there were insane."

"Sounds like some pretty high tech stuff."

"Truth be told tech didn't really have anything to do with it."

"Maybe but still, the most important thing is that you made it back home safe and sound, and without dying. So how did it go, do I dare let that smile make me optimistic?"

"Might as well, but I've got a lot of stuff to tell you."

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20 minutes later…

Bulma poured some coffee into a cup and handed Gohan a cup "Sounds like things got pretty crazy over there."

"That's the understatement of the year, whether it be this timeline or the next." Gohan told her dryly.

"Well it looks like time is as unpredictable as it is complicated, but the younger version of you won and everything turned out okay?"

"Yeah, it was great. Not only did we save the world, but I got to fight alongside Kai, Piccolo and everyone else again."

"I see, and how was it?"

"In a word, it was nostalgic. Kai was my best friend and Piccolo was the one who taught me how to fight so I can protect people. Of course, it didn't come without its fair share of issues, like when Kai got blasted by Cell. Looking back I'm not too proud of that, especially considering it almost got the planet annihilated."

"...Yeah, call it a hunch but I have a feeling you got that from Kai."

"I wouldn't be surprised, he had his moments both good and bad. But all in all, he was and always will be my best friend. Nothing is going to change that.

" _Attention, this Alpha Leader Wombat and I'm coming to you guys live from Orange Star City, where we've got our special guests the cyborgs and they are tearing it the hell up! I've already lost 5 men, I'm running out of ammo, and I'm holed up in the bank! Looks like this is gonna be ALW's last report, so all I can say is: Watch out TJ, I'm COMING HOME BROTHA! For tonight, we dine in he-'_ and then the radio suddenly cut out.

"One on hand you've gotta give the guy credit, he went out with style. On the other hand, looks like he just saved me the time and effort of having to hunt him down."

"Gohan, just promise me you'll be careful." Bulma pleaded "I know that you're a lot stronger now, but I don't want history repeating itself."

"It's alright Bulma, this is the whole reason why I went back in time in the first place. If I can't protect those that are left and avenge Kai and the others, then I might as well just give up fighting altogether." he threw off the jacket he was wearing and flashed into Super Saiyan "This has become about so much more than just correcting the past, now it's about making a brighter future for everyone. I'll be back before that coffee gets cold." and with that, Gohan blasted out of the building and into the skies, his eyes blazing with determination ' _No more 17, do you understand me? This ends today!'_

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The scene of Orange Star City was pretty much a wreck, and it was quickly getting worse by the minute.

17 was blasting away at one ruined building after another, the sadistic smile on his face growing wider by the second "You know something, being the destroyer of the world and all that crap used to be about shits and giggles, just me and my sister trying to entertain myself. But that's not what it's about anymore. That little bastard took my sister from me, the only person in this whole fucked up world I gave a shit about, but at the cost of his own life. I can't take it out on him, so I'm gonna do the next best thing. I'll make sure everyone left in this world feels the pain that I wanted to inflict on him because of it. They're gonna pay for what he did, and they'll pay in their blood!" he continued firing Ki blasts at the ruins, fully intent on scorching any survivors from the city.

What had gone unnoticed was a blonde woman, around 18 years of age, with shaggy blonde blonde hair, blue eyes, a green tube top and blue jeans, pulling herself out of the rubble behind where 17 was rampaging, and she was eyeing him with rage "You bastard… You killed my best friend… She was all I had left… You're gonna pay for this!" and so a medium sized Ki blast shot forth from her palm, striking 17 in the back hard enough to get his attention, but otherwise not even scratch his clothing.

17 stopped his barrage, turned back to the woman and shot her a wicked smirk "Huh, a Ki user I haven't slaughtered yet. Wasn't expecting that." he started walking towards her in a slow and menacing way, being hit by a few more Ki blasts "Not too bad of a shot either, at least someone took me seriously when I said I was gonna bathe the planet in blood. Must give you some leeway when people let down their guard, only natural when they see a pretty face. You're blonde too, reminds me of my sister." he got down on one knee in front of her, cupping her chin so he could look at the fear in her eyes "So do me a favor and sit still would you?" he was about to fire at her, when…

"Get away from her!"

17 whipped out of the way just in time to avoid a large Ki beam that promptly destroyed the remains of a nearby building "There's only one guy I know of who can fire a blast of that size, so he's finally back huh?"

"You're damn right I am." sure enough, Gohan dropped down onto the scene, his golden aura blazing "I hope you've gotten everything out of your wretched life you wanted, because it's ending today, right here and right now." he looked over at the woman quickly backing off to a safe distance ' _Good thing I decided not to microwave that coffee.'_

"Well what the hell do we have here? How ya doing Spike, it's been a few weeks. I'm surprised you're back up on your feet already, and also breathing. I guess this is what happens when I forget to double-tap. Also, is it just me or do you look different from before? I mean you've got the new outfit obviously, your hair is a little bit more shaggy, not to mention you look like you got jacked as fuck. You must be crushing thaht 5 by 5, also did you get a little bit taller?"

"That depends, am I noticing bits of blonde dye in your hair?"

"Hey I'm perfectly secure. You know what screw it, I'm definitely swiping left on you this time around." so on that note, 17 promptly fired a Photon Flash in Gohan's direction.

"Not good enough." Gohan promptly blitzed behind 17 and slugged him in the face as hard as he could.

"You goddamn cheap shotting son of a-" 17 was promptly send crashing through several buildings, and when he finally stopped and pulled himself back to his feet his clothes were pretty much shredded "You know it's too bad you don't keep a sword around or something, because now I'm going to have to do what comes next with my bare hands. No you know what, I actually prefer to do it this way." he promptly charged at Gohan again.

Gohan blitzed through 17's set of attacks and promptly kneed him in the gut, cranking his neck to dodge a stray Ki blast in the process.

17 pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood "You know, I feel like this might be a bad time to point out his specific choice in shirt."

"You know it's funny and a little bit sad at the same time. You and the other Android didn't have to turn out like this, in fact the ones I met in the-"

"Hold up a second, did you just call me an Android? Not gonna lie dude, that's pretty offensive."

"Hey they called you Androids in the past, no one ever bothered to disagree."

"The past? What, did you time travel?"

"Actually yeah."

"When the hell was that, shouldn't we remember you?"

"How about this, if I don't kill you in the next 3 minutes then I'll give you an explanation. Does that sound good?"

"Trust me wife beater, by the time I'm done with you I won't need one."

"...Wait a second, that's what you meant by my choice in shirt? Is there no like that you're not gonna cross?"

"What are you kidding right now? I tried to melt some blonde chick's graymatter not 2 minutes ago, and that's what's got you offended?"

"Believe it or not, you actually have a fair point." Gohan blitzed behind 17 and dealt him a swift fist to the jaw, easily deflecting a barrage of Ki blasts in the process before pinning him to the ground with ease "Just face the reality of this situation, you know you can't win this."

"Yeah right, you just want me to beg for mercy. Forget it, you're not getting the satisfaction of hearing me scream-"

"Like you hear everyone else scream? Let me guess, you think life is all about you? What about the others, the good people who died because of you and your sister, the hell you've inflicted upon the Earth for almost a decade? Forget it, this ends now!" and with that Gohan dealt 17 a swift kick to the face before following up with an Explosive Demon Wave, obliterating 17 in the fiery explosion that followed, leaving nothing behind "And that was for Kai, because you couldn't take your grief out on him, so you decided to take it out on the rest of the Earth, and that was your undoing."

When the smoke cleared, the blonde woman from before was floating down towards Gohan and coughing a bit from the smoke "Is this actually happening? I mean, is he really dead."

"He's dead, but I know how you feel. The fact that both of the Androids are finally gone, it hasn't really sunk in yet."

"How could it?" the woman's face fell as she wiped away a few tears "That one killed my best friend just a few days ago… She was all that I had left."

"I understand that better than you could imagine." they both unconsciously sat down on a nearby piece of rubble.

"We spent the last three years training to fight the Androids together. We had already lost both of our families, so we didn't have anyone else. But she sacrificed herself so I could get away, and he blew her to hell."

"Tweak a few details, and that could describe my entire life from when I was 10 up until right now. I have to admit I'm surprised though, I didn't think there were any Ki users left."

"I'm still relatively new to it, I've only been using it for about 6 months. Not like it did much good, I couldn't even scratch him."

"Welcome to my world. I couldn't either until about two weeks ago." Gohan breathed a sigh "I myself have lost almost everyone I care about, whether it be to the Androids or to that damn heart virus. My best friend since I was 4, his name was Kai, was the only person I had left that kept me going. We spent 7 years training to take out the Androids, and in all of that time he never lost his spirit. About a year or so ago, he knocked me out and went to take on the Androids alone. That was the last time I saw him. He sacrificed himself to destroy the Androids, and he managed to take one of them out, leaving me alone to deal with the last one. I spent a few months in a haze of grief and sadness, before I finally realized something: He only did what he did because he knew that after he was gone, I would still be here. So I poured my heart and soul into my training, and it's thanks to that and the memory of those I held dear, that I'm as strong as I am now."

"So you mean, if I trained like you did then I could get strong enough to take on monsters like the Androids?"

"With enough hard work, patience and perseverence, yes."

"So then…" the blonde woman got closer to him, blushing slightly at how close they were to each other "Could you train me?"

"Wait what?"

"Could you train me? What happened to my best friend Videl, and what happened to your best friend Kai, I don't want anything like that to happen again. I want to do this so no one else has to feel the pain of that kind of loss again." she gripped his hands gently "You killed the Android, so you should be able to teach me how to get strong enough to protect the people who can't protect themselves."

"I-I don't…" Gohan couldn't form the words from his mouth when he realized how close the woman was to him ' _This girl… she has that same fire in her eyes, the will to make sure that no blood is shed, the feeling like you have to get stronger… She gets it._ Are you sure you really want to?"

"Positive."

"...If you're that certain that you want to devote yourself like this, then I guess it wouldn't be right for me to just turn you away."

"It's not like I have anywhere else to go anyway."

"Alright, I'll train you but it's only fair to warn you that I've never done this before, so I can't guarantee how good of a teacher I'll be. My name is Gohan by the way, Son Gohan."

"My name is Erasa." she gave him a bright smile that seemed to be filled with hope "Although I guess I should be calling you sensei now."

"Please don't."

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As the months went by, rebuilding at last began due to the threat of the Androids at last having ended, but training began as well.

Gohan dropped into a combat stance "Your Ki control isn't too shabby considering you've mostly had to teach yourself, but by the standards of my teacher Piccolo you're still pretty shoddy, so we're kicking your training up a notch, from Ki control to actual combat. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready, now let's do this!" Erasa promptly charged at him at full speed, dodged and weaving around most of his attacks, but once she closed in on him she was sent flying by a shockwave from his fist.

"It doesn't mean much in battle if you can't control your Ki and use it to your advantage, now get back up and try again."

"Alright, I…" Erasa pulled herself back to his feet and promptly launched into a barrage of attacks, one of which eventually landed as she dealt Gohan a kick to the jaw "Yes, finally I got one! And it only took… three months. Crap."

"Nice work, but you let your guard down!" Gohan suddenly unleashed a shockwave that promptly sent Erasa flying into the nearby river, leaving her to fish her way out.

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Later…

Erasa spat out some seawater and dumped some out of her ears "Well that could've gone better in my eyes."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, you're actually doing pretty well." Gohan handed her a towel and sat down next to her "Believe me though, if you think I'm tough then you should've tried training with Kai and Piccolo. Neither of them gave the royal treatment, at first I always thought they were harsh but it was only to make sure I could handle whatever was thrown at me, and it worked wonders."

"Long story short, you're doing this for my own good right? So these friends of yours that the Androids killed, the ones that taught you how to fight and protect, what were they like?"

"In all honestly, they were the best friends I could've asked for."

"Well the likes of Upa, Krillin, Tarble, Tien and Chiaoztu, truth be told I never really got to know any of them that well. Yamcha I knew better, he was Bulma's husband. He was always kind and determined, and really protective of Kai before he was killed by the Androids. Piccolo was my first real teacher, and aside from Kai he was my first friend. If it wasn't for his training then I wouldn't be who I am now. For Kai that goes just as much, maybe even more. He was always snarky and said and did a lot of things that got on peope's nerves, but he was loyal, determined and his spirit never wavered for even a second. I didn't see his final battle against the Androids, but I doubt he would've blown himself up to take them out if he thought he had any other options at the time."

"There's actually been rumors going around about him, they're calling him the Crimson Caper or something like that."

"He actually tried to dub himself as the Crimson Dragon, of course he was on a My Hero Academia craze at the time." Gohan let out a small chuckle of nostalgia "When I found out that he had sacrificed himself, I just broke down crying and ended up pretty depressed for the next few months. But then Bulma said something to me that really got to me, she said that he would never have done what he did if he didn't know that I would still be here after he was gone. After I finally got over my depression, I took those words to heart and poured myself into training, but not before I tried to take out 17 and failed miserably."

"And that's what led you to travel back in time to save your dad and your friends?"

"Yeah, and I got to talk to my mother again. I didn't realize it when I was going back, but that was exactly what I needed."

"I wish I could see my family again." Erasa let out a sigh "And Videl too. I just wish there was a way that I could tell them that it's over, that you did it, that 17's finally gone."

"I think she knows, and so does Kai and everyone else up there." Gohan looked up at the vast skies above them "But here's the catch of it all. It's not over, not yet. There's still one monster that has to be dealt with, and when he does finally show himself, I'm going to end this once and for all."

"You mean that bug creature. When will he show himself?"

"I have no idea, but when he does, I'll be ready."

"I think you mean _we_ will be ready."

"...Yeah, we will. Especially because of this." Gohan pulled out the carepackage Chichi had given him.

"Hey what's that note?"

"Oh that's something from my dad." he handed it to her.

" _Really?" Erasa took it and read it out loud "Hey Gohan, before you start crying all over this letter, just take a look read what I'm trying to tell you. Look, everybody wants a happy ending right? But it doesn't always roll that way, of course I bet you understand that just as well as anyone else. I don't doubt for a second that by the time you're reading this little care package, the 17 of your timeline has been taken care of, and now the people still around in your time are celebrating and rebuilding, all that good stuff, and eventually some version of normal for the world will be gotten back. What a world, or maybe a universe, or maybe like a multiverse or something. If someone had told me back when you were still a toddler, back before Raditz showed up, that we weren't alone, let alone to this extent I mean… I don't know if I would've been surprised, just laughed it off or gotten pumped at the possible challenges. But then again, who really knew? The epic forces of darkness and light, choosing how to use our training, for better or for worse, that's the reality that you're going to have to find a way to understand and coincide with. I just wanted to leave you with this along with that carepackage your mother gave you, and that copy of Scarlet's notes that Kai stuffed in there too, just to get you started. I put a couple of notes in there too, like Instant Transmission and the Spirit Bomb, and Kai even put in some info on how that Dragon Fist technique of his works. After all, you never know when you're going to need them right? Everything that's happened with Frieza and Cell, and now learning you're going to have a little brother or sister in this timeline, it's got me scratching my head about whether or not I've got what it takes. But then again that's part of life, part of the journey is the end. You know what, I doubt either one of us have to worry. I bet everything is going to work out exactly how it's supposed to. Remember this son, if you ever need us then we will be there. I love you son, we all do."_

"Yeah, I teared up a little when I first read that, but it still means that he's always watching out for me."

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A full year had come and gone since the demise of Android 17, and a sense of hope had at last returned to the remaining people of Earth.

Erasa stood with Gohan outside of the Capsule Corp in the newly rebuilt but still under reconstruction West City, standing next to the fully recharged time machine "So how about it, do you really think he's going to take the bait?"

"I'm pretty sure I have a rotting corpse in another timeline that says, yes he's going to take the bait." Gohan told her dryly "Now please, just stick to my script okay?"

"Kind of morbid when you think about it." Erasa let out a cough, and then she started with the script "Alright Gohan, time for you to take this time machine back to the past where there are two living Androids for you to help your dad defeat!"

"Thanks Erasa, I can't wait to save all of those juicy fat people in the past from those Androids with this time machine!"

"Make sure to write!"

"I will!" they both forced a very painful awkward laugh until Gohan's gaze suddenly hardened, sensing a certain Ki signature appearing behind him "Erasa get inside, right now."

"What?" Erasa looked back to see Cell staring at them "Oh crap, is that him? You know it's kind of weird, you never told me he was green but I imagined he was green."

"Erasa."

"He's looking right at us right now, so does he know I can see him?" she was met with a certain growling noise from Cell "Is his vision based on movement?"

"Erasa that theory was discredited years ago, and I spent six hours writing this script, so please work with me."

"Right right. Alright Gohan, I'm going to help Bulma make dinner! It'll be done by the time you get back!" and so she rushed inside, leaving Gohan alone with Cell."

' _My younger self took care of things in the past, now it's my turn._ Alright Cell stop stalking me like the predator and get out here, I know you're there."

"No you don't, this is an ambush-" that was when Cell realized his mistake "Oh."

"I know more than that too, you're here to kill me and take my time machine. What do you say we just skip the monologues, and also you killing me."

"Oh come now, that's the fun part." Cell started stalking his way towards Gohan "And what's most unfortunate for you is that I seem to be missing two vital pieces, so I'm going to need that time machine so I can-"

"Go back into the past and absorb Androids 17 and 18."

"To achieve my-"

"Perfect Form."

"Okay you suck, you are sucking all the fun out of this! I'm the only one that sucks here boy- No wait, that came out wrong."

"No, it sounds about right to me."

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Meanwhile, inside…

Erasa and Bulma peeked through the Capsule Corp window and observed the confrontation taking place "Seriously though, whose DNA did Dr Gero have to add to make this guy look like he stepped into a teleporter with Jeff Goldblum?"

Bulma let out a slight chuckle, then turned her attention back to the confrontation ' _You can do this Gohan, you can end this once and for all.'_

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Meanwhile, back outside…

Cell gritted his teeth and barred his fangs in Gohan's direction "Tell me, how exactly do you know all of this?"

"Simple, it's like someone once told me…" Gohan shot him a smirk "Multiverse Theory is a bitch."

"...Okay I feel like you're referencing something and I don't get it, and frankly that's really not fair, so I'm gonna need that time machine so I can go back and redo this entire conversation from the beginning."

"Hate to break it to you Cell but that's not happening, you already got your way once and I have no intention of letting history repeat itself."

"Oh is that so? Of course, you've already travelled into the past before. That explains why you're so well informed, but even so I believe you're giving yourself far more credit than you're deserving of. Believe me when I tell you this my friend, my robot spies happen to be very good at reconnaissance. I have your power level, your techniques, your fighting style, everything about you that's worth knowing I already know!"

"Is that right, so does that mean that you already know how 17 up and vanished."

"...So that's it, you were the one responsible for that you little- All the more reason not to let you run loose. Make no mistake, I do intend to take your time machine, and when I find the Androids in the past I will devour them and achieve my Perfect Form!"

"I have no intention of letting that happen, but I also have no intention of fighting you within the limits of the city. People are finally rebuilding after all of the hell Dr Gero's abominations have put them through, so I vote the two of us relocate, and my vote is the only one that means anything!" and so Gohan promptly unleashed a quick shockwave, the force sending Cell flying far outside of the city limits, and then Gohan blasted off after him.

Erasa and Bulma rushed out of the house and looked on once they were gone ' _Gohan, take him down and end this.'_

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Outside the city limits…

Cell stopped himself in mid air and landed on the ground with Gohan standing in front of him ready for a fight "Well look at you, I will admit that you have improved considerably, but you're in for quite the rude awakening if you think that will be enough for you to stop me. After all I am the ultimate life form, Dr Gero's dream having at last been realized. All of those who dare to oppose me will simply be absorbed into my being."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen." Gohan promptly flashed into Super Saiyan "I hope you're prepared to meet your maker in hell, because I'm pretty sure that's where Dr Gero ended up after he was killed."

"Oh let me guess, you think you're being cute?"

"Bitch, I'm adorable." Gohan blitzed forward and dealt Cell an uppercut kick, blitzed above him, deflected a Ki blast and dealt him a smash attack, sending him hurtling towards the ground at full speed.

Cell rebounded on the ground, his mind racing ' _What the hell just happened? I don't understand, it shouldn't be this easy for him to fend me off. I am far too powerful to lose to a brat like him of all people!'_ he charged towards Gohan at full speed.

Gohan dealt Cell a fist to the face and a spin kick to the chest, sending him crashing to the ground at full speed "It's over Cell, just face the reality. Once you're gone, the Earth will finally be safe again." he caught Cell's tail, spun it around and promptly hurled Cell high into the air above him.

"Why you little-" Cell stopped himself in mid air, now seething with rage "Why don't we see how you deal with this maneuver!" he cupped his hands at his side "You're powerful, but let's see you dodge this one! A full power Kamehameha, dodge it and the precious Earth you've been fighting so hard to save will get blown to bits!"

"We'll see about that."

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

" **HA!"**

" **HA!"** Gohan promptly unleashed his Ultimate Kamehameha just as Cell unleashed his own, easily overpowering Cell's Kamehameha and engulfing Cell in the process "This nightmare is finally over Cell, now get the fuck out of my timeline!"

Cell could only scream in agony as he was completely annihilated by the blast, not a single trace of him remaining afterwards.

With the battle over as quickly as it had started, Gohan powered back down to his base form and breathed a long overdue sigh of relief, a small smile gracing his features ' _To think, after all of this it's finally over. I can't thank all of you enough. Father, Kai, Piccolo, all of my friends… I hope you're all finding what you want from life in the past.'_

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Meanwhile, in the past…

By this point, a full month had come and gone since the events of the Cell Games, and life had at last returned to normal for our heroes in the past.

"Alright Gohan, it's time for your afternoon snack!" Chichi made her way into Gohan's room, only to find that he wasn't there "And you've up and taken off somewhere with Kai again, haven't you? I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore. Seriously though, did he have to go out the window?"

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Meanwhile, with our main characters…

Gohan pushed his way through some bushes to a small cliffside overlooking a river "Fishing is fun and all, but why is he suppressing his Ki?"

"It's called the element of surprise assclown!" Kai burst up from beneath the river with a massive fish in hand, startling Gohan enough to be blown off his feet "See what I mean, even if we have a few days off from training now I can still knock you on your ass whenever the hell I want to." he was met with a chuckle "So where the hell is Father of the Year while we're doing this?"

"I think he said he wanted to talk to Piccolo about something. He's been kind of out of it since everything went down at the Cell Games."

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Piccolo looked up from his meditation to see Goku standing before him "I didn't expect to see you up here so soon. What's this about?"

"It's kind of hard to explain…" Goku let out a sigh and sat down next to Piccolo "I don't know, I feel like I've been in a funk. Ever since I came back to life something feels kind of off, I mean I'm not eating as much, and even when I'm training it kind of feels like I'm just going through the motions. It's like something is stopping me from going all out."

"And why exactly are you coming to me?"

"I don't really know who else to go to with this. I mean I would go to King Kai, but I doubt he wants to see me again for awhile."

"Nice to know that you think so highly of me." his tone was dry, and he breathed a sigh "I'm just gonna take a guess here, but I'm assuming you still feel bad about what happened with Gohan in the Cell Games?"

"Well… yeah I do. You and Kai were right Piccolo, I should've stepped into the fight a lot sooner than I did. But I had so much faith in Gohan, and I was being so confident in him, that I didn't see the writing on the wall right in front of me. Fighting is one of the things that makes me happy, and I just thought it would make him happy too, but it doesn't. Not like it does for me that is."

"And you found out the hard way. The problem you have right now isn't with your body, it's your mind telling you that you need to back off. Take some time to examine all of the other things you care about in life. You do have another kid coming you know."

"Yeah I know. I know I made some mistakes with Gohan, and I don't want to make those same mistakes with this one. I want to be a better father to both of them, so I don't put them in those positions again. If Gohan doesn't want to fight, then I'm not going to force him. That sounds simple enough, doesn't it?"

"Cutting fighting out of Gohan's life isn't the answer here. If you want simple then let me put it like this: Take a break from fighting for a little while, focus on the other things in life that make you happy."

"You think so?"

"I'm offering what I can."

"...I guess that works, thanks Piccolo. I owe you one."

"Let me just say this: When you achieve that Super Saiyan 2 form, you and I are going to fight each other with everything we've got."

"Trust me, that's the plan." and so Goku blasted off the Lookout with a smile on his face ' _You know looking back, maybe Piccolo is right. Maybe a break from fighting will do some good and help me clear my head, so now I can focus on my family. Gohan and Piccolo are already pretty far ahead of me, so if something comes up they can handle it for now, but I'll still be there to help them if they need it. One would probably think that I've be kind of upset about giving up fighting so easily, but it's not like it's forever. Besides, I'm just not afraid of change I guess. I never really have been. When I comes down to it, I know they're going to be alright. After all, if there's anything I've learned since I first landed on Earth, it's that everyone is a lot stronger than they think they are. Things change, and they're going to keep changing, and that's something you can't stop. The most important part is that now we can just go through life and make our dreams come true, like Gohan becoming a scholar. I guess now it's up to the rest of them to see what kind of future they make, at least for the time being.'_

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 **Despite the conflict being over, the adventures still continue for our heroes as they go on to live their lives, but the tails of those exploits will have to be saved for another time. Until that time comes my dear readers, may the road rise to meet you. As long as that road isn't Snake Way.**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, not only do we have the shortest chapter in this entire story, not only do we see Gohan liberate the future from the terror of the Androids, but we also see the Cell Saga at last come to an end, with life continuing to move forward for the survivors. I had originally planned for the epilogue to be one chapter, but with the adventures of Gohan and Kai, the latter awakening his Spirit Ken technique, I decided to create one chapter for the present timeline, and one for the future timeline. It's only right for me to warn all of you that from here on out, this story is going to be on hiatus for the time being, so that I can work on some of my other stories for now.**

 **Considering what I said in the summary, it shouldn't be surprising that I had decided to include Erasa in the future timeline. Sure it could've been easy to just wait until the Black and Zamasu arc to include her, but I wanted to give Gohan something to do in this timeline until then, aside from the Majin Buu crisis. I also have plans for a few villains from the movies and a somewhat overhated series to be included as well. I'm not sure how well I handled it, but I'll leave that up to you guys.**

 **Now then, like I said, this will be where this story goes on hiatus for the time being, at least a few months. Part of it is because I want to work on some of my other stories, such as my Naruto fic that I've been struggling with since October of 2017, or my new Fairy Tail fic that's been way more popular than I was expecting. But still, a new reason has come to light that really left me disenhearted: Team Four Star has decided to cancel the next season of DBZ Abridged. The link where I found the information on this is provided below. I understand their reasons, but it's still rather heartbreaking for me, so I'll probably need some time to come to terms with that before I come back to this story.**

 **posts/33758684**

 **Power levels:**

Future Gohan: 1.2 billion

Future Gohan (post 1 year training): 1.8 billion

Super Saiyan Future Gohan: 8.4 billion

Super Saiyan Future Gohan (post 1 year training): 12.6 billion

Future Erasa: 400

Future Erasa (post 1 year training): 12,000

Future Android 17: 380 million

Future Cell: 435 million


	33. Galaxy Tournament, Power of Spirit

**Ericsofly2:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you like the story so much.

 **Darkjaden:** That was an error I didn't catch, but it's been corrected now.

 **Guest:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you like this story so much. As for Kai being so strong at such a young age, well keep in mind that he's been training with the likes of Gohan, Piccolo and other powerful warriors for so many years. As for the point of the other characters, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that.

 **Forter96:** You'll have to read this chapter to find out, but I made the point early on that I'm not going to be doing the original Broly in this story.

 **Guest:** Thanks for pointing that out. I thought I had gotten all of the mistakes, but I found the few you were talking about, and they've been fixed.

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About a year had passed since the events of the Cell Games, and if you follow how things work in the world of Dragon Ball, then you know how this works: There's another threat about to put the world in jeopardy.

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The clearings of Mount Paozu were calm and quiet.

Gohan began stretching, clad in his typical dark purple and blue gi similar to Piccolo's but slightly larger, a red obi and red wristbands, white shin guards and black shoes "Well on the bright side everything's finally back to normal, so I think it's about time we get back to our daily spars. What do you think Kai?"

Sure enough, Kai stood before him cracking his knuckles, in his classic crimson red gi the same size as Gohan's with a black obi, white shin guards, and black wristbands and shoes "I say we get this over with before tomorrow. **Namek-Ken 10X!"** he flashed into his Namek-Ken and then pushed it further"Now let's get to the good shit." and he blitzed out of view.

' _He's fast!'_ Gohan was able to quickly block the first attack, resulting in him and Kai trading a fierce barrage of punches and kicks, sending a fair number of shockwaves across the field, before they broke away "Looks like you're even tougher than you used to be."

"It's times like this you really do have to love the Namek-Ken, if it wasn't for that then I would've been screwed the minute I threw the first punch."

"I don't know if I would go that far but you and I both know that you're still holding back a lot of your power."

"The same could be said for you, I think it's about time you and I finally get serious about this already. **Namek-Ken 20x!"** he flashed into the 20th level of the Namek-Ken.

"If that's what you want then fine!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and fired off a swift kick at Kai's head.

Kai blocked the kick and hit Gohan square in the chest with a quick Ki blast, sending him skidding backwards towards the edge of the cliff behind him, then fired up with a quick Nail Gun.

Gohan spiked his Super Saiyan aura, which proved to be enough for him to quickly dissipate the Masenko "I think it's time we wrap this up, come at me at full power Kai!" he cupped his hands at his side, blue Ki forming between his palms " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a quick yet still powerful Kamehameha.

" **Namek-Ken… Times 40!"** Kai pushed his Namek-Ken to the maximum, his muscles bulging and throbbing from the shear strain " **NAIL GUN!"** he fired a Nail Gun from his fingertips, resulting in the two attacks colliding and clashing right in the center and engulfing the clearing in an explosion, blowing away a good chunk of the mountains in the process.

With the end of the beam struggle, Gohan powered back down to his base form "I guess we've gotta call this one a tie."

"Yeah well that's not enough for me, not by a long shot." Kai powered down his Namek-Ken and let out a sigh "You already know for a fact that I'm not one to settle, I never have been and never will be."

"I'm well aware of that, but you've also calmed down a lot over the past year or so."

"At least you're not rubbing it in, that's more than can be said for your mother. I get what you're saying though, and it might sound weird but, I feel a lot more at peace with myself now since I awakeneg the Spirit Ken and finally came to terms with my mom's death. It only took about 8 years for it to finally happen, but that doesn't mean it changes much for me. I'm gonna aim for the top and not stop until I get there."

"You still haven't bothered to tell anyone about your new Spirit Ken that you got from the Forest of Terror though have you?"

"I plan on saving it for the right moment, and right now I say that's gonna be during that big tournament tomorrow."

"Wait a second, what tournament?"

"Oh wait a second, did I forget to mention to you and the rest of your Saiyan possee that there's going to be a tournament tomorrow, one that's sponsored by Afro the Ass Clown, none other than Mr Satan himself, an intergalactic martial arts tournament that supposedly has actual aliens competing as a birthday gift for the son of that rich fatass XS Cash, and that the singup time limit for it ended last week? Oops."

"...That's playing dirty you know."

"Oh come on Gohan, are you suggesting that I chose not to tell you about the tournament that takes place only months after the birth of your new little brother Goten, which also happens to have Goku himself occupied with it as well, as well as while Yamcha and the others are off learning how to awaken the Spirit Ken, just so that I could get a fair shot at winning without you and the others hogging all the glory? I'm insulted Gohan, truly."

"So you didn't do it?"

"No I totally did, I was just fucking with you." he shot Gohan a middle finger, earning a dry look in response "Hey I was fine with you ripping Cell apart, I couldn't do anything about Goku and the fight with Frieza back on Namek, but this time it's all mine mother fucker. Plus you actually do have your hands full with Goten now."

"I know, I'm pretty sure dad still has that scar from what happened."

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(Now a flashback to what happened)

"Okay okay, I think I've got this." Goku suddenly rushed into the room with some supplies in hand, trying not to look in between Chichi's legs for obvious reasons "Okay so I've got some warm water, a bunch of clean towels, some blankets and I called Piccolo and he's on his way with the Senzu Beans. I tried calling Gohan and a bunch of others but nobody is picking up for whatever-" he was cut off by a knock on the door "Oh thank Kami, I'll be right back." he rushed over to the door.

As it turns out, Piccolo was standing there with a bag of Senzu Beans in hand "Alright I've got them, here you go Goku."

"You're a total lifesaver Piccolo, I tried looking up a bunch of videos on the internet about this but I didn't learn anything." they started walking back into the bedroom where Chichi still had her legs spread, again for obvious reasons.

"In all honesty I just wanted to see this for myself, I heard there was no egg involved so what the hell could she sit on for the- Sweet mother of fuck, what the hell is that?!"

"That's a vagina Piccolo, and yes it disturbed me too."

"Goku it's preparing an attack, get to Super Saiyan already!"

"That's not a monster, it's my son's head."

"...Oh sweet mother of Super Kami Dende, I can't do this."

"Wait what?"

"I can't do this, I just can't do this!"

"How can you not handle this?! You died for my son once and you almost did for me at least three times!"

"And I would again, but this is where I draw the line!" and so Piccolo bolted out the door and blasted off into the skies.

"You cowardly son of a-" Goku was cut off by the sound of a scream from Chichi "Oh crap, I'm sorry Chichi! Don't worry about it, I swear I'll- Oh sweet mother of Dende, how is there this much hair already, and why is it already so spiky? Is that supposed to be what I look like to everyone else?"

"Hey guys, you need a hand?" this was when Krillin suddenly dropped in "I was training nearby and then I heard about-"

"GET OUT!" Chichi suddenly exploded at him.

"Way ahead of you, no plans on dying again, bye!" and so he bolted.

"Oh god… Oh god…"

Goku let out a sigh "Can you please not send away the help? We can't exactly be pick about this right now."

"Not… help…"

"I get Krillin doesn't help in every situation but-"

"Dad we're here!" this was when Gohan and Kai suddenly burst into the house "I know I know we should've been back hours ago but-"

"But the line in Comic Con was long as fuck." Kai cut him off dryly.

"We got back as fast as we could, so where's- Oh sweet mother of Dende, you mean that mom is still… Oh."

"Sweet mother of fuck, what the hell are we looking at? How is it so spiky alredy, and is that what placenta is supposed to look like?"

"You've seen my health books, you know what it looks like."

"And yet it oddly makes me crave peanut butter and jelly right now."

"...You bring a new meaning to the word psychotic."

"No shit Sherlock, what was your first clue?"

"You were there when Bulla was born though right, so wouldn't you- Oh right, you were off brooding and training with Nail to master the Namek-Ken."

"You're welcome."

"Both of you shut it until we get through this!" Goku whipped around to face Chichi "Okay listen to me Chichi, I can see the shoulders, you're almost there so just push and-" he was cut off by what looked like a Ki blast forming "Um… okay, so maybe not that hard."

"Get the fuck down if you don't wanna lose your head!" Kai shoved Gohan to the ground, which left Goku to get sent flying through the wall as the blast erupted from Chichi's… well you know, anyway it left a gaping hole in the wall of the house. When it was over, Kai looked up and just let out a loud groan of frustration "Well that's just fucking great, another powerhouse that's the embodiment of being OP." he was met with a dull expression from Gohan

(Flashback end).

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Gohan shuddered slightly "Yeah, dad hasn't been the same since then."

"Brain damage finally got to him." Kai noted dryly, earning an eye roll "But at least you were able to get Piccolo to cut off the tail, I have no intention of being crushed by an alien monkey like Donkey Kong again."

"Donkey Kong isn't an alien."

"I'll believe what I want to believe until I see proof of otherwise. Speaking of harry beasts, where the hell has your grandfather been since then?"

"Oh yeah Grandpa Ox, well he's out of town right now on some kind of bear cruise."

"As in…?"

"A cruise full of bears and big harry guys, apparently he booked it after my dad sacrificed himself during the Cell Games but they were nonrefundable, and the bears didn't know that my dad was brought back. I think he beat up a bear guy when he was a kid or something."

"...I expected something entirely different, and no I'm not going to explain it to you. But at the same time it does make sense, keep in mind that we've got dinosaurs roaming around still a thing and a dog is the king."

"True. So back to this tournament…"

"I'm getting my time to shine, end of discussion. As far as I'm concerned a human as the potential to surpass a Saiyan, and Saiyans don't always have to be the ones to get all of the glory in a fight. Besides if anything comes to take over and or destroy the world I can finally get my shot at taking them down."

"It's only been a year since the whole ordeal with Cell."

"And it was less than week after that I got the Spirit Ken, and now I plan on putting it to good use for once."

"...Fair enough, good luck in this tournament."

"I won't need it, if anyone needs it then it's gonna be you. You're the one dealing with the angst-ridden mess that is your dad."

"Come on Kai, he's not that bad."

"He's been brooding like an emo anime character for like a month now."

"I'm sure he has his reasons. But back to the tournament, who's going to enter?"

"From what I know, it's me, cueball, triclops, Piccolo and I think Cooler and his guys are coming back for it too. I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be one hell of a good time."

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Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp…

Bulma made her way out of the building and found Yamcha training in the grounds outside "Hey what's up handsome?"

"Oh hey babe, you going now? In that case…" Yamcha pulled her into a heated kiss.

"Well now, what's got you in such a good mood?"

"How can I not be in a good mood? Things are going great for us lately? I've got a gorgeous wife, a beautiful daughter, and Kai is finally getting better himself. Anyway I don't have a lot to do today, I mean me and the guys were gonna go see Endgame again, but that's for later, so today I can come and listen to you at that conference and hear you talk about how Back to the Future is a bunch of bullshit."

"Oh. That. Yeah it's okay, you can actually skip that one."

"Oh thank Dende, I was gonna fake some kind of spine injury to get out of it."

"Hey come on, how many times have I had to listen to Kai quote Rick and Morty in the past few months?"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Nothing, I just needed a comeback."

"Ah."

"But there actually is something I need you to do, Goku has seemed a little bit down lately and I think some time with a friend would probably mean a lot to him."

"So what, you mean meet up with him and spar?"

"No I mean like just hang out, he's always saying he wants to just hang out with you and just have fun for once."

"Really?"

"...No, dammit I can't lie to you. Look, Goku's been pretty down lately and Chichi is getting worried about him."

"So what then, you want me to spar with him to get his blood flowing again? Sounds simple enough to me."

"Well that's one idea, but I was thinking more along the lines of taking him to that sandwich place you like, Uncle Jesse's on 5th street. Oh and take Raditz too."

"Wait a second, how the hell did Raditz get involved in this?"

"Well they're brothers, they're going through major life changes and all that crap, and you're probably the only one in the group that's good at finding a balance between work and life. I mean back when you were a pro baseball player at least, so maybe you could give the two of them some advice."

"How many people do you want me to help?"

"Or you could listen to me do CinemaSin's job for it and bash Back to the Future."

"...Okay new plan, Uncle Jesse's it is. I'll do it tomorrow, Kai and the others are entering this intergalactic tournament and they'll be pretty busy."

"Good to know, so who's entering?"

"From what I know, it's Kai, Krillin, Tien and a few others. I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be very interesting."

"Unlike my problems."

"You said it, not me."

"...The bedroom, 10 minutes."

"Make it 5."

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The next day came, and the day of the first ever intergalactic martial arts tournament had come at last.

" _Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Battle Island, home to the world's first ever intergalactic martial arts tournament. 200 fighters have been enrolled in the preliminary rounds, which are now underway on a total of 8 combat stations specially designed for this tournament! The rules are actually quite simple, on each stage 25 contestants battle it out with each other in a free for all battle royal. Fighters are deemed eliminated if they lose consciousness, give up or fall into the sea below. The last one standing on each stage moves on to the semi finals, killing your opponents is prohibited of course as is the use of weapons. Each of the combatants really do seem to be throwing themselves into the fight though not as much as the audience by the looks of it, this crowd is out for blood!"_

Sure enough, Tien was blitzing through one fighter after another "This tournament might be for… unconventional reasons, but it still seems like a great way to test myself."

"GO KAI!" a number of voices chorused "BEAT THEM ALL, YOU CAN DO IT!"

Tien looked over and noticed a number of peopl holding up a bunch of Kai signs "Wait a second, you mean Kai's fighting in this tournament? I suppose now is a good time to see his Spirit Ken in action." then he glanced over towards where several fighters were just being sent flying down into the water below, and he let out a groan at the familiar Ki signature "You've gotta be kidding me, Piccolo is fighting too? I didn't expect Cooler to show up either. Well that's just perfect, bring in 17 or 18 and we've got a full set on our hands." he felt several fighters drop to the ground behind her and he slowly looked up.

Sure enough, 17 stood on a platform above him looking down at her "What's up Triclops?"

"...Yep that one's on me, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go down without a fight. I hope you're ready, I don't plan on making this easy for you."

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King Kai observed this from his own TV in Otherworld ' _What has this world come to?'_

That was when Scarlet came back with armfuls of snacks "Hey I grabbed some snacks, there's a lot more in the back if you guys want any. Did I miss anything?"

"Nothing yet, the preliminaries are still going."

"I figured, and I thought the World Martial Arts Tournament was tough."

"Fighting is in your blood Scarlet, but unfortunately you no longer have any just like I don't have a planet anymore."

"Nice to know you're not bitter towards Goku about that."

"He's lucky I'm not one to hold a grudge, just like you're lucky I've got such good reception up here."

"That's one way to describe it. I'm just glad I get to watch my own son fight in a tournament with some of the strongest the Earth has to offer? It's every mother's dream to watch their children grow up to be strong and happy and do something they love, it's about time I get to see just how far Kai has come since he acquired the Spirit Ken."

"You think he's gonna win?"

"We'll see soon enough, all I ask is that he gives it his all, so in that regard I have nothing to worry about."

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Krillin let out a sigh as he laid back down on a pole and watched several of the fighters eliminate themselves "I guess I shouldn't have been surprised both entered the tournament, that's just my luck isn't it? Well it's not like I need 100 million zeni anyway."

"How about this then?" a voice thundered.

Krillin looked down too late as one fighter knocked another into the pole he was on, sending him crashing down into the sea below "You've gotta be kidding me! You've gotta be fucking kidding me!"

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Kai blitzed through one group of fighters after another on his platform until he was the last one left standing "The World Martial Arts Tournament was the likes of Goku, Yamcha and the others were able to hone her skills and my mother was able to make a name for herself, so maybe this so called "intergalactic" version is gonna let me do the same for myself. If nothing else, it gives me a good reason to kick people in the dick. Get ready dipshits, the Crimson Dragon is about to restore the good name of martial arts by kicking some serious ass!"

"You seem quite enthusiastic about this." a voice noted.

Kai glanced over to see Cooler standing at the edge of his battle stage "Did you not just hear my entire speech about me wanting to kick some serious ass?"

"No I did, I was simply making an observation. I actually share that enthusiasm with you. I've always been quite fond of tournaments myself. In fact, in was actually during one of those tournaments that Salza and the rest of my Armored Squadron earned their positions."

"Huh, seems legit. Looks like you and I might end up facing off at some point."

"You don't sound very nervous."

"I'm anything but, frankly the thought gets my blood pumping. I want to see how I fair against the likes of the brother of Frieza."

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" _Kai has advanced past the preliminary round!"_

Mr Satan spat out the drink in his mouth at the sight of Kai flipping off one of the cameras ' _Hang on, wasn't that kid- Oh no, no no no, no no no no no no no!'_

" _#17 is going to be advancing as well!"_

"No no no."

" _Cooler will be moving on, and Piccolo will be heading to the semi finals as well. Last but not least, Tien Shinhan has made the cut!"_

"You've gotta be freaking kidding me!" Mr Satan's expression went from fear to haughty arrogance, and back to fear at the mention of Kai and the others ' _Oh god, oh god, oh god…'_ he whipped around in an attempt to escape and was immediately startled.

As it turns out, a reporter had snuck up on him from behind "Mr Satan the viewers are curious, what are your thoughts on the preliminaries?"

"...My-My thoughts? M-More training, they need a lot more training."

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" _Ladies and gentlemen the matchups for the 8 semi finalists have been decided, in the first match we have Kai facing off against Budo!"_

As it turns out, Kai's opponent was some fact sumo wrestler that looked like Chuck Norris done wrong "What I'm fighting some little brat? Man I've really gotta get a new agent. Hey listen up kid, I'm not one for beating up runts but the training wheels are coming off today. You understand me?"

Kai shrugged like he didn't give a damn, because he didn't "Whatever lets you sleep at night big guy now let's get this over with, I've got asses to kick, a fraud to expose to the world and a good name of martial arts to restore."

"You've got a lot of guts kid and the mouth to back it up, too bad I'm gonna have to rip them out of you and show them to you!" he made a pathetic attempt at a grab.

"I've got a better idea, how about I kick you so hard your spine pops out. How does that work for you? Good, that's what I thought." and so Kai dealt Budo a swift kick to the stomach, sending him flying across the horizon, and he did some poses, earning cheers from the crowd "Yeah that's right! I'm big, I'm bad, and Satan get ready cause I'm coming for your ass!"

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" _As we move onto the second match of the semi-finals, Tien Shinhan is going to be doing battle with Cooler!"_

Tien ripped off his shirt and threw it into the sea below "You know, part of me has always wanted to go at it with you."

"I can't deny the feeling is somewhat mutual." Cooler cracked his neck and promptly dropped into a combat stance "I've been wanting to see you much you've progressed in terms of battle prowess over the past year Tien Shinhan."

"I feel the same way, but since this is a tournament what do you say we give these people a good show?"

"I suppose it's only common courtesy. Come then Tien Shinhan, let me see exactly how far you've come." the buzzer sounded and the fight began as the two of them took to the skies and began trading a barrage of even blows before Cooler dealt Tien a swift kick to the head, sending him hurtling downwards towards the sea.

Tien managed to stop himself just before he hit the water "That was close, you're definitely a lot more powerful than I was expecting you to be."

"I've been honing my skills myself, but I can see I'm not the only one. I know very well about a coming conflict that has top priority for myself and my organization." Cooler floated down in order to meet Tien at eye level, resulting in the two of them trading even blows once more.

Tien broke away from the clash and took to the air "I doubt you've ever seen this one before have you? **Tri-Beam!"** he fired a Tri Beam, resulting in an explosion that tore an entire cliffside off of the face of the island, and they traded more even blows amongst the flashes of light before retreating back down to the surface of the water "Your power really is impressive Cooler, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"I appreciate the compliment, but I'm far from being through just yet. Feel free to see for yourself now." Cooler spiked his purple aura and pushed his power level even further "So then, are you ready for the second round Tien Shinhan?"

"Not just yet, one thing I've learned over the past year is that there are times that power and skill on their own aren't enough, so you have to get creative. Observe. **Kaioken 20x!"** Tien's aura spiked in height and potency as it turned a deep shade of crimson "Come on then, I think it's time for the second round."

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Mr Satan observed the fight from a private room with XS Cash and his family, and he was sweating buckets ' _Oh crap, it just had to be those freaks from the Cell Games didn't it? Why here, why now?'_

A reporter was quick to question him on Tien and Cooler's performance "Mr Satan can you please explain this extraordinary event taking place at this very moment?"

"It's nothing more than a simple parlor trick, he made a quick change with smoke and mirrors and what not-" he was cut off by the batte shaking the entire island, sending him crashing to the floor "Why? Out of all of the tournaments in the entire world, why in the world did they have to enter mine? I hate this, I hate this so much."

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Meanwhile, with Cooler vs Tien…

" **Tri Beam!"** Tien fired a full power Tri Beam enhanced by the Kaioken at Cooler, resulting in an explosion that lit up the sky.

" **Death Flash!"** however, thanks to his superior levels of speed, Cooler was able to blitz through the attack and hit Tien with a Death Flash from behind, blasting him straight in the back and sending him straight down into the ocean below, ending the match and drawing cheers from the crowd.

" _And with that spectacular display, Cooler wins the match and will move on to the finals!"_

With the win securing his plane in the finals, Cooler made his way back down to the ground and held out a hand to Tien "I must commend you on your performance, you fought hard and with honor. You are a valiant warrior."

"I appreciate that." Tien accepted the hand and was pulled out of the water "But I guess this means I have a long way to go."

"You think of this the wrong way. When you see an opponent with a remarkable level of power, you must realize that it represents not a gap between your power and theirs, but it represents what is possible for you to achieve one day."

"Sounds like something Kai would say."

"Because he did say it. The boy may have his quirks, but his fighting spirit and unwavering determination is something I will never question."

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Mr Satan was sweating buckets from pure terror ' _There's no way this can continue, if I fight one of those guys then I'll be killed for sure!'_

XS Cash was quick to notice this and seemed concerned "Mr Satan are you alright? You looked a little bit pale."

"Wha-? Oh now that you mention it my stomach is killing me, it must have been something that I ate."

"Oh do calm down it'll be alright, Mr Producer sir if you would be so kind as to take our star to the infirmary."

"No no that's quite alright, I can find my own way- Oh man the pain!" and he stumbled his way out in what looked like very convincing amounts of pain.

"Oh my, such a shame. To think the strongest man in the world could have such back luck like that."

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However, all wasn't what it seemed to be. Yeah right who am I kidding, as if we didn't already expect that?

Mr Satan dropped the act as soon as he was out of the room he dropped the stupid act and grinned in a smug manner "I feel a change in the wind, looks like it's about time for me to set sail." he started to make his way down to the docks to leave the island ' _I'd rather flee and stay a champion than stay and suffer defeat.'_ unfortunately for that plan, it was drowned out by the crowd cheering for him and his ego took over ' _Oh who am I kidding? The fans love me, there's no way I could disappoint them like that. It's times like this I'm glad I got life insurance when I did.'_

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Meanwhile, with the subplot…

By this point, Yamcha was with Goku and Raditz at the sandwich shop in West City "Don't be so nervous babe, you're gonna do great out there."

" _How do you know? There's gonna be a lot of people in this, most of them actually dressed up like McFly and Dr Brown, no I'm not making that up. Maybe it's for the best that I cut my opening joke."_

"You had an opening joke?"

" _...Yeah you know what, I'm definitely cutting it. So how's everything going at Uncle Jesse's with you and the guys?"_

"Well I figured we'd try and eat before I start acting like some kind of miracle worker and start fixing everyone's lives. If there's one thing to know about Saiyans, it's that they tend to be a lot more open to criticism when they've got some meat in their stomachs, even if they do have at least 40 of them."

" _Sounds to me like you're off to a good start. Now go and fix your lunch partners, and keep in mind that I'm pretty sure Goku's entire family dynamic depends on it. But you know, no pressure or anything like that."_

"Duly noted." so Yamcha hung up and sat with Goku and Raditz at the table "So do I have to strap a bib on you or something?"

"Come on Yamcha, I'm not that bad." Goku let out a sigh "Still though thanks for taking me out like this, I guess I just need some fresh air."

"No worries man, that's what friends are for."

"Yeah well, 18 has been giving me a hard time too." Raditz let out a sigh of his own "Apparenlty she's a shopaholic."

"So she's a gold digger then?"

"I wouldn't say that, she just likes having a fuckton of money to spend on stuff that she doesn't really need."

"So a gold digger then."

"...Oh yeah I guess she is. But the sex is amazing."

"You know it takes more than that to form a relationship, I mean granted it's a big part of it, but it's still nowhere near enough."

"Yeah, can we not talk about that when we have food coming?" Goku asked dryly "Seriously though, the guy is coming over with sandwiches and I can feel my mouth watering."

Sure enough, the old man behind the counter, Uncle Jesse himself, made his way over with food baskets full of sandwiches "Alright, I've got 7 capicolas for the frowny guy with the palm tree for a head and the orange jumpsuit. Yamcha you're the 50-50, the half coleslaw and the half crab salad."

"Yep." Yamcha shot a smirk at the others "That's a little something I like to call a Salad and a Half."

"The only reason you call it that is because that's its name on the menu genius. Anyway here's the number six for Sonic the Hedgehog, Eggplant Parm, so enjoy."

"I ordered the meatball with provolone." Raditz told him.

"You've been eating the same sandwich here for the past three years, it never hurts to shake things up a little bit once in awhile."

"Fair enough I guess."

"Huh. Shake things up, sounds kind of nice actually." Goku let out a sigh "I want Goten to not deal with all of the crazy crap that we always have to deal with, but fighting has always been my passion."

"I wish I had a passion of my own."

"Oh god, here we go." Yamcha muttered.

"I mean I spent decades fighting and killing for all of the things I hate, but now that I'm free and there's no universe-ending threat to deal with, I guess I actually have to find my own way now you know? At least I have these sandwiches as my passion, so that's a plus. After all, if not for these then my life wouldn't have any true meaning."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I feel that way too." Goku took a bite of a sandwich and let out a content sigh.

"Dude you guys have each other, and Goku you've got a wife and two kids at home."

"Yeah I know. Still though, this capicola is incredible. It's almost as good as my wife's cooking, but it's still incredible."

"Glad you like it, but unfortunately it's the last one you're ever gonna get since I'm closing down at the end of the week." Uncle Jesse told him flatly.

"Wait what? No you can't!" Yamcha bolted to his feet "No you can't close this place down, it's an institution!"

"It's like a home away from home!" Goku suddenly bolted to his feet "This is the kind of place where everyone knows your name, but their mouths are too full to say it!"

"Yeah you heard the man."

"Yeah I know." Uncle Jesse let out a sigh "I'm not fond of the thought either but the missus says that it's too cold, so I bought her an electric blanket, and she bought a condo on Papaya Island, so we're moving to Papaya Island." and so he promptly walked off.

"Well this sucks."

"Yeah tell me about it." Goku slumped back in his seat "This is like a nightmare made into reality, these sandwiches gave me a small flicker of hope that gave meaning to the empty void that is my life."

"Dude again, a wife and two kids, seriously nothing?"

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Meanwhile, back with the main plot…

" _The third match of the semi finals is about to begin as #17 does battle with Piccolo!"_

Sure enough, 17 cracked his neck and narrowed his eyes in Piccolo's direction ' _Alright now, get a grip Lapiz. He's not unbeatable, even if he is a hell of a lot stronger than he was the last time we fought. I just have to make sure I attack him while his guard is down so I can get him to hit the water. Above all I can't let him use his Special Beam Cannon or his Hellzone Grenade, or his Light Grenade, or I'm as good as dead.'_

"Hey hurry it up you Jolly Green Jackass!" Kai barked at him from the stands "Anyone with half a brain cells knows you can wreck his shit, so just get it done already!"

"Hey kid, how about you do the world a favor and shut your trap!"

"Why would I start now?"

"...Oh yeah, good point. _I don't care how much stronger Big Green might be, there's no way in hell I'm going down without a fight!'_ but then 17 noticed something off about Piccolo, and he immediately grew pissed off ' _You've gotta be fucking kidding me, he's not even gonna bother looking at me?!_ Listen up green man, I'm nobody's fool least of all yours!" and so he charged at him in a blind rage, only to get caught in his cape and nearly fall off of the ledge of the arena as a result.

That is to say, Piccolo caught him before he fell off "I thought I came here for a tournament not a freak show, this whole thing is a waste of my time. Take the win if you want, you're on your own for this one." so he threw 17 back onto the ground within the ring and took to the skies until he was out of sight.

"Did… Did he just bail?"

Sure enough, the referee confirmed the outcome "Piccolo has forfeited the match, 17 wins by default!" this was met with a thunderous applause.

' _This is so such a gigantic pain, to win because he didn't even want to fight. Well at least I'm in the finals, so I guess it's not all bad.'_

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" _Dosukoi has advanced to the finals and jumped into the record books with the longest backwards pivet throw in history!"_

Scarlet looked back at King Kai from where she was playing a game of cards "Hey how are the fights going King Kai, any news on how Kai and the others are doing?"

King Kai nodded "Kai is doing really well, he and the others have already advanced through the semi finals. Tien lost to Cooler and Piccolo gave up to 17 but still, Kai might end up in the finals at this rate."

"I doubt he would be satisfied with anything less, he always aims to be the best at whatever it is he does. I'm the same way, it's how I was driven to develop the Spirit Ken and pass those secrets onto Kai."

"Sounds like you wanted to be well prepared."

"Yeah." Scarlet let out a sigh "My body was being eaten away at by a disease, you need to keep in mind that Goku wasn't the only person to have that heart virus so I wouldn't have been of much help. When I contacted Yamcha, I could tell that my time was near so I had to make sure that Kai would be well cared for. To be truthful, I had hoped he would grow up to live a happy life on a peaceful planet without having to go out and save the world, but when I saw how happy he looked training with Yamcha and Gohan, I just didn't have the heart to try and talk him out of it. After all, what mother would disapprove of their son saving the world and the universe from total annihilation? You'd have to be out of your mind."

"...Oh yeah right, I keep forgetting that you never met Goku's wife."

"And you have?"

"I've seen enough."

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Mr Satan snuck his way out of a sewer drain ' _Mr Satan you truly are one hell of a craft devil, no one would ever think to look for you down here. Perfect, I'm in the clear.'_ he made a beeline for the exit, until…

"Mr Satan!" the producer suddenly popped up in front of him, startling him into crashing to the ground "The infirmary is back that way sir, this way leads to the exit off of Battle Island."

"I know that you fool, can't you see I'm suffering from a chronic stomach ache? I have to consult my personal physician!" he started to make his way out.

"But Mr Cash isn't going to be happy about this!"

"Don't worry about old man money bags, I won't be gone long. It's just gonna be a short boat ride to the airport once I cross the bridge-" he quickly noticed something missing underneath his feet "There's no bridge underneath me is there? I must be sicker than I thought, stay back I'm contagious." he looked back and his fears were confirmed "The bridge is missing, where did it go, why can't I get off this island?!"

"That was Mr Cash's idea, he figured why not spice things up a little and move the finals over to Battle Island II. We're en route as we speak."

"...Oh no."

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing, just… thinking about how to sort out my will."

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" _The stage has been set for the finals on Battle Island II, where our 4 remaining warriors, will compete for the coveted spot in the showdown against our lord and savior himself, none other than the great Mr Satan!"_

Sure enough, the four finalists were all rising up to the stage on individual elevator platforms of some sort.

Kai was stretching and flexing his muscles like a jackass "Oh yeah that's right people, you know you love me and all of this! And Satan you'd better get ready, I'm about to expose you like the fraud you refuse to believe you are you cocky son of a mother fucker!"

"You seem quite eager to do battle with him." Cooler noted "I would've expected you to want nothing to do with him."

"He's a fucking charlatan that sulleys the name of martial arts, I'm aiming to be the best and that comes with responsibilities. I'm gonna restore the good name of martial arts, and the first step to that is knocking that fucker off his high horse."

"I see. Your passion is commendable, as is your prowess and potential. You may very well be a deciding factor in the coming conflict."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"I'll inform you of it depending on your performance in this tournament."

"Fair enough I guess."

" _With the new island comes a new set of rules! We've got 4 different tunnels running underground that are designed to lead to special battle zones located in each direction. After the 4 finalists are assigned a tunnel by drawing lots they will be transported to their by provided rocket shuttles. There each of them will face one of our 4 special guests in the form of fighters from across the galaxy. Now you all want to pay attention, this is where things start to get really spicy! Once a fight ends the challenge still isn't over, the victor must take a special lift and be the first to return to the center stage here on Battle Island II! The first one back will then proceed to the final round against the great Mr Satan himself!"_

"Perfect, it's a race and that means I'm gonna have the advantage." Kai was the first one to hop into his rocket shuttle, with 17, Cooler and the meaningless fat sumo guy following his lead and doing the same "First of all they're just a bunch of that douchemonkey's students in bad costumes so taking them down will be a piece of cake, second of all 17 can make as many jokes as he likes about me being short but I make up for that with my lack of wind resistance, and the fact that I'm the strongest one here. I'd like to see them make fun of that."

" _Let's begin the countdown! 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… GO!"_ and on that note, the 4 rocket shuttles carrying 17, Dosukoi, Kai and Cooler all took off for the 4 different battle zones " _And they're off, the viewers and spectators will be able to keep up with all of the excitement by watching the video screen."_

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With the first battle station…

Cooler was the first one to reach his battle zone, which had taken the form of a beautiful field filled with flowers, a river and even a rainbow "So this is what the people of this world believe to be worth calling a battle zone? Well I suppose I should give them credit for one thing, they do know how to subvert expectations."

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A battle zone filled with lava and designed like the inside of a volcano.

That was where 17 found himself "8/10 on the design, I'll give them that much." he kept on wandering until he noticed a figure standing within the smoke in front of him "So you must be my opponent. Call me 17, you can interpret that however you want, but I like to think of it as how many seconds it's going to take before I beat you into the ground."

"Is that so?" the smoke cleared away, revealing a beautiful woman with aqua colored skin and orange hair "Well then I do hope you'll give me a good challenge. Since you told me your name it's only fair that I tell you mine, you may call me Zangya."

"Oh, so a chick fighter who knows how to fight, well that definitely makes things a lot more interesting, but don't think I'm gonna make things too easy on you."

"I think we'll see about that soon enough."

"You're damn right we will, now let's get this underway already." 17 spiked his white aura and charged towards Zangya with a rapid barrage of punches and kicks that forced her on the defensive.

" **Grand Smasher!"** Zangya quickly made an opening for herself and hit 17 at point blank range with a Grand Smasher, sending him crashing into a nearby plateau.

"Okay… that hurt…" 17 pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood ' _Okay, maybe charging in head first isn't the best move after all.'_

"You're more resilient than I gave you credit for, but unfortunately you just don't have the power to back that up."

"How about we put that to the test and see if I can't back it up! Spoiler alert, you're about to see that I sure as hell can!" 17 suddenly blitzed in front of her, his hands radiating a powerful green colored Ki "I've spent the last year working on this technique, so now you're gonna be my test monkey. **Super… Electric… STRIKE!"** with a wave of his hands, 17 unleashed a wide wave of pure green electric Ki at Zangya, engulfing her in the explosion that followed "So how do you like that one?"

"A lot more than I was expecting to." when the smoke cleared, Zangya was still standing in the same spot, only now her skin was green and her hair was red, and she was sporting some light burns across her body "I have to admit, that did hurt somewhat."

' _You've gotta be fucking kidding me, it took me an entire year to make that technique work and she just blew it off?!'_

"Well now that you've shown me yours, it's only right for me to show you mine. Feel free to give me some feedback." she suddenly blitzed in front of 17 and fired a Full Power Energy Wave at him at point blank range, sending him flying backwards a great distance "So what's the status going to be on that feedback?"

17 spat out some blood "I know I… should be mad… but I'm pretty turned on actuually… I say we continue this… after I wake up from the coma…" and then he passed out.

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At the same time, another actual alien by the name of Bido encountered Dosukoi, the sumo wrestler finalist, in a desert battle zone, and promptly strangled him to death before blasting the camera, much to the horror of everyone watching.

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Gregory placed down his hand "I call. 7 queens, beat that."

"I intend to." Scarlet placed down her own hand "7 aces, that round goes to me and that makes it 7 to 6 in favor of me. Hey King Kai you wanna get in on the next round?" she received no reply whatsoever "King Kai you listening?"

King Kai didn't answer, he was looking down in horror at the chaos down on Earth "This is just what I was afraid of…"

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"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through, move it or lose it!" Krillin and Tien were trying to fight their way through the panicking crowd rushing to get to the exit, but after awhile they just decided to take to the skies.

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Cooler just calmly wandered his way through his battle zone, only to stop in his tracks when he sensed something ' _I'm detecting another energy signature somewhere nearby and it's powerful, unnaturally powerful.'_ he dodged a sudden Ki blast that came at him at the last second ' _Clearly this tournament just became something a great deal more serious.'_

As it turns out it was another alien warrior by the name of Kogu "Oh sorry about that, my hand slipped."

"A likely story, so I suppose it would only be common courtesy that my hand slips as well when I drive an energy blast through your chest."

"Is that so?" Kogu charged at Cooler and let his fist fly.

Cooler dropped into a combat stance and let his own fist fly forward.

Kogu caught Cooler's fist in his own and threw him over his shoulder.

Cooler regained his footing almost immediately and skidded to a stop "And just what, pray tell, are you supposed to be?" he and Kogu started exchanging equal kicks and punches.

That is, before Kogu stopped Cooler's knee with his sword "What I am is someone not to be trifled with Arcosian." he leapt upwards and prepared to bring down his sword.

Cooler managed to dodge every strike from the sword, a couple of them being far too close for his liking before they took their clash to the middle of the river.

Kogu suddenly sheathed his sword as his earrings and necklace began glowing and he unleashed a mighty roar, engulfing the entire river in a vortex of his power.

' _His power level just increased a considerable amount, clearly he has no intention of making this easy on me. Strange though, the only species I know of that can increase their levels of power so rapidly would be Saiyans, and aside from them it would be… the Herans. But I thought they were long extinct, unless… Of course, during the battle with Cell. I was right then, things just became much more serious.'_

When the vortex died down, Kogu revealed himself, now bulked up with his skin turned green and his hair turned red "Let's go Arcosian, it's time for us to begin the second round."

"Don't expect there to be a third."

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Meanwhile, with the main OC of this story…

Kai found himself in a surreal world resembling a child's toy chest "Oh for fuck's sake, this place looks way too much like Charlie Sheen's toy chest combined with every creepypasta known to man- Oh shit!" he suddenly found himself forced to start dodging large building blocks attempted to crush him "Oh yeah, I'm totally not gonna have nightmares about this."

That was when Kai's opponent showed up in the form of Bujin, another alien warrior "Well what do we have here?" he quickly used his Psycho Threads technique to manipulate the hands of a really big clock nearby in an attempt to skewer Kai with them.

" **Namek-Ken 5x!"** Kai's Namek-Ken quickly burst into life as he spiked his aura, ripping the hands to shreds "Watch it you sick little pedo, are you trying to skewer me? Wait no, ask a stupid question."

"You have no idea boy."

"So who the hell are you supposed to be anyway?"

"I am known as Bujin, it's a pleasure to meet you Kai Sapien."

"...So you know my last name, am I supposed to be impressed? **Namek-Ken 40x!"** Kai promptly advanced his Namek-Ken to his absolute limit "Well guess what midget, it didn't work, and now you've successfully pissed me off. A big mistake on your part."

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"Mr Satan!" the producer's voice sounded with banging on the bathroom door "Mr Satan will you please just come out? We need you out here, the invest- I mean the public needs to see your face!"

"Can't I have a moment without it turning into a parade?" Mr Satan barked ' _That guy is fucking nuts if he thinks I'm gonna go out there, creatures that are strong enough to defeat even the mighty Cell? I don't think so.'_

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"DIE!" having taken their battle to the ruins of an abandoned city, Kogu grabbed Cooler by the face and slammed him through an old bridge and into the river beneath it, before slamming him through the ruins of various old buildings and sending him crashing to the ground in a pile of rubble "Is that all you can do? I expected more from the son of King Cold."

"So you know who I am then." Cooler's eyes narrowed "And judging by your appearance and abilities, would I be correct to assume you belong to the Heran race. I was led to believe that your kind has long been extinct. Tell me, why have you come to this planet?"

"Why don't you just save those questions for the afterlife, or you could surrender and swear loyalty to my master Bojack." he received a bitter smirk.

"I would never swear loyalty to a chaotic charlatan like your kind."

"Very well then, it seems you've chosen death!" Kogu prepared to bring down his sword.

"That may very well go both ways." Cooler spiked his purple aura and stopped Kogu's sword with his bare hands, shattering the blade in the process "No I was right before, it only went one way, and it is directed at you. **Death Flash!"** he fired a Death Flash clear through Kogu's gut, killing him almost instantly.

Kogu could only cough up some blood before he collapsed to the ground as nothing more than a blood covered corpse.

"That's one down, now to see where the rest of his companions are located."

"Why don't you check right behind you?"

Cooler whipped around only to be dealt a sharp kick to the face, sending him flying across the battlefield before he knew what hit him.

"Well this is a surprise, it would seem that there actually are some people on this planet who can entertain me. It will bring me great pleasure to snap their necks."

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Meanwhile, on Mount Paozu…

Gohan's head snapped up as he powered down from his Super Saiyan form ' _This Ki signature I'm feeling, it's both incredibly powerful and incredibly malicious. I have a really bad feeling about this.'_

This was when Chichi came out of the house, holding the newborn Goten in her arms "Is there something wrong Gohan? I thought you said you were going to get some exercise."

"I think there's something happening at the tournament."

"You took Kai off his leash, you knew something was bound to happen."

"No I know what that's like, but this feels like something I've never felt before. Hang on, I'm gonna go and make sure that nothing bad has happened." so he flashed back into Super Saiyan and took off in the direction of the tournament island without waiting for any sort of reply.

' _My little boy has grown up so fast… Good thing I have two of them now. I wonder how Goku is doing with the guys at lunch.'_

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Meanwhile, back at the tournament…

Kai was soaring through the skies towards the ruined cities, his mind racing ' _I have no idea what the hell is going on, first these Galaxy Soldier guys or whatever come barging in and crashing the tournament so there goes my chance of beating the shit out of Mr Satan, then Cooler's Ki spikes and then suddenly drops like a stone, Gohan's still idling around under the watchful eye of everybody's least favorite harpy that being his mother, apparently Goku and the guys are doing some chick thing at that sandwich shop Uncle Jesse's, and on top of that when I tried to question the midget he just took off for the topside version of Atlantis. Plus there's those other average Ki signatures and that one that feels ridiculously massive, I haven't felt anything that strong or that evil since the fight with Cell, which was actually only about a year ago. Either way I've got a bad feeling about this.'_

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Meanwhile, in Other World…

It took a good few minutes for Scarlet to notice the grim mood that King Kai had "I don't like the look that you're giving me, what's the matter?"

"Earth has been put in grave danger." King Kai told her grimly.

"What do you mean, in danger of what?"

"It's not a matter of what Scarlet, it's a matter of who. It's Bojack."

"...You mean the horse guy on that TV show that Yamcha showed me that one time?" for those who won't get it, I'm talking about Bojack Horseman.

"No not that, I mean a dark demon of the worst sort you can imagine. He's psychotic and unstable and he's filled with nothing but malice and rage. Many centuries ago he tried to destroy every galaxy within the Dormidius Sector."

"Kind of sounds like what King Piccolo was trying to do."

"In a manner of speaking yes, but he's several times more powerful. He has an insatiable appetite for genocide, myself and the other Kais took it upon ourselves to stop him and all four of us fought together but even with our combined might we were no match for Bojack's power. It was only when he showed himself that we were able to emerge from that battle victorious."

"What do you mean him?"

"I'm not surprised you don't know about him. His name was Yamoshi, but you may know him as the first ever Super Saiyan."

Goku's jaw dropped to the ground "Wait, the first Super Saiyan? As in the one that scared Frieza into blowing up Planet Vegeta all those years ago?!"

"That would be the one, I had feared that myself and the other Kais wouldn't be powerful enough to defeat Bojack so I contacted him to help us. Good thing I did too, it was a fierce battle but in the end Yamoshi emerged victorious and thanks to that we were able to seal Bojack within a star at the edge of this galaxy."

"So you're saying this Bojack guy is trapped inside of some kind of star?"

"He was trapped there but he's not anymore, he was set free from his prison when Frieza had destroyed Planet Vegeta all those years ago. The seal had been broken leaving Bojack to be unbound, and now after all this time he's returned for vengeance and it looks like his next target is Earth."

"Then he's as good as dead, Kai and Gohan can and will stop him in his tracks."

"I hope you're right about that Scarlet, I really do."

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Meanwhile, back on Earth…

' _Dammit, what the fuck is going on down there?!'_ Kai promptly touched down in the abandoned city battlezone and found 17 lying unconscious on the ground, with Cooler standing over him and bleeding considerably "Looks to me like I've been missing one hell of a time."

"That's one way of looking at it." Cooler wiped the blood from his face and breathed a sigh "But things have been running anything but smoothly."

"I can see that, what the hell happened to you anyway?"

"That would be me." a malicious voice rang through the air "Excellent, I've been waiting for some more company."

Kai looked up and saw Bido and Zangya standing beside a doorway ' _They seem like small fry, it's whatever is standing there with them that I'm worried about.'_

"It's been so long…" slowly a figure with blue skin and long orange hair emerged from the ruins radiating insane amounts of killer intent "So long since I've been able to snap someone's neck with my bare hands."

' _This guy's power level is off the charts, he's even stronger than Cell was in his Perfect Form, and it's clear that I'm gonna have a tough time with this one. But at the same time, will the Spirit Ken be enough for me to take this guy down? Well I guess there's only one way to find out.'_

"Hey!" that was when Tien and Krillin dropped down onto the scene "You murderers, you killed the intergalactic fighters in cold blood!"

Bujin arrived on the scene and bowed, with Bido and Zangya doing the same "Those fools were trespassing, the earth belongs to our lord Bojack now."

"Oh is that right? Well I've got some news for you pal, that's not gonna happen while we're still alive and kicking." Krillin told him.

"You would be wise to stand down." Bido warned them "Lord Bojack has no equal throughout the cosmos, the universe is riddle with the bones of those who would dare to oppose him and the starways are bathed in their blood. Our master is not patient, you really should stand down while you can. Or better yet, you may as well kneel before him."

"Thanks but no thanks, I think we're gonna pass." Tien and Krillin both charged at them at full speed, only to be beaten down within mere moments by Bujin and Bido and thrown onto the pile with 17.

"They made their decision and they chose poorly, now what is your decision?"

"I think this is more than enough of an answer for you guys. **Namek-Ken 40x!"** Kai was quick to flash into his Namek Ken and push it to the max "I know how guys like you are, you think you can just waltz in and take our world for your own and there isn't anyone strong enough to stop you. But there's one thing you blowhards didn't count on."

Bojack raised an eyebrow "And what would that be?"

"That I'm more than powerful enough to stop you guys here and now."

"Is that so? Bujin, Bido, Zangya, kill him." he sent the three of them forward.

Kai took to the air where he immediately elbowed Bujin in the face and threw Bido over his shoulder, sending both of them crashing before facing Zangya "I don't really make a habit of hitting women, kind of a thing I get from my uncle."

"Noble as that may be, don't think I'm going to hold back." Zangya caught Kai's fist with her own "So make sure you return the favor."

"Duly noted." he proceeded to throw her over his shoulder, sending her crashing down to the ground.

"Die you little pest!" Bido fired a barrage of Finger Beams in hopes of skewering Kai like swiss cheese.

Kai deflected all of them using only one hand, sending them into the roof of the artificial sky and destroying a large chunk of it.

Bujin and Bido charged at Kai and slammed him through the artificial sky, leading to another area of the ruined city battle zone, and began attacking Kai two on one.

Kai fended them off single handedly and retreated down onto another rooftop, his Zen Ryuken aura flaring wildly.

"Die!" Bido burst up from the roof and lunged at him with Bujin and Zangya doing the same from opposite sides.

Kai continued dodging and blocking every strike, taking a couple of pot shots here and there but still dealing more damage than he was taking, at least until a familiar white glow suddenly began surrounding his body, and before anyone knew what happened, he had been able to suddenly rip through both Bujin and Bido before anyone knew what happened.

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Bojack observed the battle between his soldiers and Kai and his malicious smirk widened even further "Very impressive, his level of skill has grown to be far more advanced than I had ever hoped for it to be. This is proving to be far more entertaining than I was expecting, this should prove to be quite entertaining for me before I snap his neck and send him to the next world."

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

By this point, Gohan had arrived on the scene just in time to see Kai quickly rip through Bujin and Bido in a matter of seconds "I guess I was right when I sensed that something was happening here, but I guess he's got it covered. So this is the Spirit Ken that he's been working on."

"I take it you knew about this?" this was when Piccolo dropped down next to him "Looks to me like he found one hell of a good fight."

"Yeah, he would never let me cut in when he's in the zone in a fight like this. And to answer your question, yeah he figured out this technique after the whole thing with Cell, and he swore me to secrecy."

"Is that why he's been less unsettling since then?"

"That's one way of describing it."

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Kai stood over the corpses of Bujin and Bido and shot a glare over at Zangya "So what about you then, should I expect you to try and get me from behind or something?"

"Believe it or not, I actually know when to accept defeat." Zangya told him flatly as she powered down "Though I have to say, your power is impressive."

"I figured you'd be more pissed about me drilling a new hole through your buddies back there a minute ago."

"I would be, if they weren't a couple of murderous sexits pigs. Believe it or not, even I have morals I choose to live by."

"Huh. Respect, more or less. Anyway stand back, your boss is mine."

"Fine by me." so Zangya leapt back a fair distance until she was standing on the sidelines right next to Cooler, and she glanced over at him very awkwardly "Uh… hi."

With that out of the way, Kai turned his attention to Bojack as he spiked his aura, his body crackling with white electricity "Alright you One Piece and Space Dandy reject, let's get this shit show underway."

"You seem awfully continent and sure of yourself." Bojack shot him a smirk full of malice "So come on then boy, show me what this power of yours is capable of."

"Trust me asshole, that's the plan." with a white flash, Kai blitzed right past Bojack with ease, leaving a shallow cut on his cheek, the force of his aura also incinerating part of the ruined building in front of him ' _It does seem strange, but even now it feels like my body hasn't fully adapted the new power of the Spirit Ken. Still though, this feels fucking incredible. For all any of us know, this might be the key for me to surpass a Super Saiyan.'_

"I hope you're not letting that increase in power make you conceited!" Bojack spiked his blue aura and burst towards Kai at full speed.

Kai was forced on the defensive, but he was very effective with it, as he dodged, blocked and weaved his way around every attack with ease, and once he found an opening he dealt Bojack a swift kick to the chest.

" **Grand SMASHER!"** Bojack stopped himself, then burst up into the air and fired a Grand Smasher blast downwards.

Kai calmly fired an Nail Gun at the Grand Smasher, resulting in him tearing through the blast with obvious ease.

"Cancelling out one attack isn't going to be enough!" Bojack burst down towards the ground and charged at Kai, leading the two of them to trade even blows, though he was quickly pushed back by a knee to the gut, an uppercut to the jaw and a kick to the neck, so he retaliated by firing off a rapid barrage of Ki blasts.

Kqi dodged and weaved his way around each blast with a series of backflips and rolls, and then he made his way through the explosions to confront Bojack himself, resulting in the two of them once again trading blows.

Bojack now found himself forced on the defensive and evasive, but once he was blown back a short distance he rebounded and tried to fire a Grand Smasher at point blank range.

Kai stopped this attack with one hand, then blitzed around Bojack and dealt him an elbow to the back of the neck, a kick to the spine, and then just as Bojack turned around, Kai hit him at point blank range with a quick Masenko, the force proving to be enough to send him flying straight through a number of buildings and out the other side.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Cooler gave a nod of approval at the sight "Excellent, now that his full power is on display and functioning at maximum capacity, the boy has the upper hand against Bojack. All he has to do is continue at this rate, and then his victory may very well be guaranteed already."

"I never thought I would actually see it…" Zangya muttered "Bojack of all people is actually being overpowered?"

"Your master heavily underestimates what these warriors are capable of. While he has great promise, the fact is that the boy is only the third strongest among them, so even if he should fall in battle, Bojack has no chance of victory today."

"True as that might be, he would never allow himself to go down so easily."

"Perhaps, but keep watch and you'll see the truth behind what I'm telling you."

"Alright then."

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Meanwhile, back with the main battle…

Kai leapt back a short distance and dropped back into his stance "You can go ahead and show yourself, I know for a fact that that's nowhere near enough to rip a hole through somebody like you."

Sure enough, the destroyed building suddenly exploded and Bojack emerged from within the rubble, his clothing practically wrecked, and he was mad as hell "You little shit… You're gonna pay for that…"

"I don't see how. Face the reality you piece of shit, if this is the best you can do then you're a long way away from defeating me."

"Shut up! This isn't possible, I can't lose, I won't accept defeat! I spent so many years trapped within that wretched star because of those damned Kais, I didn't break free just to let some little brat like you outmatch me!" Bojack spiked his aura as it started flickering in color, and he let out a primal roar as he powered up and his shirt evaporated from the sheer potency of his power hhe was radiating, his skin turning green and his hair turning red in the process.

"So this is what it's like when you're getting serious huh? Fine by me then, go ahead and do your worst!"

"Oh believe me boy, I fully intend to." when the smoke cleared and the chaos subsided, Bojack stood once more, his body crackling with green electricity and his muscles bulging visibly, his expression one of pure rage.

"Come at me." was all Kai said.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Piccolo breathed a sigh of disbelief at what he was sensing "Bojack's power level just completely exploded, I'd say that he's higher than Cell was in his Perfect Form now. How the hell did he do it?"

"It's an ability his kind has." Cooler told him simply "The fact is that with Herans, their initial forms with the blue skin only allows them to use about 70% of their maximum power. When they get back into a corner, they unleash their full potential, which usually allows them to overwhelm their opponents."

"You seem quite well informed about my kind." Zangya noted "I suppose I shouldn't expect anything less from the son of King Cold."

"My father's actions do not define who I am, so I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to me as such."

"I suppose I understand, I'd rather be seen as an individual myself than just another one of the followers of Bojack."

"What followers? You're the only one that's still alive."

"That is true. But putting our little bonding moment aside, what about them?"

"Bojack is using his full power now. The boy had the edge then, but now we'll just have to wait and see how this battle plays out."

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

Kai dropped back into his combat stance "Alright asshole, if you're so confident in your own abilities then come at me."

"Believe me boy, I intend to." so Bojack burst forward and let a fist fly, resulting in the two of them trading even blows across the battlefield, which ended with his fist being caught by Kai, the force releasing a sizeable shockwave "It doesn't matter what I may have to do, I'm never going to lose whatever it takes!" he released a Grand Smasher from his hand, the force of the explosion sending Kai flying back a short distance, so Bojack then followed up with a second Grand Smasher.

Kai leapt above the blast and landed on top of a plateau, only to be forced to block the incoming barrage of Trap Shooter blasts that followed.

"I've got you!" Bojack suddenly blitzed above him and promptly fired a Galactic Buster from his hand.

" **Nail Gun!"** Kai quickly fired a Nail Gun directly towards the Galactic Buster, resulting in a quick yet powerful beam struggle, but the Nail Gun lost out and was engulfed by the Galactic Buster after a few seconds ' _Fuck, not this shit again!'_

"It's over you little shit!" Bojack poured more power into his Galactic Buster, engulfing Kai in the massive explosion that followed as a result, resulting in a tense silence that lasted only for a moment.

The smoke was suddenly evaporated into nothing as Kai burst upwards from within the smoking crater and charged at Bojack, resulting in the two of them blitzing across the battlefield at full speed, which ended with the two of them kicking each other square in the face and grappling in a power struggle "Did you think that would be enough to bring me down?"

"So you're still holding on even after taking my Galactic Buster, you're even more resilient than I gave you credit for."

"I don't do anything half-assed, and don't think I'm giving up in this fight."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

"Nor should you." Kai ended the power struggle when he dealt Bojack a kick to the chest, only to be met with one of his own that sent him skidding back, but he fired an Explosive Demon Wave as he did so.

" **Grand Smasher!"** Bojack fired off a one-handed Grand Smasher and cancelled out the Explosive Demon Wave, the force sending Kai flying and allowing Bojack to deal him a smash attack to the spine that sent him hurtling downwards, and then Bojack followed up with a Grand Smasher he fired off at Kai's black, the force accelerating his descent and sending him crashing to the ground in a powerful explosion.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Gohan gritted his teeth at the sight of Kai being sent hurtling to the ground, his hair starting to flicker with his anger, but he suddenly took a deep breath and calmed himself down before it went any further "Kai get up, don't you dare lie face down in the dirt like that! Every single time it's really mattered, no matter how impossible things seemed to be, your determination never wavered and you found a way to beat the odds and push yourself further! I'm letting you do this because I believe in you Kai, and so do the rest of us! You have what it takes to put Bojack in his place, we all know that for a fact! Just plant your feet, grit your teeth, and eat that horse! Now GET UP!"

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

"Just plant your feet, grit your teeth, and eat that horse! Now GET UP!"

' _Gohan… I know… I have to get up…'_ hearing Gohan's encouragement, Kai slowly pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood ' _Thanks Gohan, I needed that.'_

Bojack scowled at the sight of Kai standing back up before him "So you do have more strength left in you. That's good, it means I can make you suffer for that much longer."

"That goes both ways Bojack, because this isn't over yet, not by a long shot."

"Tell me how brat, how is it that you keep standing back up no matter how many times I blow you to the ground?! Answer me!"

"It's not that hard to figure out. People like Gohan and Piccolo and Yamcha, they're letting me fight you on my own so I can prove to myself that I have what it takes to stand with the best of them. They're putting their faith in me, so now I owe it to them, to my mother, and to myself to not let them down!" he spiked his white aura.

"Just shut up, your worthless ideals don't mean anything in the face of my power!" the two of them charged forward to continue the battle.

"You say that they don't mean anything, but I'm going to remind you of how wrong that is, and why that's the case!" Kai blitzed around every attack Bojack threw at him with ease and began launching multiple counterstrikes in the process.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Zangya was taken aback by what she was seeing from Kai "It's incredible, the boy's speed has increased even further! He's even faster than before!"

"It is remarkable, truly." Cooler noted with a tone full of approval.

"I don't understand though, how is he doing this?"

"I think you already understand the answer to that." Gohan told her "Kai would never say this out loud, but he knows that the reason he's able to reach these heights is because he's fighting for something other than himself. He fights for the people who put their faith in him, and that's the difference between him and people like Bojack."

"What?"

"Son Gohan speaks the truth." Cooler told her "Behind every strike that the boy throws is an entire community of people who've watched him grow, pushing him through a lifetime of incredible battles, making him stronger not only physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Each one has been crucial, it's his friends and family, his allies and rivals, giving him the drive and inspiration to continue to push forward. He would never say this to anyone, but he doesn't believe for an instant that he has come as far as he has on his own."

"He's pushed me forward too over the years." Gohan added some more input "He's helped to shape me into the warrior that I am today, and vice versa. We were both just little kids when we first met, but even then he seemed to be so confident and sure of himself, but deep down I could sense a deep sadness and anger. He was hostile and snarky, but that was just a mask to conceal his true feelings. But over the years that mask has slowly crumbled away to become the warrior that you see today, and he's learned the true way that he desires. Even as he fights against his opponents, he does it with fists and a heart full of compassion and conviction. That's just the kind of person that Kai is, and the kind of person he always will be."

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"You say that they don't mean anything, but I'm going to remind you of how wrong that is, and why that's the case!" Kai blitzed around every attack Bojack threw at him with ease and began launching multiple counterstrikes in the process, eventually landing a Masenko at point blank range that sent him flying through several buildings "It's a little something called conviction, how about you pull your head out of your ass and try it for once!"

"Shut up!" Bojack burst out from within the rubble, his aura blazing with his rage "Your trust, your friendship, your conviction, your compassion, all of that can go to hell! I know for a fact and from experience that the only thing you can rely on in the universe is power! Power is the only consistency in the cosmos, everything else will just melt away eventually! Just watch and I'll show you!" he suddenly blitzed behind Cooler and the others, grabbed onto Zangya by the hair and Cooler by the tail, and attempted to fire two Grand Smashers, one through each of their backs.

" **Nail Gun!"** Kai suddenly blitzed between Bojack and the others and deflected both Grand Smashers with ease "You've got a lot of fucking nerve you Hulk reject."

"The things like people and compassion don't mean anything, they'll both be reduced to dust in a matter of time!"

"Shut your hole you piece of shit. I'm not a fucking superhero or anything like that, but I know that you hurt my friends and I'm sending you straight to the depths of hell!" so with his aura blazing like never before, Kai surged forward at his maximum speed and slammed his fist straight into Bojack's face, his eyes blazing with determination and rage, and then he surged around and followed up with an uppercut kick that sent him flying high into the skies of the abandoned city.

Bojack spiked his aura and unleashed multipled waves of Trap Shooters that hurtled across the battlefield in multiple directions.

Kai used small concentrated Ki blasts to propel himself along the waves of Trap Shooters, but stopped when he and Bojack collided fists, blitzing across the skies of the planet and taking their clash down the side of a mountain until the two of them broke away ' _I can't drag this out any longer than I already have. I don't know how long my Spirit Ken is going to last, if I'm going to end this then now's the time! Lucky for me I've still got my trump card!'_ he charged forward in an attempt to end the battle.

" **Galactic BUSTER!"** Bojack gathered up as much Ki as he was able to and fired forward a full power Galacic Buster.

Kai dove underneath the Galactic Buster, blitzed in front of Bojack and dealt him a sharp uppercut to the jaw that sent him flying "Oh that's fucking it, I'm gonna wreck your shit and I'm gonna do it now! Now's the time to put you down like a mad fucking dog, and I'm gonna do it with my own signature technique! **Dragon… FIST!"** using every ounce of Ki he was able to muster, Kai fired his ultimate attack forward at full speed, engulfing Bojack and sending him hurtling high into the skies above.

Bojack could only scream in agony as his body was ripped apart by the massive golden dragon that pierced through his chest, leaving him to be obliterated by the massive explosion that followed it.

With the battle finally over, Kai breathed a sigh as he slowly returned to the ground, his Spirit Ken still crackling with white electricity, only now his muscles were beginning to bulge from the strain ' _Okay maybe taking things slow with this fight wasn't the best idea._ You can come out now."

Sure enough, Zangya slowly emerged from her hiding place "Tell me, why did you bother to save me? God knows I've done terrible things but you went out of your way so that you wouldn't have to kill me, why? I mean you're still powered up and everything."

"A few reasons. First, you could've tried to sneak attack me but you didn't, you showed me you at least believe in a fair fight so you can't be all bad. Second, some people deserve second chances and no matter how evil anyone might be no one deserves to die like that. Shit, now I think Gohan really is rubbing off on me. Oh and to answer your other question, I can't power down just yet because the minute I do I'm probably gonna pass out from the sheer pain and agony."

"Oh. Well thank you for that." she looked around at the battlefield and cringed "Sorry about all of this by the way."

"Don't worry about it, knowing these people he'll probably just use the Dragon Balls to fix it."

"You say that like death has no consequences."

"To these people, it doesn't." Cooler noted.

"So are you going to try and kill me?"

"This was not my battle to fight, so I'll respect their wishes. As for you, what do you intend to do now?"

"...I honestly don't know."

"Then if I may, allow me to offer a suggestion. Perhaps you could join the ranks of my forces."

"You mean the Frieza Force?"

"The Cooler Force would be more accurate now. I could use someone of your potential."

"You would really let me into your army after everything that's happened? My former boss literally drop-kicked you across a city today."

"I've been met with far worse from much more powerful adversaries, one of whom we may very well be dealing with very soon. I must bolster the ranks of my forces as much as possible, and I can't afford to be too selective with this crisis on the rise."

"Speaking of crisis on the rise…" and then Kai suddenly passed out as the Spirit Ken aura faded from his body.

"...I'm surprised that hasn't happened sooner."

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Meanwhile, at the Son residence…

"Hey Chichi we're home!" Goku and Raditz made their way into the Son residence, looking a lot more energetic than when he left.

"You're looking a lot more upbeat now than you did before." Chichi noted and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah well, some time off was what I needed. Anyway we brought a little something back for you, so check it out." he pulled a few sandwiches "Uncle Jesse's from West City, I got you a #17 with extra coleslaw."

"Oh thanks, I've been so busy with Goten I haven't had time to cook lately." Chichi took a bite of one of the sandwiches and let out a sigh "Oh god, this feels like heaven in bread."

"Glad to hear you like it, and because of that I have a proposition for you."

"Make it involve this, I could eat this so god only knows how long."

"Funny you should mention that, because, well… Raditz you wanna take over?"

"Nope, your wife, your problem." was all Raditz said.

"Thanks for the backup big bro. Anyway Chichi, what if I told you that you could have these kinds of sandwiches for free for the rest of your lives?"

"Sounds tempting." Chichi took another bite "I just might have to take you up on that offer for the time being."

"Good, because… well…"

"Yeah?"

"Dammit Kakarot stop beating around the bush, we bought Uncle Jesse's!" Raditz blurted out, causing Goku to cower behind him.

"Yeah I know, I'm eating it right now."

"Not what he means." Goku let out a nervous chuckle.

"Then what do you mean?"

"He means we kind of… bought the actual restaurant itself." that caused her to drop her sandwich in shock.

"...What?!"

"And now Raditz, you see why I'm using you as a meat shield."

"You mean you bought a freaking restaurant without talking to me first?!"

"Well the owner was going to close the place, so the two of us decided to save a West City institution. We're gonna be kings of coleslaw and cold cuts."

"Uh huh."

"Plus Yamcha is the investor." Raditz told her "I'm pretty sure that makes him the archduke of all that food related crap."

"But what the hell do either of you two know about running a restaurant?"

"Okay Chichi, I need you to work with me." Goku tried to calm her down "I know this might have seen a little bit hasty and impulsive, and I can't count very high but I do know it was really expensive, but this way I can finally earn some money for our family that doesn't come out of the Ox-King's treasure vault, and I can do something productive that doesn't involve punching other guys. Besides, if there's one thing Saiyans know aside from fighting, it's food."

"But now we've gotta head out and meet Yamcha at the bank, apparently that's what you do when you run a business." Raditz told her "Then again I'm just guessing, I've only lived on his planet for about half a decade."

"And I don't know anything about business in general, but we're gonna learn so much when we're spending Yamcha's money, which is actually Bulma's money." and so they left.

"...Oh sweet mother of god." Chichi quickly pulled out a phone "18 get over here, Goku just did something on an entirely new level of stupid."

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A few hours passed.

Bulma pulled into Capsule Corp and found Chichi and 18 brooding over a game of cards on the back terrace "Oh hey guys, get this my speech was amazing. I think I really made an impact, and the best part is that I didn't even get mauled by the Back to the Future community-"

"Couldn't give less of a crap about that." 18 just placed down a card.

"Eesh, what the hell is the matter with the two of you?"

"What you haven't heard?" Chichi pulled herself to her feet "Goku and Raditz apparently bought a sandwich shop here in West City without consulting me."

"Wait back up a second, they bought Uncle Jesse's?"

"Yeah, when they were at lunch with Yamcha earlier today. What the heck were the three of them even doing there? They've never hung out a day in their lives."

"Uh… I don't know, that is an unlikely trio. So you mean they didn't just have lunch and solve each other's problems?"

"Who said anything about having lunch or solving problems?"

"Oh, well… Definitely not me, that's for sure. That doesn't sound like something that I would ever do. Dammit, I can't lie, it sounds exactly like something I would say because I totally said it to them!"

"Well it makes sense." 18 noted dryly "Even a stupid idea has to have at least one smart person behind it."

"Look all I did was have Yamcha take Goku out to lunch to cheer him up, then Raditz got thrown into the mix, but buying a sandwich shop was not part of the plan. But keep in mind the guys can be pretty resourceful, and Uncle Jesse's is a pretty popular place, so maybe they'll be able to make it work."

"Oh well I'm glad you're on board with it, because it just so happens that your hubby is the primary investor."

"...With those two idiots?"

"Yep, so now we've got three idiots in the mix. Raditz and I are supposed to be partners, I get a say in these major life decisions don't I? No I mean I'm seriously asking you two, I've never been in a stable relationship."

"You're asking the wrong woman." Chichi told her "My husband of 10 years was sent from another planet when he was born and he's died twice in the span of half a decade."

"Fair enough. I say we go down there and stop this crap, any objections?"

"None from me."

"Just hold on, I'd better pack some heat." Bulma pulled out a capsule, which just so happened to contain a bazooka.

"Back it up lunatic, we're just talking this out. Blowing them up is the backup plan."

"Duly noted, but I'm bringing it anyway."

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About 20 minutes later, at Uncle Jesse's…

By this point, Raditz and the others were closing the deal with Uncle Jesse "I'm gonna go ahead and say it Uncle Jesse, it's an honor to follow in the footsteps of such an establishment."

"Just make sure you treat this place right." the old man shook his hand "I've gone out of my way to put a lot of my own sweat into my sandwiches over the years." and so he walked away.

"...Just to be clear, he meant that in a metaphorical sense right?"

"Well it's not a deal breaker." Goku gave a shrug and took a bite of his sandwich "A good sandwich is a good sandwich."

"Yeah that's true, one thing to note about Saiyans is that they're never picky about food."

"No arguments here."

"Um, hey guys?" Yamcha pointed at where Chichi, Bulma and 18 were making their way into the building, looking so calm it was unnerving.

"...Okay, so we're probably gonna die. Nice knowing you guys."

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About a day passed and everyone had been moved to Satan City hospital, well almost everyone that is. Truth be told Gohan and Kai were only chilling on one end of the roof of the hospital, while Piccolo was brooding on the other side.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me, Mr Satan saves the world from destruction again?" Kai let out a loud nort as he threw the magazine into the air and fired a Ki blast at it "Well isn't that just fucking typical, that ass clown gets all the credit and ends up on the front page while we do all the heavy lifting and end up in this joint."

Gohan let out a chuckle "Say whatever you like Kai but if he didn't take the credit for it then we'd probably be drowning in reporters right now."

"I'd just carve a gigantic hole through all of them."

"Which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. But either way you did what you said you were gonna do, you defeated one of the big bads all by yourself, you saved the world and you even surpassed me." he wrapped an arm around Kai "I really am proud of you buddy."

"Thanks for that, now get your arm off of me." he looked up and shot a small smile up towards the sky ' _And thanks to you too mom. I'll keep getting stronger and restore the good name of martial arts that you worked so hard to make for all those years, I promise that on my life._ But you know Gohan, this whole thing proved to me two really important things. One, I've got what it takes to stand with the big boys. Two, with the right press I could be as huge as Mr Satan. Well almost, if I could find a big enough wig."

"Wait a second, Mr Satan doesn't wear a wig."

"You're still way too naive Gohan, nothing on that man is real. He probably got his entire face from the afro to that ugly ass chin at a white sale."

"A what?"

"...My god I knew you were sheltered but that's just wrong. Anyway change of topic, so apparently your dad and uncle bought Uncle Jesse's sandwich shop."

"Yeah, from what dad and Uncle Raditz tell me at least. It's kind of crazy."

"But at the same time it makes a lot of sense. Yamcha was talking about some kind of side investment, but it's with Goku and Raditz, and to put it bluntly, your dad has less of an IQ than a retarded squirrel."

"I know, as horrible as it may sound, I think that's an understatement. But my dad has that fire in his eyes back, it's like he's got passion and hope back in his heart, and I think that's a good thing for all of us."

"So he's got the spark back. Good thing too, surpassing him would be hollow if he wasn't at his absolute best. Plus it might be a solution to more than just that problem, after all from what I've been told Uncle Jesse's isn't a typical sandwich shop."

"Yeah that's true, it's an established brand with loyal clientele. The place is a fucking goldmine, with any luck they might even be able to franchise the place."

"Sounds like a lot of things are changing. Things change, and they're gonna keep changing, now it's up to us to see what those changes bring to us."

"That sounds corny as fuck."

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Meanwhile, with Cooler…

With the battle and tourmanet over as soon as they started, Cooler was making his way through the cold darkness of space in his ship, his mind drifting as he sat on his throne "It would seem that Son Goku's son is not the only one with remarkable levels of potential that can be utilized in the coming conflict. That boy Kai, his power is far greater than I had originally anticipated, and it may very well surpass me as well. He needs to know about this. Supreme Kai, if you can hear me please respond."

" _I am here Cooler. Is there something you wish to bring to my attention? Have you made any progress in your search for Babidi in your section of the universe?"_

"Unfortunately no, but I have discovered something just as important. Do you remember Bojack, the intergalactic space pirate sealed away by the Kais?"

" _I am aware of that one, yes."_

"It would seem that he escaped, but was vanquished by forces from planet Earth."

" _Earth you say? Yes, Kibito and I journeyed there a few years ago, at your request when the planet was under attack by that evil Namekian."_

"The conqueror Lord Slug, yes. Those boys that you came across, one of them was responsible for Bojack's demise, and the other one, the half Saiyan son of the Saiyan who defeated my brother Frieza, he was the one responsible for the defeat of the creature I mentioned during our last conversation."

" _The one you called Cell."_

"Yes. Both of these boys are leagues beyond what my brother and father were capable of, and I believe they may very well surpass me as well. Both of them are considered to be heroes in their world, as well as to the Namekian people."

" _I see. I must ask though, where do you intend to go with this?"_

"Do you recall that legendary weapon on your world, the Z sword I believe?"

" _The one that not even I myself could remove, nor any of my predecessors. Only a truly worthy warrior may even tough such a weapon, and only one of great enough strength would be able to remove it. Tell me Cooler, do you intend to claim that one of these two children would be capable of removing the Z sword?"_

"That I cannot say for certain, but I do ask that you take it into consideration. These two boys are very remarkable, and I believe they are something truly special."

" _Very well, I will take this into consideration. For now, I must continue the search for Babidi in any areas that I can. He cannot be allowed to succeed under any circumstances."_

"I understand. In the meantime, I shall continue searching within my domain for any possible leads, and I shall contact you when I have anything."

" _Understood. You have my gratitude."_

"It's an honor." Cooler disabled their telepathic connection and was left alone with only his thoughts "The battle of the universe is coming, and it's only a matter of time. But one thing is for certain. When the battle does come, nothing will ever be the same agan. Son Goku, you and your allies had best be ready for when that day comes."

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we see the next movie adaptation of this story, in the form of adapting the Bojack Unbound movie, as well as a brief return to this story on my part. I'm not saying that I'll be returning to this story full time, not yet at least, since the world is in a state of chaos from the coronavirus, I've still got college going for me, and I'm working on other stories as well.**

 **I was going to have Zangya be killed by Bojack like in canon, but honestly it's a semi bad habit I have. Besides I have a soft spot for characters that I think have unused potential, hence the reason why I'm giving a bigger role to Yamcha and the other human characters. Also let's face it, after his role in the Tournament of Power I think Android 17 became a lot of people's favorite characters.**

 **So yes, now Goku and Raditz own a sandwich shop in West City. I got the idea from watching the last season of Fuller House, seeing Jimmy and Fernando do the same, and I'll be honest, if a Saiyan ever had to get a job, a full-blooded Saiyan I mean, so Gohan doesn't count, it would have to be something involving food.**

 **Now then, I've got something to address to all of you. There's a good reason for why I've been staying away for so long. For those of you who aren't aware, I might as well just come out and say it: Dragon Ball Z Abridged is over, Team Four Star has decided not to continue with the Buu Saga. For a long time after hearing that, I just didn't know how to feel about it. I was angry and disappointed, but at the same time, I felt a sense of emptiness. Maybe I sound ridiculously sappy when I say that, but that's how I felt. But there's no point in getting too riled up, it won't change their decision. All we can do is adapt to this situation, we carry ourselves with pride and not give into juvenile impulses. We let ourselves feel sad of course, but we can't give into it. Now we do what we can to honor their legacy and keep it alive in any way that we can. That's what a true fan does.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 360 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 40x): 14.4 billion

Kai (Spirit Ken): 54 billion

Gohan: 2 billion

Super Saiyan Gohan: 14 billion

Yamcha: 62 million

Tien: 60 million

Tien (Kaioken 20x): 1.2 billion

Weighted Piccolo: 30 billion

Android 17: 675 million

Android 17 (Super Electric Strike): 4.05 billion

Android 18: 660 million

Cooler (suppressed): 2.4 billion

Cooler: 8 billion

Zangya: 3.5 billion

Zangya (full power): 5 billion

Kugo: 2.1 billion

Kugo (full power): 3 billion

Bido: 4.9 billion

Bujin: 4.2 billion

Bojack: 28 billion

Bojack (full power): 35 billion


	34. Middle School Days, Kai's New Student

**Vukk:** Yeah you're right, I really should've edited that chapter before I uploaded it. But I went back and fixed the errors you mentioned, along with a few others. I'll make sure not to make that mistake again.

 **Guest:** I went back to the chapter and fixed those mistakes, so the chapter should be okay now.

 **ULTIMATE PETER:** Yeah, I deleted it because it had a lot of errors and issues, but I reuploaded it once those mistakes were fixed. Still though, I'm glad to see that you've been keeping up with this story.

 **Zealot07:** Well if nothing else, I appreciate your honesty.

 **Guest:** Huh, you know I never really thought of it like that, but it does make sense.

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The skies were calm over the skies of West City, but a great and very unexpected change was about to take place.

Kai stood outside of the Capsule Corp building, clad in a red t-shirt and a pair of jeans, with a backpack draped over his shoulder, and he shot an annoyed glare back at Yamcha "Remind me again why the fuck I agreed to do this."

"Don't act like it's some form of torture, going to school is not that bad." Yamcha told him "You said before that you needed something to do while you were waiting for the next season of Rick and Morty didn't you?"

"Yeah but I never said anything about going to public school, especially in the city named after that son of a mother fucker."

"Think what you want about him, but… look, we both know your mom wanted you to have some kind of semblance of a normal life, so please… just work with me on this, okay?"

"...Fine, I don't like it but I get it."

"Good. You're definitely a lot calmer than you used to be, that's for sure."

"Learning about the Spirit Ken did leave me more at ease I guess. Fine, if you and Bulma are that desperate to get some time alone then I'll go along with this for now. See you in about 8 hours." and so he blasted off into the skies.

"Not the response I was hoping for, but it's good enough for me. Hey Bulma he's gone, grab the scented candles!"

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Meanwhile, with Kai…

By this point, Kai was flying through the skies of the world, his mind drifting ' _You know looking back, maybe Yamcha was right when he said that I had calmed down a lot. I mean it's been about three years since the fight with Cell, since I learned how to use the Spirit Ken… three years since I saw my mom again. Then a year later I used the Spirit Ken on that space pirate Bojack, and now fast forward two years and here I am, 13 years old and going to middle school. Son of a bitch, what the hell have I gotten myself into? Well here it is, the edge of the city. At least I've got enough time to grab a slushie or something before it starts.'_ he dropped down to the ground on the edge of the city, and in front of him was a sign with a certain picture on it that infuriated him to no end ' _Satan City, home of the great messiah. Yeah, that day will only come when pigs start shooting out of my ass. Why the hell people just believe that Mr Satan of all people was the one to kill Cell is beyond me, but they gave him millions of Zeni and even named a fucking city after him! I liked it a lot better when it was called Orange Star City, I think that was because some rich old guy found a Dragon Ball here at some point. Well anyway the question remains, where can I get a slushie around here?'_ and so he started bolting down the streets of Satan City at full speed, drawing the attention of some onlookers "Oh piss off, don't you have some Lord and Savior to praise or some mindless bullshit like that?" he continued bolting through the streets until he stopped when he noticed something, that being a heavy shootout between some cops and a back of criminals in front of a bank nearby ' _Oh yeah, criminals with rifles, if that's original then I'm Mary Poppins. Three times during three trips to this town, I guess it's gonna be a regular thing then. Well since I've got some time to kill, maybe still get a slushie, but before that I think it's time to put the Superman theory to the test.'_ so on that note, he promptly slapped on a pair of shades and blitzed around a corner.

The robbers were still shooting up a storm like a couple of madmen, forcing the cops to cower behind a nearby car "How the fuck do you like them apples you little bastards?!"

"That depends, how do you like getting my foot lodged up your ass?" Kai promptly knocked out that thug with a single kick, then followed up by knocking out the second one with a single punch.

"You just made one hell of a bit mistake you little fucker!" the third one tried to shoot at him like a maniac.

Kai just let the bullets hit him and fall to the ground harmlessly "So you wanna rethink that one-liner before or after you come out of the coma?" he promptly knocked the guy out with a single kick to the face "After the coma it is then."

"Who the fuck is this freak?! The hell with this, we've gotta get out of here!" the last two guys in the getaway car tried to run away in a desperate panic.

"And then there were two." Kai stuck out his fist and sent out a simple shockwave that turned the getaway car over in an instant.

"That was incredible!" the various witnesses, among them being an old man that owned the bank in question, looked on in awe at the display of Kai's power, only to be jaw dropped when they saw that he had disappeared.

As for Kai himself, he poked his head out from behind a corner and rolled his eyes as he slipped off his shades "So much for testing the Superman Theory."

"What the heck is this?" this was when another person showed up on the scene, this one being a young teenage girl with a white t-shirt, black shorts and black hair in a set of twintails "Who the heck took out those criminals? I know it wasn't those two police officers."

"Didn't see it, don't care. It's over and done with, that's the important thing. Speaking of important things, you know where a guy can grab a slushie around here?"

"Oh yeah sure, there's a place about a block that way."

"Good enough for me, thanks." and so he took off while her back was turned.

"And to think, I had to come all this way for nothing. Looks like there's someone out there trying to steal my thunder."

"Oh hey, Miss Videl, over here!" the old man got her attention "I saw the whole thing with my own eyes, it was that Crimson Warrior who did it plain as day!"

"You've gotta be kidding me, the Crimson Warrior again?"

"Yeah and you should've seen the fella, he moved like the dickens. First he gave a bunch of them the whatfor, then he flipped their truck and then he flipped their truck when a few of them tried to make a break for it, and he didn't even touch it. He just stuck out his fist like that, and then up it went! I know it might sound crazy too, but I think he might actually be one of your classmates over at Orange Star Junior High. He's got a school badge on him, the same as the one you've got there."

"Wait a second, you mean the Crimson Warrior goes to my school? Well whoever he is, he's proving himself to be one hell of a showoff. I'll tell you one thing, I'm gonna get to the bottom of this whatever it might take."

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About an hour passed, and the schoolday at Orange Star Junior High was about to get underway.

Having already arrived in advance, Videl turned to one of her friends, a guy with long blonde hair in a purple wifebeater shirt "Hey Sharpner, should I expect you to drop some kind of bombshell that you're this Crimson Warrior or something? If you are then I say go ahead and fess up already."

"Hate to break it to you, but I'm not your guy." Sharpner told her flatly "Besides, I usually prefer to spend my mornings in the gym working out. I don't have time to go around playing My Hero Academia all over the city."

"Yeah that figures, I shouldn't be surprised by that coming from you."

"Wait Videl, hold on a second." this was when her other friend, Erasa, thought of something "Do you think there's any chance that this guy might actually stronger than your dad?"

"Oh come on Erasa be realistic, my dad saved the planet from Cell years ago. Keep in mind that if there was anyone around stronger than him, I think we would've found out about it a long time ago."

"Ahem." this was when the teacher got their attention, shutting everyone up "Good morning students, we have a new transfer student joining us today and this is his very first day here at Orange Star Junior High. Don't be shy son."

"Trust me, I'm anything but shy." so Kai made his way into the classroom and shot them a very dry look "Okay I'm gonna make this blunt, it's either spending time among people my own age or staring at a computer screen waiting for the next season of Rick and Morty to drop. You guys better make this worth my while."

Erasa almost immediately wound up with hearts in her eyes "Oh wow, this new guy is pretty cute from here. I hope he's got a thing for blondes."

"I regret this already."

"Yes well, putting that aside, this here is Kai Sapien." the teacher went on "Incidentally, the boy here actually did very well on his admissions tests, as in he aced the math, chemistry, physics, history, literature and foreign language sections, so everything basically." he was met with an uproar from multiple students "That's quite enough out of all of you, and as I was saying I hope that he will inspire some of you to try harder for a chance. Now go ahead and take a seat son, anywhere you like."

"Duly noted." Kai glanced around at the various empty seats in the classroom "Now then, which of them are least likely to give me a migraine?"

"Yoo hoo!" this was when Erasa called out to him "Hey new guy check it out, we've got a seat over here with your name on it."

"...For the lack of better options, I might as well." so Kai made his way over and promptly sat down next to Erasa, on the end of the row, only to receive a look from her that involved her batting her eyelashes "What?"

"So you're the new guy right? I'm Erasa, and the sourpuss that's giving you the evil eye right now is called Videl."

"Uh huh, really interesting."

"You know Videl here is actually kind of a celebrity, you see her dad is a big deal. Would you believe me if I told you she was the daughter of Mr Satan?"

"Not even if you paid me all the Zeni on this entire fucking planet."

"I know, it's totally awesome isn't it?"

"Like I said, not even if you paid me."

"Oh come on now Kai, don't be such a sourpuss like Videl. I'm totally telling you the truth about this. Face the reality, if it weren't even for her old man then none of us would even be alive right now. That man is a hero through and through."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself blondie."

"So you were that guy!" Videl suddenly pointed at him like the Evil Monkey.

"You wanna elaborate why you're pointing at me like the Evil Monkey?"

"You were the guy that I saw outside the bank when they caught those robbers this morning weren't you?"

"Oh wow, that does spike things up a little bit." Erasa shot him a grin "So does that mean you saw the Crimson Warrior this morning?"

"The Crimson whatnow?"

"Oh yeah so you haven't heard of him, well you're new around here so I guess you wouldn't know about him. You see, the Crimson Warrior is some new crime fighter that's shown up like three times now over the past ten days or so to put a few thugs in their place. He's as strong as a rhino, and the one thing that makes everyone know it's him is that he's always wearing a red shirt and a pair of shades, so that's where he gets the nickname."

' _They must be talking about me, the other two times were only when I came into the city to register for this school. So instead of proving or disproving the Superman Theorem, I somehow end up becoming a superpowered version of Batman.'_

"Hey Kai, tell me something." Videl shot a sharp glare in his direction "I talked to one of the witnesses that saw what happened at the bank this morning, and according to what I heard from him, the Crimson Warrior happened to be wearing one of the badges from this school, along with a red shirt and pair of dark blue jeans, and you happen to be wearing the exact same outfit from the description he gave me."

"So what, I'm not allowed to wear the color red? I like red, and if you've got a problem with that then take it up with someone who gives a shit. As far as you're concerned it's just a coincidence, nothing more than that."

"Oh is that right?"

"Of course it is, be real for a minute." Sharpner let out a scoff "It's gotta be just a coincidence, I mean what the hell is the new guy gonna do, hit the criminals with his glasses? You heard what the teacher said, the new guy is a bookworm, not some fearless hero type."

"Oh yeah, thanks for the backup Sharpner."

"I'm just calling it like it is, he's not the fighting type, plain and simple."

"Fine, we'll just have to agree to disagree. _He acts like he doesn't give a shit, so the jury is still out on whether or not he's the Crimson Warrior. How could he do those things anyway? I mean I do remember seeing those guys on dad's old videos of the day he fought against Cell, and they were able to do stuff like that, but he said that they were just a bunch of lightshows and tricks and the like. Then there's those Golden Warrior types who could turn their hair color from dark to blonde all at once. Dad just said that was some kind of trick though, and that one makes sense, but as for the other stuff… I'd better keep an eye on him for the time being.'_

' _Aw that's cute, she thinks she's catching onto me.'_

This was when Erasa started trying to get him to warm up "So Kai why don't you tell us more about yourself, are you staying in town for school or are you gonna go back and forth for it every day?"

"Commuting in every morning, better than what I would have to wake up to in this city, and if you don't know what that is then that's your problem."

"Okay then, so out of curiosity how far out do you live anyway?"

"I live in West City, it's only about 12 miles so it's not like it's ridiculously out of my way. I know a guy who lives in Section 439 East, and I see him almost every day."

"Wait are you serious? That place is like 600 miles away, how the hell could you see him every day?"

"The test scores aren't just for show, frankly as far as brains go I give the Briefs one hell of a run for their money. Or in terms that I'm more accustomed to, they can suck it."

"But seriously though, even if you took a jet flier that's like 5 hours away."

"Not when you've got access to the good stuff. _For fuck's sake, in a situation like this there's no way Gohan would last five seconds.'_

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A few hours passed, and things had progressed to the point where they had finally reached the only subject that Kai would be particularly interested in: gym class.

"Alright you guys, listen up!" the coach called out to them "Since it was such a big hit with you guys yesterday we're gonna play some more baseball, let's see some more hussle today, you got me?"

"So brains, you a baseball genius too?" note the mocking in Sharpener's tone.

Kai gave a shrug and suppressed the urge to flip him off "Well I know for a fact that my uncle used to play baseball, but I myself have never played before, so I guess we'll find out."

"You're kidding right? Of course you haven't, if they don't teach it in a book then you don't know the first thing about it. Have fun getting the new kid up to speed Videl, he's all yours for this one."

"You honor me by sticking me with the daughter of the messiah." Kai's tone was practically drowning in sarcasm.

"Yep, I'm definitely making the right call."

"But I don't want the new guy." Videl protested.

"Come on Videl, just think this through." Erasa told her "It doesn't matter if he hasn't played the game before, if he's as smart as we think he is then he'll probably be able to come up with some really good strategies for us."

"...Alright fine, if you're so serious about this. Hey new guy, I'm gonna put you on the right field for this one. You do know which way is right don't you?"

"Do I look like I'm fucking blind to you?" Kai rolled his eyes "I might need glasses but I can see just fine, just like I see that stick you've got up your ass."

"...I signed on for a lot of things, but this is not one of them."

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About 10 minutes passed, and the game started, though it was proving to be pretty uneventful for the most part.

Kai studied the current situation ' _Okay, now let's see the best course of action here. Yamcha was nagging me pretty heavily about not showing too much of my power or else risk causing some kind of huge uproar, saying that if people find out the truth about me then it would fuck up any chance I have of fitting in here. But then again, I didn't want to be here in the first place, so just doing what I do and make myself seem like a total badass seems like a reasonable solution for the current situation.'_

"Alright new guy, I'm about to let you have it." Sharpner stepped up to the plate and readied his stance.

Videl was ready to pitch "Swing and a miss coming up." she chucked the ball as hard as she could, causing her hat to fall off in the process.

"Fly you little shit, fly!" Sharpner rammed the bat into the ball as hard as he could, almost sure to bring in a home run.

However, this was when Kai basically settled on a "fuck it" sort of mindset, and leapt about 30 feet into the air to catch the ball, causing the jaws of everyone present to hit the ground "Okay so I caught it, that means the Hannah Montana reject is out." he received a low squeal from the reject in question ' _Looks like the runner on third base isn't actually touching the base, so that means if I throw the ball toe the baseman on third then he'll be out._ Hey third, if you don't want your head to get ripped off by this then hold up the glove like your life depends on it, because with me it probably does!" and so he promptly hurled the ball downwards at ridiculous levels of speed.

The guy was able to catch the ball, though he fell back flat on his ass "W-Woah… Uh, okay so I guess that makes it an out then."

On that note, Kai touched the ground with a triumphant roll in mid air "Alright guys that's three outs so get moving already, let's go ahead and switch sides and bat already." that was when he noticed how they were all gawking at him "Don't you have anything better to do than gawk at me like that? Oh wait, we're in middle school so probably not. _Note to self, all out will probably end with these guys getting committed somehow. Huh, so that's what Yamcha was talking about before. Oh well, that makes it more fun for me.'_

The coach was the first one to find his voice "What are you looking hangdog for son? That was an amazing jump, you must have cleared 20 feet at least."

"I counted 30 feet actually, and as for how I pulled it off, three things you need to push yourself to the maximum: Push ups, sit ups, and plenty of juice."

"Well it was still amazing either way." then he turned to the others "Alright, which one of you is up to bat?"

"Come on assholes, let's keep it moving."

"Actually dude, I'm pretty sure it's your turn to go up there now." one of the guys told him "You are number 8 aren't you?"

"...Oh I'm gonna have a fucking field way with this one." Kai grabbed a bat and made his way up.

Videl was still giving him the Evil Eye ' _So here's the question, is his batting as good as his jump and catch? Well I guess we're about to find out aren't we?'_

"Alright, who's pitching?" Kai got into a batting stance.

"Of course, I should've guessed you'd be a left-handed hitter." the coach noted.

"That gonna be a problem?"

"No no, if that's what makes you comfortable then I say go right ahead."

"Good, that was what I planned to do."

"But you're holding the thing backwards."

"I know what I'm doing, so just stand back and let the master do his thing. Alright, who's the sucker that's pitching against me?"

"How about me for that sucker." Sharpner stepped up to the plate looking as smug as ever as he prepared a pitch ' _You've got some nerve stealing my homerun you little shit, I say it's about time someone taught you to show respect to those who deserve it.'_

' _The blonde bastard is probably gonna try and do something to humiliate me for stealing his thunder, yeah like that's gonna work. I don't wanna kill the guy, maim him is sort of stretching it, but not killing him. Not yet anyway."_

"Here it comes hotshot, if you value your life then you'd better hit the deck!" so Sharpner threw his pitch forward at full speed.

"Am I supposed to be impressed? FORE!" with lots of dramatic flare, Kai swung the bat and struck the ball hard enough to send it flying out of view, most likely never to be seen again "You see, that's how you do dramatic flare right. Take notes Hannah Montana. So yeah that's a home run in all its glory, someone let me know if it makes a full lap." he just casually walked towards first base while the other guys snapped out of their stupors and ran all the way around ' _Well that worked out pretty well I guess, at least nobody is running away from me and screaming like a pack of banshees.'_

"I'm starting to think to think he's more than just a typical smartass." Sharpener muttered.

Videl was becoming increasingly more suspicious of Kai "What the hell is this guy's deal, who does he think he is?"

Erasa, on the other hand, had cheeks turning increasingly red ' _That was so cool.'_

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Sunset was only about 2 hours away by the time school had ended for the day.

Kai was nonchalantly making his way through the halls of the school, his bag slung over his shoulder to complete is "I don't give a shit" demeanor ' _Well that could've gone a lot worse, at least people aren't chewing me out for the baseball stuff. Truth be told, by this point I wouldn't be surprised if everyone thinks it's just a bunch of light shows and tricks like Afro the Ass Clown has been telling them for the past few years now.'_

"Hey new guy."

Kai glanced over to see Sharpner coming up to him still looking as cocky as ever "What do you want?"

"Tell me something, have you joined any clubs yet or what?"

"I have no interest in any of that crap."

"Well if you haven't picked one yet then how about you take up the boxing club, I think you'd do pretty well for yourself. After all, we all know that you can hit hard enough."

"Clearly you don't have any sort of listening or comprehension skills, I just told you I'm not interested in any of that."

"Keep in mind Sharpner, I'm sure he's got enough on his plate as it is without you trying to recruit him to stuff." this was when Videl came up to them "If he doesn't want to then he doesn't want to."

"To summarize what she said without using too many words for you to understand, I'm not interested so piss off."

"...Fine whatever, your loss I guess." and so he promptly walked off, scowling to himself as he did so.

"Well at least one of you is smart enough to know when someone wants to be left the fuck alone, so thanks for that I guess." Kai started walking away himself, only to be grabbed by the arm by Videl "And now I take back what I said about you being smart enough."

"I just want to-"

"No. And because you don't seem like someone who would take no for an answer the first time, let me reiterate. No, no and fuck no." and so he walked away, leaving Videl fuming.

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About 20 minutes later, outside the school…

So after being blown off by Kai so easily, Videl took to the next best thing: following him. The only thing is, she wasn't particularly impressed by the sight of him just walking home ' _Okay, so what the hell is with this guy? He says that he lives in an entirely different city, now he's acting like he's just gonna walk home.'_

Kai rounded a corner, but stopped almost immediately after, leaving Videl to crash into his back face first, causing her to recoil in pain as a result "You know I've got better things to do with my time, I would think you'd have better things to do than stalk the new guy."

"Son of a-" Videl clutched her nose in pain, revealing that it was not sporting a gigantic bruise square in the middle, and she let out a sigh of frustration "I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

"So badly that you resorted to stalking me like a rabid fangirl? Well you're committed if nothing else. Alright fine I'll play along for a minute, so what do you want?"

"First things first Kai, it didn't take me very long to piece all of it together, and it does make some sense as far as I'm concerned. The Crimson Warrior happened to be wearing the exact same outfit as you were today, and he looks exactly like a certain someone that was at the Cell Games a few years ago, at least from what I've seen, a kid in a red gi that looks a lot like you. He was with some of those other guys that had the ability to turn their hair from black to blonde and back again. You're connected to them aren't you?"

"...Well shit, looks like my initial impression of you was a hell of a lot more spot on than even I was expecting. You're as perceptive as you are nosy, and it's only been a day but I know enough about you to know you're nosy as fuck."

"I'm gonna choose to ignore that. So what you're saying is that you know those people, including the boy who fought against Cell that day?"

"Pretty much yeah."

"I see. So what happened to those friends of yours exactly? Nobody could find any information on most of them besides the students of the Turtle School and the Crane School, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Krillin."

"There's not a lot to tel. Everyone went their separate ways. Tien took his best friend and fellow Crane School student Chiaotzu to train in solitude in the mountains, Krillin gave up fighting and I still see Yamcha a lot. It only makes sense, considering he's my uncle."

"Hold on, what?! When the hell were you gonna mention any of this?!"

"When it became your business, as in it's not right now."

"...Fine, then one of you at least explain how you guys are so familiar with the likes of them."

"What the fuck did I just finish explaining? It's not your business."

"Son of a- Alright fine, just answer me one last question. That Crimson Warrior, I already mentioned how he looks like the guy from the Cell Games, but he also looks like the guy from that Intergalactic Martial Arts Tournament that went to hell 2 years ago. You want to explain that one?"

"That was me."

"Uh huh, I figured as much. Now explain to me why the hell you and your friends use all of those cheap tricks instead of fighting with honor, using your little stunts in gym class today as a prime example."

"...You know I change my impression of you. Not only are you both perceptive and nosy, you're narrow minded as fuck."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, your current mindset is the reason why you're not gonna get anywhere in life."

"Where the hell do you get off saying that?!"

"I say it because it's true. You can't get anywhere in life unless you're willing to be open minded to change and explore possibilities. And speaking of which, now it's my turn to ask you something. Your dad, the supposed savior of the planet from the clutches of Cell, the pinnacle of martial arts mastery right?"

"Well yeah of course, how could anyone hope to match him? Sure I still train and try to better myself, but I know I could never match him."

"And that right there is more than enough reason for me to be disgusted by you. Any true martial artists deserving of that title knows that, aside from the fact our abilities being called tricks is absolute bullshit, is that you always aim to better yourself, no matter what obstacles or limitations stand in your way. A very wise and gentle soul once told me that there's a difference between those who aim for the top and those who settle. Anyone who would settle doesn't deserve to think of themselves as a true martial artist."

"So what then, you don't think my dad is a true martial artist?"

"You said it, not me. Like I said though, your current mindset isn't gonna get you anywhere in life, and it's why you're better of knowing nothing else about me or the people I'm associated with." and with that, Kai promptly blitzed out of view, leaving Videl alone on the sidewalk with a lot to think about, and a lot of rage to go with it.

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About an hour passed.

As the sun was setting over the skies above him, Kai had now made his way back to West City and was now sitting in a certain sandwich shop that became relevant last chapter, reflecting on the day's events ' _Well it was a pain, but I guess it wasn't as much of waste of time as I was expecting it to be, not as much I mean. Yamcha was probably right when he said that my mom would want me to have some semblance of a normal life, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go out of my way to keep what I know about and what I can do a secret. I don't care what those people think of me, if they think I'm a freak then they're not worth my time. People are always going to fear and hate what they don't understand, but eventually the right people are gonna show up to you sooner or later. I guess that's why I've stuck with Gohan for so long.'_

"Here you go kid." this was when Raditz came over and handed him two food baskets "I've got your usual, a #7 with coleslaw and an order of fries."

"Thanks. I still don't understand how in the name of fuck this actually happened."

"What, you mean me and Kakarot somehow turning into productive and responsible members of society? Yeah, I still find it hard to believe myself."

"Well with you it sort of makes sense as long as you stop and actually think about it."

"Yeah that's true, I mean now 18 and I are married and have a daughter of our own, Ranch."

"And you said yourself back when you first showed up on Earth that Saiyans are pretty much intergalactic businessmen."

"Fair enough, I'm surprised you remember that little detail actually. But anyway, why the need for the comfort food?"

"I was in middle school for one day and it was enough to make me wanna fly into space and suffocate myself. Or them."

"Fair enough. Sounds a lot like my first day in the Frieza Force actually. So anyway, problems with the day then?"

"Aside from the usual smartass jock that every school has, somehow I ended up attracting the attention of a certain girl that turns out to be nosy, perceptive and has no respect for the privacy of others, all in one four foot package. It gets worse that that though, you remember Afro the Ass Clown?"

"You have a dartboard with his face on that, and so do I, thanks again for that wedding gift by the way."

"I had to get you guys something. Anyway get this, that pain in the ass girl just so happens to be his daughter." this promptly caused Raditz to burst out laughing "Yeah yeah go ahead, get it out of your system, but keep in mind that my Spirit Ken is still more than enough to give Super Saiyan one hell of a run for its money. But in all seriousness, Satan's daughter is gonna be a gigantic pain in my ass, I just know it. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Have you told her anything?"

"All but told her that I was at the Cell Games and I was the one that killed Bojack during that tournament two years ago."

"Well here's a thought, try training her."

"...You wanna run that the fuck by me again?"

"It only makes sense. Look, she might be related to that jackass but does she take her training seriously?"

"To an extent."

"Does she have potential in your eyes?"

"Probably."

"Then for all we know she probably outshined that jackass that she calls her father already, or maybe she will soon, but either way you get my point."

"You're missing a major snag in that little plan of yours, the fact that I don't have the patience for teaching, and I don't take shit from people so that would make things that much worse for all of it."

"Maybe under normal circumstances but you did teach Gohan how to use Ki, and I think we both know he was quite the whiner back then."

"...I swear to fuck, you'd better be right about this or the next time I see you will end with you getting a hole blasted through your scrotum."

"All the more reason for me to get to Super Saiyan 2 myself."

"Don't think that's gonna be enough."

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About 2 weeks went by, and things seemed to calm down at Orange Star Junior High.

Kai was calmly making his way through the halls, his mind racing ' _I swear to god, Sonic the Hedgehog better be right about this or I'm blasting a hole through his gut. I guess he's got a point though, I mean looking back she does have potential as a fighter, above average Ki, and with any luck maybe my little rant got through to her. But that doesn't mean I'm taking any bullshit from her, any of that "light shows and tricks crap" and I have no problems with blowing a hole through her skull.'_

Unfortunately for him, that was when Videl stopped him in the hall "Hello Kai, lovely morning isn't it? You adjusting to the new school well?"

"Cut the bullshit Satan, just tell me what you want."

"So blunt and straight to the point, I can respect that. You can drop the act, you know as well as I do that it's over Kai, or should I say Crimson Warrior?"

"Go on."

"I'm not an idiot Gohan, the fact that you and the Crimson Warrior look exactly alike aside from the hair and the physique, not to mention the shades and the outfit. It's like you weren't even trying to hide your identity."

"I wasn't."

"I had my suspicions even though you were obviously trying to throw me off but then I thought of something, what reason would you possibly have to dress up like that in the first place?"

"Do you only hear what you want to hear? You know what that's a problem for another day, to answer your question it was mostly working on a hypothesis, as in whether or not the Superman Method actually works."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. Think about it, Superman hides behind a suit and a pair of glasses, so I was trying to determine whether or not that method works in real life. Since you figured it out after about a month or so, I think the answer is: More or less."

"Huh. You know I've never actually thought about that."

"At least it works well enough so people don't think I'm a freak or something."

"I go around fighting crime too you know, so does that make me a freak?"

"No, it makes you the only daughter of a man that about 90% of the people in the world view as some kind of god. So what now, are you gonna rat me out or something for stealing your thunder or whatever bullshit reason?"

"Oh come on, do you really think I'm that petty?"

"Yes."

"...Yeah okay, that one's on me."

"So seriously, are you gonna rat me out?"

"Actually, I think I've got a better idea. I won't tell anyone about that, on the condition you do something for me."

"If you try to make me a man servant or something, I swear to god-"

"Like I said, I'm not that petty. You said before that there's a difference between those who aim for the top and those who settle, and a true martial artist would never settle under any circumstances right?"

"That's what I said yeah."

"And that I wouldn't be able to aim for the top if I stayed so "Narrow minded". Why don't you show me what you mean by that exactly?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Those things you did in gym class the other day, like jumping so high and hitting the ball so far, and some of these other abilities you're talking about. Show them to me and show me how to do it, and we've got ourselves a deal."

"So basically you want me to show you how to chuck a ball into the stratosphere and how to fly, is that about right?"

"If that's how it goes then sure."

"...Fuck, I'm probably gonna hate myself for this sometime within the next hour. Fine fuck it, you've got a deal Satan."

"Glad to hear we're on the same page. I mean learning how to fly can't be that hard right? Plus it kind of bugs me that you can do something that I can't. You don't have any idea how much I'm looking forward to this."

"Probably about as much as I'm already hating myself for agreeing to this. Look I've got shit to do for now, we'll do this on Saturday."

"Alright, it's your choice I guess. See you when the big day comes bigshot." and so she walked off to class, looking as smug as ever.

"...I swear to fuck, I'm gonna kill Raditz for this."

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Saturday came, but things were already getting interesting by the time it did.

Kai found himself standing on a rooftop in West City, with Krillin and Yamcha standing in front of him looking ready to fight "So explain to me again why you wanted me here, I've got other shit going on today."

"Nothing too big, just testing out a few new techniques the two of us have been working on for awhile now." Krillin shot him a smirk "Keep in mind, you're not the only one who wants to keep up with the Saiyans."

"No I get that, I mean why the fuck are we on a building with Satan's face on it."

"Well we had to fight somewhere, and it's not like we want to draw attention to ourselves when we're doing this."

"Fine whatever, as long as I get to blow his face off the side afterwards. It's not gonna be the same as blowing the face off of the real deal, but for the time being I'm pretty sure it's gonna be as close as I can get to getting any real sense of satisfaction."

"Fair enough I guess, but make sure you don't go all out."

"I wouldn't if you did want me to, you're gonna have to earn that. Keep in mind that we may both be human but I've been pushing myself through every barrier I come across with the intention of surpassing a fucking Super Saiyan. You still wanna do this knowing that I have that sort of technique at my disposal?"

"We both know that all too well." Yamcha shot him a smirk of his own "We know that you've got the power beyond Super Saiyan at your disposal, but we're human too, so why shouldn't we be able to reach that level ourselves? You said it yourself, don't settle for being better when we could be the best."

"Huh. Well it's about fucking time that stuck with someone. Fine by me, if the two of you are so dead set on this then I say come at me."

"Sure thing, but I'll be going first." Krillin stepped up to the plate, his confident smirk never fading ' _This reminds me of the days back when we fought in the World Martial Arts Tournament all those years ago._ Why don't I start by showing you some of the moves I've been working on lately? **Destructo Disk!"** he quickly fired forward a Ki saucer from his hand, and then followed up with a rapid barrage of saucers as well.

Kai blitzed forward and around the various Destructo Disks, watching as Krillin raised his hands to his face in a certain position ' _So he's trying for a Solar Flare is he?_ You know that only works on eyesight."

"Yeah I know, it's called a fakeout!" Krillin launched a rapid barrage of Ki blasts at Kai when he was too close to dodge, and with a wave of his hands he had the Destructo Disks swarm back towards him.

Kai was forced on the evasive and destroyed each saucer with a single Ki blast to each one, though not without receiving a shallow cut to his cheek and one of his arms "So you're going with diversionary tactics?"

"And I'm not done yet! **KamehameHA!"** Yamcha suddenly burst through the smoke and fired forward a full power Super Kamehameha at nearly point blank range, sending Kai skidding across the rooftop.

"So you're trying to throw me off? This isn't a fucking tournament, in this kind of fighting we fight for life and death, case and point: **Namek-Ken!"** Kai's aura surged and turned a shade of green, allowing him to blow away the Super Kamehameha with ease. He slowly looked around across the rooftop, only to find that both Krillin and Yamcha had vanished from his sight "I can sense you guys trying to hide amongst the rubble you know, and whatever you're planning isn't gonna work on me!" he unleashed another surge of Ki that blew away all of the rubble surrounding him.

Yamcha and Krillin were both quick to land on the ledge of the rooftop "I knew you were going to do that."

"I didn't expect the two of you to hold out for as long as this, but if you wanna keep this one going then I say go for it. I'm game enough to take you both on, so what other tactics have the two of you got going for you?"

"How about you give us a second and we'll find out." Yamcha and Krillin both got into the same stance, and within a few seconds they were both surrounded by faint white glows, their bodies crackling with electricity "So what do you think?"

"You both master the Spirit Ken, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that. I'm gonna go out on a whim and assume that Triclops did too?"

"Yeah, we did it after your little showdown during that intergalactic tournament. We just wanted to surprise you with it."

"Well you did, and I admit I'm impressed. Anything else I should know about?"

"How about this." Krillin waved his hand, causing to ground underneath Kai's feet to suddenly break apart.

Kai blitzed away from the broken ground beneath his feet before he fell "Again with the diversionary tactics, I'm guessing that the Destructo Disk barrage you launched at me earlier wasn't with the intention of launching all of them at me, am I right?"

"You got that right and it worked like a charm too, at least until the end there. I've gotta give it to you though cueball, power is well and good but wits are just as important in battle."

"You yourself said that it's important to get create if you wanna get ahead in a fight."

"That I did, charge in without thinking and you'd end up like all of the other fuckers that get themselves killed, or in your case, thrown into the ocean like a jackass."

"...You're never going to let me forget that are you?"

"Nope."

"I didn't think so."

"Nor should you have." Kai powered down his Namek-Ken, and with a quick surge of Ki he activated his own Spirit Ken "So what's your plan for this one, you gonna use another fakeout with the Solar Flare?"

' _To think he'd actually use the Spirit Ken on us, I saw him use it against Bojack before, but now that I'm on the receiving end of it… He hasn't even made a move yet and he's already got me sweating.'_

' _With a difference in power like this, even with the two of them fighting together I think it's safe to say I'd trounce them pretty decisively. I guess the two of them just don't want to go down without a fight, they have pride themselves after all.'_

"I'm just gonna say it Kai, I'm really enjoying this."

"You're not the only one, but I think it's time for us to end this." Kai cupped his hands at this side, blue Ki gathering in his palms " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

Krillin and Yamcha promptly copied his movements, cupping their hands at their sides as blue Ki generated in their palms " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

" **HA!"** Kai fired forward a full power Super Kamehameha.

" **HA!"** Krillin and Yamcha fired forward their own Super Kamehamehas that combined into a much larger one, which proved to be powerful enough to cancel out Kai's blast, resulting in a blinding explosion that also cleared away the storm clouds gathering overhead. When the clash was over, Krillin fell to his knees from exhaustion as his Spirit Ken faded.

Yamcha helped Krillin to his feet as his own Spirit Ken faded "I've got Krillin, are you alright buddy?"

"Yeah… Yeah I'm fine… It's just hard to get a handle on that power."

"It's not the power that's the issue." Kai powered back down to his base state "The main principle of the Spirit Ken involves clearing away all doubts in your mind and heart, and making sure that your will is absolute. If you let either of them waver in the slightest then it's gonna tear you apart from the inside."

"Duly noted. So what then, you want us to keep this going?"

"No I think that's more than enough for the time being. I think it's safe to say that we've got a lot to do if we wanna keep up with Gohan and the rest of them, but I have to admit it does feel good to know that there are others who have that desire themselves. But in the meantime I've got something to deal with later today, so we'll have to table this for now."

"Something that we should know about?"

"Not if you don't want a Nail Gun blasted through your skull."

"Fair enough."

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About an hour passed, and the rest of the storm clouds had faded away, while two of the three combatants from the initial scuffle had relocated their training to a clearing outside of the city limits.

Kai started stretching as he wiped the blood from his cheek "Looks like the cueball has more going for him than I gave him credit for."

"He's not the only one, I've been giving it my all too lately." Yamcha promptly started stretching himself "Well I think we've got about a half hour to kill before your new friend gets here."

"She's not a friend, she's pretty much blackmailing me to do this."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, now come on, let's do this! **Kaioken!"** with the first level of his Kaioken activated, Yamcha suddenly blitzed out of view.

' _Looks like he's gotten a lot faster.'_ Kai easily managed to block Yamcha's first attack, which resulted in the two of them trading even blows, sending shockwaves across the clearing they were in, before the two of them broke away "Looks like you've improved a good amount yourself."

"Having a family to fight for and protect acts as a great motivator, but the Spirit Ken does help in that regard."

"You're still holding out though, I can tell that much pretty easily."

"The same could definitely be said for you, and since we're on a tight time limit right now I say we kick things into the next gear already. **Namek-Ken 3x!"** Kai thrusted his Namek-Ken to the third level.

"That works just fine for me! **Kaioken 20x!"** Yamcha pushed his Kaioken as high as he was able to, and then charged forward with a kick aimed at Kai's head.

Kai easily blocked the kick and promptly hit Yamcha square in the chest with a palm thrust, the force sending him skidding backwards, and then he fired a quick Explosive Demon Wave.

Yamcha flared his crimson aura to dissipate the smoke that resulted from the blast "I'm not anywhere close to being done yet, what do you say we finish this?"

"Fine by me, we going for the Yamcha special?"

"I never agreed to that name, thank god for it too, but yeah I think that's the best way to finish this fight. **Spirit Ball!"** Yamcha gathered his Ki into the palm of his hand and forced the Ki upward in the form of a medium-sized sphere, which he then hurled forward.

" **Spirit Ball!"** Kai promptly launched forward his own Spirit Ball, the two attacks colliding and the force blowing away a large number of trees as a result.

With the end of the brief struggle, Yamcha powered down his Kaioken and let out a sigh "You know I've really gotta hand it to you Kai, you really have come such a long way over the past few years."

"You aim to be the best, it's not something you procrastinate with." Kai powered down his own Namek-Ken, only to let out a groan of clear exasperation "Looks like we're gonna have to table this for now, the unwanted company just made herself known."

"You realize that I'm standing right here." Videl pointed out dryly from where she was standing at the edge of the clearing.

"Yeah I know, and I thought you weren't gonna show yourself until noon."

"I didn't have anything better to do so I decided to come earlier, is that gonna be a problem for you?"

"What the hell do you think? And for that matter, how did you know I was out here in the first place?"

"All I had to do was look in your file at school, it really wasn't that hard."

"Figures, just like that I lose the ability to hear myself think."

"Go ahead and whine about it all you like, we made an agreement and you don't get to get out of it that easily."

"If I thought I could then I would've just told you to piss off. Alright, sense you're clearly anxious to get started I might as well get this over with. Yamcha clear out."

"Way ahead of you." so Yamcha blasted off through the skies back in the direction of the city, but as he did he pulled out his phone "Gohan, you're never gonna believe what Kai is in the middle of doing right now." he was met with a stray Ki blast that knocked his phone out of his hand, and then another one that caused the phone to explode "Yeah that figures, and I still had two more payments on that thing too."

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Meanwhile, back with the two main characters of this chapter…

With that little demonstration out of the way, Kai blew away the smoke emanating from his palm and turned back towards Videl "Okay, now that my credibility is being sustained let's get this shit underway. Sound good?"

Videl waved that off nonchalantly, her tone just oozing arrogance "Yeah yeah, let's just get started already."

' _Strike 1._ Anyway the key to learning how to fly is simply just having basic Ki control, which really isn't that hard once you get the hang of it but if you wanna zip around really fast and really high then that's the sort of thing that takes practice."

"Hold up a second. The key is Ki control? What the hell does that even mean?"

' _Oh for-_ Okay, Ki is basically what this hidden reservoir of power you have hidden within your body and-"

"It's this what hidden in my where? Earth to Kai, you're not making any sense!"

' _Strike 2._ Maybe you're more of a visual learner, let's try this." Kai turned around and got into a stance "Watch carefully and take not of everything I do." his white aura flared slightly, blue Ki forming in his cupped hands " **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he fired a severely held back Kamehameha at his base power, leaving a large hole in the side of a nearby mountain ' _Note to self, be sure to fix that later with the Dragon Balls.'_

"...Yeah okay."

"Alright then, what do you call that?"

Videl pondered for a moment, before proceeding to infuriate Kai with her answer "Well it's just a bunch of light shows and tricks right?"

"I have no problems with shooting you through the skull in a blind rage, and that's only after throttling you." note how he said this with a completely straight face and merely pointed at the gaping hole in the mountain "And for the record, if you even think about trying to claim that to be light shows and tricks again like how Afro the Ass Clown says, then just get the fuck out of here right now. Does that look like a trick to you? Everything I'm telling you guys and showing you is nothing but the truth and that gigantic ass hole in that mountain is all the proof you need."

"Well excuse me if I'm not used to seeing a bunch of guys my own age blasting hole through fucking mountains!"

"That's it!" Kai was about to fire a Masenko at her face, but he restrained himself "You know you make it very hard to control myself when I deal with you. I am taking time out of my own schedule, time that I could be using to train with my uncle or Gohan, to teach you and how to fly and how not to be a disgrace to any and all true martial artists purely out of the goodness of my heart, so cut the attitude and stop acting like a total bitch. Remember this, I'm not like most of your fanboys and I don't take shit from anyone, least of all from some pathetic spoiled brats like you. Got it?"

Videl let out a growl and gritted her teeth, but she composed herself "Fine. I have to admit, having someone actually stand up to me is pretty rare, but it's sort of a nice change of pace."

"And you've got grit if nothing else, so I give you points for that."

"So where exactly does this Ki stuff come from anyway?"

"Every living thing in the universe has Ki inside of them, but the problem is that barely anyone actually learns how to use their Ki effectively, so for the time being we've gotta find it and help you learn to use it before you can learn to fly, let alone anything else."

"Fine then, let's get started." so Kai sat down on the scorched grass "Alright listen up, I'm gonna take this one step at a time so you can follow it alright?"

"Fine by me, let's just get this started." Videl promptly sat down next to him in a legs crossed position.

"Good. Now then, the first thing you have to do is quiet your mind and relax." he cupped his hands in front of her "When you're ready you start slowly drawing out your Ki from within your body." he slowly formed a ball of Ki within his palms, leaving Videl in awe at the sight.

"Woah…"

"There, you see now?" he dissipated the Ki sphere "So then, are you ready to give it a shot for yourself or do you need another demonstration?"

"I think I'm ready, it can't hurt to try right?"

Videl slowly cupped her hands.

"Remember, you have to relax yourself or it's not gonna work."

"Right." Videl tried to summon her Ki out but ended up quickly growing frustrated, causing her entire body to tense up.

"No no no, you've gotta calm down. Don't stress yourself out too much, it's not gonna happen if you spend all your time beating yourself up to the point where you won't let it come out."

Videl just looked up at him, tears of anger brimming in her eyes "I need to find a way to make this work."

"...I think that we've done enough for now, why don't we head back into the city and get some lunch."

"Okay."

"I know a decent sandwich shop, and I owe a certain someone over there a little… present for a certain suggestion he made to me."

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

Piccolo looked up from his meditation to see a certain someone standing before him "Is there something I can help you with Gohan?"

Sure enough, Gohan stood before him, now clad in a purple blue colored gi similar to Piccolo's but slightly larger, a red obi and red wristbands, white shin guards and black shoes, and he looked rather nervous "Actually Piccolo, there's something I was hoping to talk to you about."

"I never mind that Gohan, but is there any particular reason why you're in your Super Saiyan form right now?"

"Oh, that. Well I don't really know how to explain it, but I'm trying to continue with my training, even if I don't have a lot of time to spar with Kai or dad these days."

"...You still feel as if you're responsible for your dad and Kai being killed during the Cell Games don't you?"

"Yeah, that's part of it, but another part of it is this strange feeling I'm getting that something is gonna be coming soon, and I wanna make sure I'm ready for it, but I'm not quite sure what it is exactly. Plus I want to make sure I'm strong enough to protect the Earth now."

"I see. Well it looks like I didn't have anything to worry about after all."

"Wait what?"

"Frieza showed up on Earth with his father, and after that I always thought that I had to be on my guard, but if some new enemies like Cell or Bojack or some new enemies show up then you may be the only one strong enough to defeat them, so I figured either myself or Kai would have to push you in the right direction whenever we believed it to be necessary, but I guess you didn't need either of us to do such a thing after all."

"So that's what you meant. I have to admit, it does feel nice to know that you have so much faith in me."

"Yeah, so what is your plan exactly? Just keeping yourself in Super Saiyan isn't going to be enough to cut it you know."

"Yeah I know, and I do have one other idea in mind. I want to go back inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I know I pretty mucy did all I could in there before with dad, but…"

"I understand, but you shouldn't use that unless you absolutely have to. Keep in mind that you have a time limit of only 48 hours in there, or you'll be stuck inside forever."

"Yeah that is true. Do you have any ideas for me then?"

"With regards to your strength, you're probably about as strong as you can get right now, so you shouldn't expect much improvement in terms of raw power. However, some things that you could work on would be learning new techniques and improving your mental fortitude."

"Mental fortitude, you mean staying focused in a battle right?"

"Exactly. Kai and your dad both know how to do this pretty well, but you on the other hand tend to get a bit too emotional."

"Yeah, you're right about that. After all, when I transformed into a Super Saiyan 2 during my battle against Cell I let my rage take over. You think maybe I should try and do with it what dad and I did with Super Saiyan?"

"It couldn't hurt to try."

"Okay then, but what about techniques? You did mention that before."

"Well I've actually been thinking about this before. Perhaps it's time for me to teach you some of my more advanced techniques, the first of which being… the Special Beam Cannon."

"...Wow." despite the initial shock he was feeling, Gohan's gaze hardened as his eyes blazed with determination "I'm ready Piccolo, let's get started."

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A few hours had gone by, and training was about to resume.

Kai sat back down in the field "Now remember, you have to keep your shit together or it's not gonna work."

"I know I know, I have to stay calm." Videl relaxed slightly as a light began pulsing slightly in her hands.

"Yeah there you go, you're almost there."

Slowly, a small Ki sphere flickered into life in her hands.

"Yeah there you go, you're better at this than I was expecting. Gohan took almost 2 hours to summon her Ki and I took almost a full day, you're even more naturally talented at this than I gave you credit for. I've gotta I'm impressed, good job."

Then her Ki sphere disappeared and she fell forward slightly, stopping herself from hitting the ground with her hands. Then she grinned and bolted to her feet "So am I ready for learning how to fly now or what?"

"Not even close. You've still gotta learn how to control it effectively, your body is a lot of mass to try and move around for a rookie you know." he received a pissed off glare "Go ahead and act like you're on your period as much as you want, I didn't get as strong as I am right now by giving a rat's ass what people thought of me."

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A few more hours of practice went by.

Kai stood in front of Videl in the wasteland, rubbing his temple "Okay, now it's finally time for you to take your first flight. You ready about this?"

Videl nodded rapidly "I'm more than ready for this, let's do it."

"Okay, now for this to work you've gotta relax your body but be sure to focus your Ki at the same time even if they do sound contradictory."

Videl began focusing her Ki, the ground pulsating slightly beneath her feet.

"Alright, very good. You're definitely getting the hang of it so now all you have to do is push."

Videl slowly lifted herself a few inches off the ground.

"Alright, there we go. And we've got a lift off."

"Will you quit babbling, I'm trying to concentrate!" then she fell back to the ground.

"Hey you don't have anything to complain about, you got done in just a single day what took me almost a full week to get, even if I was only 3 at the time."

"...I'll be back tomorrow, we'll have to continue this then."

"You wanna run that the fuck by me again? I held up my end of the deal and taught you how to fly, you don't need me for anything else."

"Our little agreement never said just teaching me how to fly. Besides I want to learn more about controlling this Ki of mine. My being here isn't a problem for you is it?"

"Yes it is, I thought I made that abundantly clear before when I called you out on your crap."

"Think of it like this, training me is training you too." she pulled out an airship "Alright then, I'll see ya later." and she took off.

"...You've gotta be kidding me, what the fuck have I gotten myself into?" on that note, Kai then pulled out a notebook titled Death Note and started writing in it "Let's see… Raditz, stabbed to death in an attempt to sabotage his match during the next World Martial Arts Tournament, quarterfinals, let's say around 1:45 or so."

 **A/N:**

 **And so with this chapter, we see a little bit of slice of life action with our main characters, whether it be Raditz running a sandwich shop (not to mention the fact that he and 18 have a kid now), Gohan learning new techniques with Piccolo, or Kai starting middle school and quickly starting a… unique relationship with Mr Satan's daughter Videl. In case it wasn't clear by chapter 32, this will be a Gohan x Erasa fic, and this chapter should clarify that we'll be getting some action between Kai and Videl. After all, if I've made Gohan and Erasa into the gentle-hearted pacifists, then Kai and Videl would have to be the martial artists with the drive to accel. As for whether or not they'll actually become a couple, well that's something I haven't actually decided on yet.**

 **I know part of this might seem like I'm sort of copying and pasting some of the material from when Gohan starts high school, and I admit that I am to an extent, but the main reason for that is because I'm trying to show how Kai would handle things differently from Gohan. Keep in mind that Kai can be more calm and logical about social situations than Gohan, and he's a lot less socially awkward. He just doesn't give a shit, as he would say.**

 **Also, for those who missed what Raditz said in that scene in the sandwich shop, he and 18 have now gotten married and have a daughter, Ranch, as in ranch dressing, like his and Launch's daughter from the What if Raditz Turned Good series by Masako X. Just a little something for all of you to keep in mind.**

 **Now then, let me close out this chapter by wishing all of you a happy Memorial Day 2020. All of you be well and spend this day properly.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 475 million

Kai (Namek-Ken): 950 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 3x): 2.7 billion

Kai (Spirit Ken): 71.25 billion

Yamcha: 100 million

Yamcha (Kaioken): 200 million

Yamcha (Kaioken 20x): 2 billion

Yamcha (Spirit Ken): 15 billion

Krillin: 60 million

Krillin (Spirit Ken): 9 billion

Krillin & Yamcha (Dual Spirit Ken Kamehameha): 25 billion

Videl: 20


	35. Ghosts from the Past, an Ominous Warning

**Guest:** I don't know if I would go so far as to say that Videl hates Mr Satan, even though Kai sure as hell does, but I'm glad to see you approve of the pairing.

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked this chapter. Goku, Raditz and Yamcha all running a sandwich shop is something I think a lot of people will find to be pretty funny. The idea of Kai going to middle school and meeting up with Videl and company is something I've been stewing on for awhile, but the Crimson Warrior thing was fun. Yeah, Kai and Videl both have pretty similar types of personalities actually, so it does make some sense when you think about it.

 **Guest:** Glad to hear you're so fond of the Kai x Videl pairing.

 **Guest:** That is an interesting idea, but unfortunately that won't be happening in this fic.

 **Guest:** As interesting as that sounds, the idea of humans having a Zenkai boost has already been done by both the DBZ fan comic Elsewhere, and the DBZ fic Rewrite the Stars by xSonallyGirl129x. Of course I have no intention of letting the human characters get cast aside, which is part of why I created the Spirit Ken technique, which allows them to keep up with the power levels of the Saiyans, as well as Piccolo, Cooler and the Androids.

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A full three and a half years had passed since the battle against Cell, and two and a half years since the brief invasion by Bojack and his Galaxy Soldiers, and things had been relatively peaceful on Earth.

In Other World however, the time had come for the Other World tournament, a competition between warriors from the four main galaxies of the universe, in which Scarlet and a warrior by the name of Pikkon from the West Galaxy were about to go at it in the final round.

"It's only fair to warn you Scarlet, the outcome of our battle will be will be different from the last time." Pikkon warned.

"I think we'll see about that soon enough." Scarlet shot him a grin "But either way, I wish you the best of luck Pikkon."

"The same to you my friend." and then the battle began as both of them blitzed out of view.

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However, things were about to take a dire turn.

At the Check In Station in Other World, a teenage ogre by the name of Saike Demon was slacking off when he was supposed to be guarding the Soul Cleansing Machine.

His lack of attention allowed the machine to become too full and as a result the machine exploded, releasing all of the evil energy inside of it at once.

Saike was enveloped in the evil smog, causing him to transform into a large, fat and seemingly innocent monster by the name of Janemba, whose first order of business was to place a barrier around the Check In Station.

Since the Check In Station was shut down, there would be no barrier between dimension. The heavens would no longer be protected and the gates of hell would be wide open, the dead would walk among the living and the living among the dead.

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Meanwhile, on Earth…

" **Explosive Demon Wave!"** an Explosive Demon Wave burst outwards from the palm of Videl's hand, incinerating all of the trees in her path, and she breathed a small sight afterwards "Okay, so how was that?"

Kai observed from afar and nodded in approval "Alright not bad, looks like you've got that one down flat. So far you've done a decent job in learning have the Kamehameha, the Masenko, the Spirit Ball, the Explosive Demon Wave and the Destructo Disk, all in just 6 months."

"Yeah yeah I know, now what's the hardest technique you've got? I need a challenge. You know, those two techniques you created, whatever you call them."

"What, you mean the Nail Gun and the Dragon Fist? Not on your fucking life Satan."

"Why the hell not?"

"Well for one, the Nail Gun is patented and it's more of a family thing than anything else, and as for the Dragon Fist, that one is way too advanced for you, and me for that matter. I can only use it once in a fight, and after I do I'm pretty much drained as fuck. There's the Special Beam Cannon but that one has the same issue, even if it's to a lesser extent."

"Well that doesn't mean you can't show us."

"...Fine, but once and only once." he held up two fingers and began charging Ki into them, his fingertips crackling as a result " **Special Beam Cannon!"** he fired the Special Beam Cannon at a nearby mountain, blowing it to bits as a result.

"Holy crap."

"I know right? The problem is that it takes up way too much time to charge all that Ki and it's a huge energy drain so it's kind of a double edge sword to the user. You'll work your way up but you have to be patient, got it?"

"Yeah I guess."

"Good." then he pulled out his phone "For the last time, I'm not subscribing to- Oh hey, what's up Gohan? Alright fine, be there in 20." he hung up and turned to Videl "Training is getting cut short today, he needs me for something."

"Some kind of problem?"

"Don't know yet, but even if it is that's usually a Tuesday for us."

"It's Sunday."

"Exactly." and so Kai blasted off through the skies without another word.

"...I can never read that guy." then Videl got a notification on her comlink "This is Videl, what's going on?"

" _So sorry to bother you like this Videl, but we've got a serious situation here."_

"I started to gather that much, so what's going on?"

" _This is something you'll have to see for yourself, it's completely insane. You'd better come downtown, and hurry!"_

"I'm on my way, I'll be there in a few." and so on that note, Videl started flying back in the direction of Satan City.

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Meanwhile, with Kai…

By this point, Kai was soaring through the skies and found Gohan flying a short distance ahead of him "So you gave me the heads up, now you wanna give me some details as to what the actual fuck is going on?"

"I've been sensing some kind of anomalies for the past hour." Gohan told him "And now I've been hearing reports all over the world being invaded by the living dead. You know what this means don't you?"

"You bet your ass I do. It's the zombie apocalypse, pay up mother fucker!" he was promptly smacked upside the head.

"Not that you sadist, you can sense it as well as me can't you? There are a ton of Ki signatures popping up out of nowhere, and a lot of them feel way too familiar for my liking."

"Yeah, I can feel it now, and… I think can sense my mom among them too."

"Well whatever it is that's going on, we've gotta find the source and figure out a way to stop it before things get even more out of hand.

"Yes Son Gohan, you are indeed correct." a new voice cut in.

Kai and Gohan screeched to a halt in mid air at the sight of a certain midget with a white mohawk, purple skin and pointy ears appearing before them "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, you again? Seriously?"

"Indeed Kai Sapien, Son Gohan, it's been a long time." Shin bowed to the two of them "I can see that both of you have both grown a great deal since the last time we met, and accomplished some praiseworthy feats as well."

"How would you know about that?"

"At the recommendation of one of my allies, one you both are very familiar with, I've been keeping an eye on the events taking place in this world for quite some time, and it would seem he was right to say that the two of you have the most latent potential this world has to offer."

"I see. Well in all honesty, we do owe you a debt of sorts." Gohan pointed out "After all, if you hadn't healed us back then we might not have been able to beat Slug."

"You give me too much credit Son Gohan. I have my doubts that such a claim would be true but defeating the likes of the evil Namekian Slug would most likely have become considerably more difficult."

"Yeah I'm with him, we can praise him and his mohawk later." Kai noted dryly "So in the meantime Shin, what can you tell us about what's going on right now?"

"An accident in the Check In Station in Other World mutated one of its workers and as a result the Check In Station is now out of commission, essentially destroying any existing boundaries between the living and the deceased."

"So what exactly do you think we should do then?"

"Well considering at least one of your companions knows the Instant Transmission technique of the people of Yardrat, I believe it would be the best course of action for one of you to travel to the Check In Station and see what you can do to defeat this creature. Kai, your mother should already be en route to there as we speak, as well as another warrior from Otherworld."

"...I see." Kai shot him a smirk "Then we've got nothing to worry about, if she's on the job then that thing is as good as dead."

"You seem quite confident in her capabilities."

"And for good reason, as strong as I am right now, I know for a fact that she's even stronger than this, or Gohan and Goku, or any of them."

"I see, so then it seems the source of this situation is in good hands. Well if that is the case, then I suppose I shall take your word for it."

"Smart move, now what's the rest of your plan?"

"Come again?"

"You know something you haven't told us about yet, why else would you keep that shit-eating grin plastered across your face."

"So you noticed. He was right when he told me that you were quite observant and had an impressive intellect to match your level of power."

"Whoever your so-called benefactor is, he definitely knows his stuff."

"Indeed he does, which is why I count on his support in such trying times. But in the meantime, I believe that some adversaries you are very familiar with are making themselves known to the rest of the world-" he was cut off by Kai disappearing in a flash "Where did he go?"

"In simple terms, I think he wants to get a head start." Gohan told him simply.

"On what exactly?"

"My best guess would be, some much needed catharsis by proxy on his part."

"In regards to whom exactly?"

"Let's see, Vegeta, Frieza, Slug, the Androids, Cell… basically anyone that he hasn't been able to defeat on his own. It's a lot of people actually."

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Jellybeans, lots and lots of jellybeans.

That was all Scarlet could see when she and Pikkon arrived on the scene of the Check In Station using her Instantaneous Movement ' _Get a load of this, it doesn't look anything like the Check In Station that I know. It feels like King Yemma is inside that gigantic jellybean. Well that's weird, that's not a sentence I ever thought I would have to say.'_

That was when a silhouette of King Yemma appeared on the surface of the jelly bean " _Scarlet it's you, thank goodness you're here! An accident mutated one of our workers, he's the one who's responsible for this!"_

"Don't worry King Yemma, I'll have you out of there faster than you can say Snake Way! Now to take a shot one three Pikkon. One, two, three!" so Scarlet fired a Ki blast, with Pikkon doing the same, only for it to not even crack the barrier "Huh. Well that was anticlimactic."

"That's one way of putting it." Pikkon muttered "I figured that would've at least done something to it."

" _Scarlet, Pikkon, look on the roof! The monster that did this is on the roof!"_

"What? But I don't see anything on the roof." Scarlet promptly floated up towards the roof, only to find the gigantic blob that was Janemba sitting up there without a care in the world "Okay now I see it. To be completely honest though, it doesn't really look that mean to me."

"Well I guess we're about to find out." Pikkon then floated up to confront Janemba "Are you the one who removed the barrier between the living and the dead?"

"Janemba… Janemba…" was all the thing said.

"...Okay, so be a good boy and take down the barrier now Janemba." he received no response in any way, shape or form "Are you listening to me? Take it down!" he was promptly flicked away into several jelly beans "Ow…"

"And it's like he didn't even try." Pikkon shot a look towards Janemba "You really do pack a wallop don't you, who are you anyway?"

"You might wish to be careful with this one Scarlet, he's a lot stronger than he looks."

"Duly noted." Scarlet was quick to free herself, only for the both of them to nearly be blown away by Janemba just breathing at the two of them "Incredible, this thing is a lot stronger than I thought he would be. I guess the Grand Kai was right to call of my fight with Pikkon, this one could destroy the whole universe if it wanted to." then she smirked "I don't think I've ever felt a power like this, it's got my blood pumping, and I don't even have any of that anymore. Say Pikkon I hope you don't mind, but I think it's for the best if I try and handle this one by myself."

"I know what you're doing Scarlet, you're being selfish because you want to have all the fun for yourself!"

"Yeah well is that thing pointing at you like something out of the Purge? I didn't think so, since it wants me I say it's going to get me. If you have a problem with that, then you can take it up with my patented Spirit Ken, okay?"

" _DID YOU TWO FORGET ABOUT ME?!"_ that one came from King Yemma, thoroughly pissed off about being forgotten like that.

"No of course not your highness, Pikkon and I were just talking about how he would help you while I was fighting the creature responsible for this."

"What the hell do you-" Pikkon was cut off by a hand over his mouth.

"Speaking of hell, I'm gonna go ahead and try to lure the big shot down there, and you can come on down as soon as you figure out a way to break down this barrier." then she promptly clasped her hands at Janemba "Come on, you can do it Janemba! Come on, follow the leader!" and so she disappeared down into the jelly beans, with Janemba promptly falling down after her.

"...It's times like this I find myself questioning every decision I've ever made."

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Satan City was in total chaos as a result of the zombie apocalypse, at least that's what people were interpreting it to be.

A certain evil and sadistic Saiyan, in this case Vegeta, weren't wasting any time in firing multiple Ki blasts, killing multiple civilians as a result "I don't know how we ended up back in the realm of the living, and frankly I don't care, but now it's time to show these pathetic wretches why the Saiyans are not to be trifled with! The Saiyans are the mightiest warrior race in existence, and we live to dominate the inferiors in the heat of battle!"

"You're wrong brother, that's not what a true Saiyan does."

Vegeta whipped around and his face contorted into a malicious smirk "So the time has come, I have to admit part of me did wonder when we would meet again Tarble."

Sure enough, Tarble floated in front of him, his gaze hard and his blue aura slowly flaring around his body "Part of me feels the same way brother."

"Tell me, how did you end up on this world? I thought father exiled you to some remote planet because you were weak and pathetic."

"He did, but a lot has changed since then, and because of that I'm now the type of warrior that has what it takes to stop you from hurting yourself or anyone else."

"So the time has come then, the time to rid the universe of a disgrace to everything the Saiyans stand for."

"You're wrong brother, you couldn't be further from the truth."

"I couldn't be further from the truth? Please, even if you have the blood of the royal Saiyan bloodline coursing through your veins, you're simply pathetic and weak. That's what you're always going to be. You're part of the royal Saiyan bloodline, but things such as compassion and mercy poison your very being beyond salvation. At long last, the darkest shame of our family can be wiped from existence once and for all."

"You truly believe that you know what strength and weakness really is? You're wrong brother, the fact is that you know nothing about what it means to possess true strength. True strength comes from more than being bloodthirsty or just having a high power level, it comes from the likes of morality, conviction and compassion. The fact is brother, even with all the power in the universe, without any of those things, you're nothing, and you always will be." that proved to be enough to send Vegeta into a rage.

"You want to see my power you wretch?! Well fine, because the strength of the Saiyan race is coursing through my veins, and now you're going to feel it's wrath!" Vegeta spiked his blue aura and surged forward, only to be stopped by the force of Tarble catching his fist with jaw-dropping levels of ease "Wh-What?!"

"I did try to tell you brother. I'm sorry about this, and I hope that one day you'll be able to find peace. **Galick Gun."** with a simple stance and his hands cupped at his side, Tarble unleashed a quick Galick Gun that engulfed Vegeta and instantly vaporized him on the spot ' _I truly hope that you find peace one day brother, but until then, Hell is where you belong.'_

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Meanwhile, with a certain scientist…

Dr Gero found himself hiding in an alley, his mind racing ' _This is completely ludicrous, an absolute travesty! I finally find myself free from the abomination that is hell, and the next thing I know Android 19 is reduced to scrap before I can even process it, and by one of Goku's human companions no less_ (Krillin) _!_ I need to return to my laboratory before anyone finds me."

"Trust me doc, that's not even close to being the only thing you have to worry about."

Dr Gero whipped around and looked up to see none other than 18 floating above him, her arms crossed and her aura flaring "18… So you were the first one to find me."

"Yeah, it's been a long time hasn't it? Yeah, I haven't seen you since you tried to shut us down because we wouldn't obey you."

"Well, of course that wasn't personal."

"Yeah yeah I know, you wanted revenge on Son Goku, avenge your dead son, bring the world into a new age using your genius to guide it, all that good shit. I get it, but you do realize that just because I get it doesn't mean I'm not sore about it."

"But… But I created you!"

"You didn't create us old man, the two of us had lives of our own before you ripped them away from us. Granted they kind of sucked, but they were our lives to live."

"Maybe, but the power at your disposal-"

"Isn't some bullshit weapon for you to use for shits and giggles, so we're gonna take care of ourselves now, okay? Good. Oh and before I forget, I might have shacked up with Goku's older brother and had a daughter with him, so… Yeah, have fun with that one. Oh and as a little parting gift, here's a little technique that 17 and I created together. **Super… Electric… STRIKE!"** and so with a wave of her hands, 18 unleashed a wave of electric green energy that promptly obliterated Dr Gero before he even had time to scream. Once that was done, 18 breathed out a sigh "Well that was fun. I wonder how the others are doing."

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Meanwhile, with some of the others, in Satan City…

" **Masenko!"** Videl launched a medium-sized Masenko from one hand at a number of zombies roaming through the streets of Satan City, causing them to explode as a result, and with multiple waves of one hand she sent a Spirit Ball barreling through a few nearby Saibamen, though exerting so much energy left her considerably exhausted, as demonstrated by her falling to one knee ' _Okay, clearly I need to do a better job of pacing myself.'_ she whipped around just in time to see a certain blue creature aiming a Ki blast at her, but when she opened her eyes they widened at what she was seeing.

As it turns out, that sight was Kai holding her in his arms bridal style, while simultaneously ripping the creature in half with a single kick "Yeah piece of advice, zombies and Saibamen are one thing, but you've got a metric fuckton of work to do before you're on the level where you can take on a Cell Jr. You okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." Videl set herself back down on the ground and tried to get rid of the pink that dusted her cheeks ' _Okay, that was pretty cool._ This is pretty insane though, what do you think is causing all of it?"

"I have an idea of it, but we've already got someone on the job and she's more than capable of handling this, just like I can wreck the shit of anyone that shows up. Plus it's better than just sitting at a computer screen and repeatedly refreshing for new episodes of Rick and Morty."

I wouldn't allow myself to be consumed by arrogance if I were you." a familiar yet malicious sounding voice told him "The true horror show has only just begun."

Kai just looked up at a certain figure on a skyscraper above them and rolled his eyes, with both lizard-like and metallic components "Like you've got any room to start talking shit Frieza."

"So a common stranger knows my name?" Frieza bowed to him in a mocking way "It would seem that my illustrious reputation proceeds me, even on the likes of this worthless rock."

"You don't recognize me but I'm no stranger to you Robo Lizard, I was one of the guys that fought you back on Namek all those years ago."

"What's that? You're one of those little brats aren't you?"

"Maybe this will jog your memory: Fuck power levels, fuck Super Saiyans, and FUCK YOU!"

"Oh yes, the little brat with the loud mouth. I would've loved to kill Goku or the rest of the filthy Saiyan apes on this planet, but I suppose killing you will do for the time being."

"Not like you're ever gonna find out how that feels."

"Is that so? Well then, how about my companions teach you a lesson in why you should respect your betters!" with a wave of his hand he sent forward all of the soldiers that blindly followed him like a pack of lapdogs.

"Oh yeah, let me think about it. Thinking, thinking, thinking, NOPE!" he blitzed forward and thrusted his fist into Frieza's gut, causing him to explode in a comical fashion, which sent the rest of his men running away screaming "Yeah that's right mother fuckers, that's why you don't want to piss off the Crimson Dragon."

"You've run into that guy before haven't you?" asked Videl.

"And he turned my body into swiss fucking cheese before he even reached his final form, which is part of the reason why I consider this to be some much needed catharsis."

"And Recoome and company are pleased by that fact young champion."

Kai whipped around and his expression dulled "I don't know whether to be pumped or pissed off by seeing you guys again."

"Then allow us to reintroduce ourselves, to determine that for you out of respect for our previous encounter." and so they started posing.

"Oh dear god."

"Recoome!"

"Burter!"

"Jeice!"

"Guldo!"

"Captain Ginyu!"

"And together we are… THE GINYU FORCE!"

"...And I thought Team Rocker was a fever dream." Kai glanced back to see Videl looking absolutely slack-jawed at the sight "Yeah I know, it goes without saying. What gives though, I thought at least two of you survived all the shit on Namek."

"Recoome and his captain did, and we were recruited by his majesty Lord Cooler, in preparation for hunting down and destroying a powerful enemy before he could become a threat to this entire universe. We were able to track him down to a remote planet on the edge of the galaxy known as Potaufeu, but despite putting up a valiant effort, in the end Recoome and his captain were felled in battle, and the Ginyu Force was reunited in the afterlife."

"I see. What threat is that exactly?"

"Lord Cooler shall inform you and your companions when the time is right, but know this young champion: Recoome always believed that the one to whom Recoome passed on his title would have the potential to overcome any adversary, including this one."

"Sounds like this one is getting seriously hyped up. Whatever this is, I'm gonna take it down whatever it takes."

"Of that, Recoome has no doubt. The young champion has the drive to meet this foe and surpass it."

"You're damn right, now if you'll excuse me I've got some more catharsis by proxy to indulge myself in." and so he blitzed off.

Videl found herself alone with the Ginyu Force, and she quickly voiced the only thing that was on her mind "What the fuck did I get myself into?"

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Meanwhile, with Goku…

In a certain rocky wasteland, Goku descended to the ground and his gaze hardened ' _I knew that Ki signature I sensed out here felt familiar, disgustingly so._ With everything that's happening all over the world, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you're here too. After all, I've already had to fight through at least half a dozen guys that claimed to serve you, a few of these little green things, some of the soldiers from the original Red Ribbon Army, and even a few of the children of the original King Piccolo. I think that's what people call indulging myself in nostalgia. But in all seriousness, I shouldn't be surprised to see that you of all people showed up to Turles."

Sure enough, Turles was standing before him looking as smug and sadistic as ever as he shot a smirk at Goku "You really shouldn't be Kakarot."

"I knew you were going to show up sooner or later, but all the way out here? I guess some monsters like to make a grand entrance don't they?" Goku was met with a scowl.

"Oh yeah, you're quite the comedian aren't you? You might have bulked up since the last time we met, but that doesn't change the fact that I fully intend to make you pay for what you did to me."

"How about you go ahead and try to back up that talk!" Goku promptly flashed into Super Saiyan and burst forward, a Ki blast charging in his hand as he did so.

To his surprise, Turles was able to stop the Ki blast with his bare hand, catching Goku by the fist and crushing his wrist as he did so, then threw him aside with ease "I won't deny that you had the advantage before Kakarot, and that's how you were able to defeat me in the first place, but I'd like to see you try the same thing with me as I am NOW!" a golden aura surged into life around his body, complete with his hair turning gold and his eyes a teal color, leaving Goku stunned as a result.

"What the- How did you-"

"What are you surprised? You really shouldn't be Kakarot. After all, thanks to all of the fruit I've eaten from the Tree of Might, especially the last one I ate before you killed me. Even I was taken aback when it allowed me to beat that strange technique you used against me. As it turns out, thanks to the fruit, I was already in the early stages of transforming myself! So now we're both Super Saiyans, only I've eaten the fruit of the Tree of Might so I'd say the advantage is mine."

"Not quite. You may have unnaturally boosted your power by a huge amount, but you're still only in the first unrefined Super Saiyan stage. I've trained this form and mastered it, and I've gone beyond it, so I'm a lot stronger than when I first transformed."

"Alright, you've got me interested. Come on, let's see who's stronger."

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Meanwhile, with a certain space pirate…

Bojack found himself hiding in an alley, his mind racing ' _This is absolute bullshit, how the hell could this be happening?! I come down to this planet with a full crew ready to slaughter, and then the next thing I know, that triclops_ (Tien) _is beating Bido into blood-covered paste! I mean first some bald midget_ (Krillin) _beats down on Bujin and slices him in half, and then some idiot with scars on his face_ (Yamcha) _blows through Kogu like he's nothing and sends all of them back to hell, and now I'm hiding in a goddam alley!_ I'd better hurry and get out of here and get the hell off this planet before any of the others manage to track me down."

"Trust me Bojack, that's the least of your problems."

' _Oh fuck.'_ Bojack glanced up and saw Zangya floating above him "Zangya… You're looking well I see. It's great to see you again, I guess."

"Yeah, not since your basically left me for dead a few years ago."

' _Shit, so she still remembers that one?_ Don't take it personally, you know that I had to deal with that brat and having you there would distracted me."

"Oh no I get it." her tone was laced with sarcasm "Of course you realize that while I understand that much at least, there are some other factors to consider. What was that modo you had for your little crew? We have no room for failures or weaklings. And let's not forget that you tried to make me into a concubine as an alternative, so it was pretty much a lose-lose situation for me for all those years. You realize that I'm still pretty sore about that, and I never got the chance to give you my metaphorical letter of registration."

' _...Oh shit.'_

"And for the record, I have been training a great deal under my new loyalties, so I'm going to enjoy this." Zangya started flaring her green aura.

"As entertaining as this would prove to be, I believe it would be for the best for me to take over for you." this was when Cooler floated down next to her, earning a pissed off glare from her in the process.

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. I mean you no disrespect, I'm fully aware that you've improved by leaps and bounds since joining my ranks, but you still have more work to do before you can hold your own against the likes of an opponent like him." Cooler stepped forward and flared his own purple aura "I've been training as well, so I intend to take over this battle."

"So what then, you want to be the first one to die today?" Bojack shot him a malevolent smirk as he powered up to his full power state, complete with the green skin and red hair "So be it, it's only fitting that I be the one to end the royal bloodline of the Cold Empire."

"We'll see about that soon enough, but I would highly recommend you go all out, or else you won't last for very long."

"We'll see about that." a twitch of rage spread across Bojack's face as he let out an enraged roar and spiked his green aura, then promptly burst forward at full speed and slammed his fist straight into Cooler's gut, his fist moving too fast for any normal person to even keep track of. He then quickly followed up with a smash attack to Cooler's back, sending him hurtling downwards and smashing into the streets, before finishing it with a full power Galactic Buster, almost instantly engulfing Cooler in the explosion that followed "And thus the royal bloodline of the Cold empire has been expunged fron the universe once and for all."

"I would highly recommend you look again." the smoke cleared to reveal Cooler in place completely unharmed, and what's more is a transformation to go with it. He had increased in height by over a foot and his muscle mass and bulked had increased somewhat, while four spikes grew out of the back of his head, his eyes now glowing crimson. Spikes had grown from his back and on his wristguard, alone with some new bio-gems on his wrist and ankle guards, and the bio-gem on his head had been re-shaped to form an oval. With his transformation almost entirely complete, Cooler levelled his hardened glare up at Bojack just as a bone-guard rose up to cover his nose and mouth "I anticipated that was the best you could manage. Unlike you, some of us have chosen to use this time productively, rather than just stewing over arrogance and a desire for vengeance." in a sudden flash he blitzed forward and started launching a series of Death Beams into Bojack's torso and upper body.

Bojack was left gagging and retching from the pain and made a futile attempt to launch a counterattack in the form of a Grand Smasher.

Cooler easily stopped the counterattack with a Death Flash and then fired another one clear through Bojack's gut, obliterating him in the explosion that followed without even giving him the chance to scream. Once that was done, Cooler looked down at himself and took a moment to analyze his new form ' _So I was right, along with an increase in muscle mass, it provides a 200% increase in my power, speed, agility and durability. This will be a great asset so long as I am able to use and regulate it properly.'_

This was when Zangya floated down next to him and pouted slightly "Not that I don't appreciate the assist, but I still think I could've at least tried to take him."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I'd rather not see one of my companions get blasted into atoms from behind. In order to ensure that, I will be personally supervising your training."

"Because you need a decent sparring partner, or because you've grown fond of me?"

"If you must have an answer, then it's both."

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Meanwhile, with Goku…

The battle was fierce, and all things considered, it was starting to look pretty one-sided.

Goku pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out a considerable amount of blood, his Super Saiyan aura starting to flicker ' _Okay… I imagined this going in a different direction.'_

"So how about it Kakarot, do you understand now?" Turles floated down towards him, pretty much everything about him appearing to be condescending "Even the power of the so-called legendary Super Saiyan isn't enough for you to come even close to matching the unstoppable force that I've become! Thanks to the fruit from the Tree of Might, no one can come even close to touching me!" he was met with a scowl from Goku.

' _This is absolutely ridiculous, this guy a disgrace to the whole idea that the Super Saiyan stands for! The Super Saiyan is supposed to be a warrior of light, a beacon of hope, and this one just cheated his way to the top without any effort! I might not be able to scratch him in my own Super Saiyan form, but I do have one last trick up my sleeve. Granted I haven't used it in a fight yet, but it's all I've got going for me.'_ he started flaring his golden aura in a way that was very subtle and hard for anyone to notice.

"You know you're lucky Kakarot, since I'm in such a good mood right now I'm gonna end this with my personal favorite technique." Turles clasped his hands together and began powering up a certain technique.

' _That's it, stay focused on your own attack, let me build up just a little bit more…'_ Goku cupped his hands and started charging Ki in between his palms, his aura starting to crackling with electricity.

"And now you're as good as dead Kakarot, and you can burn in hell!" Turles fired forward a full power Kill Driver.

"That's a pleasure saved only for you, courtesy of Super Saiyan 2!" with a roar, Goku flashed into the next level of Super Saiyan and fired forward a full power Kamehameha, the blast surging right through the Kill Driver and through Turles as well, leaving a gaping hole in his gut, and then left him to explode in a fiery demise. With the battle over, Goku fell to one knee and powered back down to his base form, panting heavily as he did so "Well… that took a lot more out of me than I was expecting…"

"Well it's better than you stealing anyone else's techniques." this was when Raditz dropped down in front of him and handed him a Senzu Bean "Say what you will about Cell, he wasn't wrong in that regard. I know you were trying to ask Kai about that Dragon Fist technique, not to mention his Nail Gun."

"Yeah tell me about it, I ended up with one through the chest. That wasn't a fun day."

"Neither was when he blew a hole through my gut last week."

"Yeah, he does that. Speaking of Cell though, have you seen him at all today?"

"Nope, I've just been blitzing through most of Frieza's underlings, most of them I killed back on Namek."

"Huh. So where is Cell then? I mean we both know he went to hell."

"Oh for sure, but he hasn't shown up yet."

"I wonder why, you'd think he'd be the first one to start blowing stuff up and trying to blow up the planet or something."

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Meanwhile, in Hell…

Scarlet found herself in Hell, with Janemba floating down right in front of her "You've gotta be kidding me, this guy really is affecting every dimension and creation."

"Janemba!" that was when Janemba hit the ground with a loud thud.

"It's kind of weird that he seems so harmless like that."

Janemba then proceeded to use his power to create several mini clones of himself.

"Is it weird that I actually find them kind of cute? Not that there's really very much going on in their noggins though."

The clones then proceeded to waltz towards Scarlet and attempted to smac her to the ground, and once that plan failed they all dog piled on him, much to the amusement of the original.

"Enough of this! **Kaioken 10x!"** losing patience with this, Scarlet promptly flared her Kaioken 10x aura, the force being enough to engulf all of the clones and obliterate them, causing their remains to disappear.

Now even more amused than before, Janemba summoned several of the gigantic jellybeans downwards in an attempt to crush Scarlet to death with them, then had them converge on her and trap her, before he waltzed forward and rammed into them full force.

Scarlet was able to leap out of the way at the last second and promptly charged forward.

Janemba sent him flying and landed a carefree kick, sending Scarlet crashing to the ground as a result.

Scarlet quickly managed to recover and charged at Janemba once again.

Janemba backhanded him away and used his Illusion Smash to pummel Scarlet, ending the brutal assault by smashing her against the ground, hard.

Scarlet was able to catch the gigantic fist at the last second before it could crush her.

Janemba sent his fist through another portal.

' _Now's my chance!'_ luckily for her, Scarlet was ready this time and promptly slammed a sizeable Ki blast into one of the portals, causing it to explode as a result, which startled Janemba and caused him to fall back ' _Well that's progress, at least now I know that this thing isn't immune to taking damage.'_ she dropped into a stance in which she held out both hands and cupped them together, red-colored Ki gathering in her palms "Now eat this! **Wolf Fang Cannon!"** she fired a red-colored energy wave forward in order to test Janemba's raw power and endurance.

Janemba used his Mystic Copy technique in order to create a fake copy of Scarlet that fired its own Wolf Fang Cannon, hitting a thoroughly shocked Scarlet dead on and engulfing her in the explosion that followed.

Scarlet had been scorched by the blast and left in a stupor as a result "Hole on a minute. Was that… me that shot me? _Okay, I'm out of fucks to give. I'd better hurry and finish this guy off right now before this get even more out of hand._ **Kaioken 20x!"** she pushed her Kaioken to the highest level she could.

Janemba began shaking his stomach, the holes on it beginning to wiggle in a very disturbing manner as he fired his Rapid Cannon, in which he started shooting a barrage of Ki blasts from said holes.

Scarlet frantically leapt out of the way of each blast until she was completely safe, only to be caught in the explosion when all of the blasts detonated at once. When the explosions subsided, she was revealed to be slightly scorched, but okay otherwise ' _Okay I think that's enough messing around, I think it's about time for me to go all out.'_ so she powered down her Kaioken, and then she calmly powered up to her absolute maximum, in which she finally unveiled her Spirit Ken technique "You know I should give you credit, only the likes of Cell or Bojack have pushed me to use this technique during my time here in Otherworld.

Janemba grinned and started clapping his hands annoyingly, clearly amused by the revelation of the new techniqiue and massive increase in power.

"You act innocent but you're deadly, it's over Janemba." and Scarlet charged forward at blinding levels of speed.

Janemba attempted to swat her to the ground.

Scarlet stepped to the side and easily avoided the attempted swat, then blitzed forward and attacked Janemba with a furious barrage of punches to the chest and stomach.

Janemba summoned down several gigantic jellybeans from the skies above them.

Scarlet easily punched Janemba into the air ' _I'd better hurry and end this thing before it gets out of hand.'_ she shot into the air above Janemba, Ki crackling in his hand "This is a Sapien family original! **Wolf Fang Cannon!"** she promptly fired a full force Wolf Fang Cannon forward straight into Janemba's gut, the sheer force sending him crashing to the ground, his appearance becoming warped. Then Scarlet retreated a fair distance away and powered down when she saw that Janemba had stopped moving "Well that was by far the weirdest battle I've ever fought. _But his power was still incredible though, if it wasn't for my Spirit Ken technique then I would definitely have lost this battle, the same with my battles with Cell and Bojack over the past few months.'_ then he stiffened when he sensed it ' _You've gotta be kidding me, he's still alive after all of that?'_

That was when the disfigured body of Janemba began morphing, changing into a normal sized red and purple humanoid form with horns and a tail.

' _So he can evolve his body in order to increase his power. I don't like the feel of this, he's way more powerful than he was before. I'd better be careful, if I make one wrong move then it might cost me my life.'_

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Meanwhile, with another dose of catharsis…

A certain evil Namekina, actually Slug, didn't waste any time in firing a set of Eye Beams that killed at least a few dozen people in the process, and he promptly barked out a maniacal laugh as he did so "I don't know how I'm back in the land of the living again, and frankly I couldn't care less. All I know is that now I have a chance to to exact my revenge on that Saiyan brat and his worthless friends!"

"Don't think you're gonna get the chance for that Big Green."

Slug glanced up to see Kai floating above him, with his Namek-Ken 10x activated and his green aura flaring wildly "Well now, looks like one of the little brats has grown a few inches since the last time we met."

' _Deep breath, keep your cool and don't take the bait. I'm not gonna let this bastard backhand me into a skyscraper again.'_

"Of course with that being said, don't think that's going to be anywhere near enough for you to defeat me."

"I wouldn't be coming at you like this if I didn't think that was true, just ready yourself you ugly green fucker." Kai flared his green aura and dropped into a combat stance.

Slug tensed considerably, but his arrogant smirk remained in place "You're stronger than you were the last time I showed up on this planet, that much I can't deny, but even if you do have one of the more ancient techniques of the Namekian warrior class going for you, there's no way you'd be able to hold a candle to the power I've acquired from my years of training in the fiery depths of Hell."

"Well lucky me I got a little bit of something extra going for me." with a roar, Kai's aura turned a milky white color as he powered down his Namek-Ken in favor of his Spirit Ken "I doubt you're familiar with this one, a little something called the Spirit Ken." he promptly burst forward and smashed his fist into Slug's face, the resulting shockwave shattering windows all around them and sending Slug hurtling miles above the city.

Slug quickly stopped himself, left in a furious and horrified stupor "One punch… How the hell could this little brat have gotten so much stronger?! No this can't be, there's no way I can lose like this! I'm the ultimate warrior of the Namekian race!"

Kai shot straight into the sky like a rocket and cocked back his fist for a straight up punch to the face.

Slug crossed his arms to block the attack but his guard was nearly broken as a result of the sheer force of the attack, leaving his entire body recoiling as a result.

Kai quickly blitzed Slug using his superior speed and drove his elbow down into one of Slug's shoulder blades, sending deep cracks along it and earning a cry of agony.

Slug spun through the air and quickly drove his heel straight into Kai's face full force, managing to knock Kai back a few feet and drawing a small trickle of blood but not leaving any noteworthy damage.

Kai wiped the blood from his lip nonchalantly and cracked his neck "Is that really all the power you've got going for you?"

Slug's fist moved like a series of green blurs and snapped at Kai all over his body.

Kai blitzed around at blinding speeds as he promptly began easily weaving and ducking under every single attack.

' _This doesn't make any sense, I'm more than smart enough to know that he's more than fast enough to dodge or counter any of these strikes effortlessly with the gap in speed between the two of us- No, don't tell me… He's toying with me?!_ Damn you!" his green aura multiplied in size, knocking Kai back a little bit by the sheer outpouring of power, and Slug's increase in power did cause his rapid barrage of punches to land on Kai with glancing blows.

' _Okay maybe I should try taking him seriously.'_

Slug slammed one foot directly into Kai's gut, winding him slightly as a result.

However, despite being winded, Kai managed to catch Slug by the leg and cracked it with his raw power, then hurled him even higher into the sky "Okay I think that's enough of my very much needed catharsis for one day. **Masenko!"** he promptly fired a Masenko, the blast promptly engulfing Slug and vaporizing him upon impact "Ultimate Namekian warrior? Yeah, and I'm mother fucking Sailor Moon."

"I see, so this is what Son Gohan meant when he said you were indulging yourself in what you call catharsis."

Kai glanced over to see Shin, Gohan and Cooler floating a short distance away from him "That's one thing you can call it."

"So you feeling better now?" asked Gohan.

"Pretty much yeah, it's nice to know that I can and will wreck the shit of any of those guys if they somehow show their faces again, after today I mean."

"Definitely works for the rest of us too."

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess that one brought you here?" he was referring to Shin when he said this.

"That's right, you can sense it can't you?" Cooler pointed out.

"You mean my mom and that other ridiculously huge power level that we can sense all the way from here?"

"Yeah tell me about it, as strong as she is I have a feeling she's gonna have a hard time with this one."

"Which is why Shin here is taking us to Hell to back him up."

"Is that right?"

"Indeed it is." Shin held out a hand "Please come if you would, we don't have very much time to waste."

"As if you had to ask, but once this is over I think it's safe to say you're gonna owe us some answers."

"And I promise you shall receive them." Shin promptly gripped Kai's hand and then grabbed onto Gohan and Cooler using his other free hand " **Kai Kai!"** and the four of them vanished in a flash.

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Meanwhile, in Hell…

Seeing Janemba's transformation, Scarlet dropped back into her combat stance, her Spirit Ken aura crackling with white electricity ' _I can't afford to dwell on possibilities, I've gotta give it all I've got or I might as well not even try at all.'_

With his transformation complete, Janemba let out a primal roar and charged forward.

Scarlet dodged an attempted punch and aimed a kick of her own.

Janemba blocked the kick with his forearm and attempted to whack Scarlet with his tail.

Scarlet ducked in order to avoid the tail and kicked Janemba in the face.

Janemba recovered from the kick almost immediately and grabbed Scarlet by the ankle.

Scarlet kicked Janemba in the head and broke free, then fired a Ki blast from her free hand aimed at Janemba's face.

Janemba warped the blast away using his Dimensional Hole and opened another hole right behind Scarlet to land a sneak attack on her.

Scarlet dodged and leapt out of the way of the sneak attack at the last second, then charged towards Janemba and kneed him in the face. Then she hit him with a spin kick to the face and attempted to finish the assault with a Ki blast from behind.

Janemba dodged the final strike using his Bunkai Teleportation and used it in order to counter with his Cosmic Illusion.

Scarlet leapt back a fair distance as she clutched the singed top of her gi ' _I knew he was stronger now, but this is just insane.'_

That was when Janemba fired a Hell Gate blast from his mouth.

' _...Well this is going to hurt very badly.'_ that was when Scarlet's world exploded.

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Meanwhile, at the Check In Station…

Shin materialized with Cooler, Kai and Gohan in front of the Check In Station "Alright, there we are gentlemen."

"So this is Otherworld." Kai noted "Kind of reminds me of what I saw in Yu Yu Hakusho."

"It actually played a large role in the inspiration for that anime."

"You watch it?"

"No but the Grand Kai does, he introduced it to me and I must say that it's much better than I had anticipated it to be."

"I know right?"

"I believe we have other things to worry about at the moment." Cooler pointed out, his tone increasingly dry "As in finding the warrior currently combating the menace responsible for all of this madness." he look down at the green light of the explosion that resulted from Janemba using his Hell Gate blast "I'm guessing that's where we need to go."

"Looks like it." Gohan noted "Shin you might wanna stay back, no offense but from what I sense I don't think you're up for this."

Shin nodded "I understand, all of you just be sure to be careful."

"We will, now let's go." and Kai quickly rushed off, with Gohan right behind him, but Cooler had stayed behind for a moment.

"I know what you wish to say Cooler, and I do intend for us to inform them, but only after this battle is finished."

"...Very well then." and so Cooler quickly followed after Kai and Gohan.

' _So it would seem that he was right to suggest that I take a more active roal in interacting with the people of this world, especially since all of those I've discovered so far are not only very formidable, but appear to have enormous levels of potential, far more than I had ever even dared to hope. Perhaps with their help, that menace can be expunged from this universe once and for all.'_

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Meanwhile, in a certain desert…

Following the events of the Cell Games, the area where the tournament took place had been reduced to nothing more than a scorched and wrecked desert.

Despite this, that scorched and wrecked desert was where Cell found himself, his mind drifting as he recounted a certain song "Well now that I'm here, there's only one thing to do.

 **P is for Priceless, the look upon your faces**

 **E is for Extinction, all your puny races**

 **R for Revolution, which has been televised**

 **F is for how Fucked you are-"**

"Now allow me to reprise, as in the way you died."

Cell glanced over to see Piccolo standing a short distance away from him "I don't recall raising my Ki signature enough for any of you to notice."

"I didn't have to, I could hear you singing that song from the Lookout."

"Ah yes of course, the enhanced hearing the Namekians have. I must say I am surprised though, I expected that if anyone was going to find me first, it would've been Gohan or Goku."

"They have other business to deal with, you know with hell breaking loose and all."

"I'm aware of that. Believe it or not, aside from them, you're the one I've been looking forward to fighting again the most. The meek and mild Kami may be a part of you, but you're still a warrior through and through."

"Couldn't have put it better myself." Piccolo didn't waste any time in ripping off his weighted cape and turban "We never did get the chance to have a proper fight between us after you reached your Perfect Form. You were so focused on fighting the likes of Goku that the rest of us might as well have not even been there."

"In all honesty, I'm fairly certain that was the Frieza in me talking. A fair part of me has been interested in fighting you as well. Before Beets, Vegeta, Frieza, Turles or even me, the fact is that you were the first true challenge Goku ever received. Of course you never defeated Goku, but I'm far different in that regard."

"So is Tien."

"I plan to pay a visit to him later, trust me on that. But in the meantime, I believe the time has come for us to settle this."

"You won't receive any objections from me."

"Or me for that matter." this was when 17 suddenly dropped down onto the scene, earning a few raised eyebrows "In case you forgot green man, you're not the only one to have a grudge against this thing."

"Yeah but the difference is, I can back up my talk."

"Bite me green man, you're going to be next."

"Oh for the love of- And I thought Kai had a problem with talking shit."

"Not like it matters to me, I'll gladly take both of you on." Cell flapped his wings and promptly flared his own golden aura "Come on then you two, let's get this underway."

"Oh believe me, we intend to."

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Meanwhile, in Hell…

Scarlet had been sent staggering backwards by the force of Janemba's Hell Gate blast, the top of her practically shredded, though luckily the black t-shirt that she wore underneath remained pretty much intact ' _Well, I imagined that going differently. Dammit, he's so powerful that it only took him one blast to leave me barely standing.'_

Janemba suddenly materialized in front of Scarlet and picked a up a club off of the ground, then used his mass manipulation to transform it into a Dimension Sword and slashed at Scarlet with it, one stroke being more than enough to her reeling.

Scarlet managed to recover from the first stroke in time to dodge the second stroke, though her mind was racing as she did so ' _His strikes with that thing are so quick and precise, I'll have to bring out the big guns if I don't want to get wiped from existence._ **Wolf Fang Cannon!"** she fired forward a Wolf Fang Cannon forward at full power.

Janemba attempted to slice through the Wolf Fang Cannon using his Dimension Sword, only for it to detonate in a fiery explosion when he did.

Scarlet took this time to retreat and gain some distance from Janemba, and so she hid behind one of the gigantic jelly beans.

Unfortunately for her, Janemba merely sliced through the flames using his Dimension Sword Attack and sliced through the jelly bean as a result, which left a deep wound to Scarlet's left shoulder.

Scarlet gripped her wounded shoulder in pain ' _Dammit, how can he be this strong? At this rate I doubt I'll be able to beat him on my own. I'm gonna have to hope for a miracle at this point.'_ she attempted to make a retreat.

Janemba fired off several more Ki enhanced slashes from his Dimension Sword.

Scarlet was forced to narrowly dodge every strike from the blade as she found herself heading towards the Blood Pond, now turned into a sort of Blood Cone, only to be sent falling into it, her Spirit Ken having long since faded away, leaving her powerless before Janemba's might.

Janemba took this time to unleash his Spike Hell technique, cutting off several pieces of the Blood Cone one by one, continuing with this until Scarlet found herself trapped in a crystallized blood prison.

' _Dammit, he's got me now. I could really use that miracle right about now.'_ she had no idea that he was about to get said miracle.

" **Nail Gun!"** a pure white Ki beam rammed into Janemba head on, not only piercing through his shoulder but also distracting him and destroying the blood crystal in the process.

Now that she was free of her makeshift prison, the exhausted form of Scarlet quickly fell to the ground and began coughing up blood "What the…?"

Luckily for her, that was when Kai landed on the ground in front of her "I don't think I've ever seen you have this much trouble against an opponent, but then again I've never actually seen you fight before now that I think about it."

"Kai… Not that I'm not glad to see you, but how exactly did you get here?"

"Gohan, Cooler and I got here with help from a purple dwarf with a mohawk."

"You mean Shin?"

"You know him?"

"I've met him once or twice. Has he told you anything about him?"

"Nope, not a damn thing. That doesn't matter anyway, I'm here and I'm more than ready to fight this ugly bastard." Kai spiked his milky white aura "Just hang back and recover your strength for the time being mom, I can handle this one on my own."

"Not that I don't have faith in your abilities sweetie, but this monster is powerful to a ridiculous degree. I don't think he can be defeated."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it mom, keep in mind that I've got a secret weapon and more than a few tricks up my sleeve."

"You starting off with the Spirit Ken?"

"You know me well don't you?" and with a quick roar, Kai powered up his own variation of the Spirit Ken, his body crackling with white electricity "And people say that Saiyans are the only ones that can dole out some damage."

"Super Saiyan is quite the powerful ability, but that doesn't make Saiyans the only ones with a few tricks up their sleeves."

"They can do it, so why can't we? Anyway like I said, just hang back and recover your strength for the time being. I've got this one in the bag." and so with his aura blazing, he charged forward at full speed.

Janemba ducked under a Ki blast and aimed a slash from his Dimension Sword, only for the Dimension Sword to shatter upon making contact, shocking him but also causing him to let out a maniacal laugh.

" **Nail Gun!"** Kai fired off a Nail Gun from his fingertips.

Janemba dodged the blast using his Bunkai Teleportation.

' _Now!_ **Spirit Ball!"** Kai fired off a Spirit Ball at Janemba before the Bunkai Teleportation could be completed.

Janemba emerged a fair distance away with slight burn marks all over his body, but he quickly shook it off and grabbed Kai by the neck using his Mystic Attack, then promptly slammed him to the ground, causing him to cough up blood.

"Get your stinking claws off my best friend you damn dirty lizard! **Special Beam Cannon!"** this was when Gohan soared down onto the scene, his Super Saiyan 2 aura crackling with electricity as he fired a medium-sized Special Beam Cannon that pierced through Janemba's shoulder.

Janemba suddenly froze and began cracking apart all along his front.

' _So it looks like insults can weaken him somehow.'_ Kai quickly dealt Janemba a spin kick to the face, followed by a Masenko at point blank range, knocking him a fair distance away ' _Of all the weaknesses to have.'_ he prepared to yell out another insult.

That was when Janemba kicked him away and suddenly blitzed behind Gohan using his Bunkai Teleportation, shocking him just long enough to allow Janemba a chance to punch him in the temple, sending him tumbling back.

Gohan quickly rebounded as he blitzed in front of Janemba and slugged him in the gut with all the force he could muster, his Super Saiyan 2 aura exploding even higher "You're in for a rude awakening if you think I'm just gonna lay down and die and let some ugly freak like you hurt my friends!" this caused more cracks to form along the front of Janemba's body, which Gohan then deepened further when he dealt Janemba an uppercut punch to the jaw, sending him flying into the air. Then his electric golden aura exploded as he charged after Janemba at full speed, blue Ki building in his palms as he cupped his hands together "If you think I'm going to let you hurt my friends, you can think again! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** he promptly fired forward a full power Ultimate Kamehameha with as much strength as he could muster.

Janemba raised both hands in an attempt to stop the Ultimate Kamehameha, only to be pushed back a great distance, but he was still getting an idea with what few working brain cells he actually had.

Scarlet's mind was racing as she tried to think of a way to get herself and everyone else out of this situation "This isn't good, as strong as Gohan is now he still isn't anywhere near powerful enough to take this guy down. To top that off I can sense that he's putting just about everything that he has into it, so once he finishes this attack he'll be completely defenseless, not to mention I'm not sure I have enough strength to use my Spirit Ken anymore."

"I've thought of this, for the moment we just have to make sure that Vegeta can focus on his attack for the time being."

Scarlet's head snapped to the side, and her gaze hardened at the sight of Cooler standing a short distance away from her "So I take it you're Frieza's brother?"

"I imagine you have a great deal of questions, and I shall answer them to the best of my ability, but for the time being we have other things to worry about." Cooler promptly bulked up into his final form "For the time being, just go in and assist Son Gohan with all of the power you're still able to muster." he held up a hand and started charging his Ki.

"Right, I think I get what you're getting at." Scarelt powered up as high as she could go at the moment, actually only her Spirit Ken at about 60% power, and stood by Gohan with her hands cupped out in front of her " **Wolf… Fang… CANNON!"** she promptly fired her Wolf Fang Cannon that combined with Gohan's Ultimate Kamehameha to form an even bigger and more powerful attack, pushing Janemba back one inch at a time ' _I can feel his flesh burning from the blast so that must mean that Gohan probably can too, and that thing's pain is growing with each passing second. I've gotta find a way to end this fast, and I think I have an idea.'_

Janemba looked in a different direction and fired a set of Eye Beams that suddenly changed their direction during their fire and closed in on Scarlet and Gohan.

' _Well that's just great, now me and Gohan are in a catch twenty two. Now me and Vegeta can't stop or he'll blast us into oblivion, and we can't keep going or we won't be able to defend ourselves against those Eye Beams. Come on Gohan, think already! Wait that's it, I think I've got it!'_ he shot a look over towards Gohan.

' _So that's it, that's a pretty good idea. Lucky for me, even though I don't have any free hands since I'm using a Kamehameha, I've still got one other trick that I can do. I have to remember to thank Piccolo for this when I get back.'_ he fired a Chou Makouhou using whatever Ki he could spare, managing to cancel out the Eye Beams ' _I guess we'd better hurry and break off our attacks then._ Miss Scarlet!"

"Right!" they both cancelled their Wolf Fang Cannon and Ultimate Kamehameha respectively and leapt a fair distance away so they could catch their breath.

Now that he was free of the blast, Janemba was struggling to catch his breath, now covered in black scorch marks across his right arm and part of his right head, as well as sporting some cracks on the plate of armor covering his chest. Enraged at the prospect of being injured, he opened his mouth in the direction of Scarlet and Gohan and promptly began charging a Hell Gate blast, though he failed to notice what Kai and Cooler were currently up to.

"Now you'll feel our wrath monster!" that was when a Supernova suddenly slammed straight into the front of Janemba, the shock and force sending him tumbling back in a scorched heap, courtesy of Cooler as he shot forward at full speed and prepared to fire a Death Flash.

A sudden thunderous boom could be heard as Janemba quickly caught Cooler's hand in his and promptly dealt Cooler a sharp headbutt, flinging him backwards and sending him flying through the multi colored sky.

Cooler managed to stop himself and returned to the ground as he rubbed his face through his broken bone guard ' _So much power behind just one attack, the power of this creature is truly unbelievable!'_

Janemba opened another Dimensional Hole and shot his fist through it, catching Cooler in the temple, then shot his other fist through a second portal and hit Cooler with a Ki blast at point blank range, driving him down to the ground.

Cooler found himself aching all over his body ' _To think he's done so much damage in so little time. I doubt I'll be able to endure many more of those attacks, if I'm going to put an end to this then it has to be now.'_ he suddenly blitzed above Janemba and used his arms, legs and tail as he wrapped them around Janemba, then threw him to the ground.

Janemba slammed down onto the surface of Hell, roaring and screaming in rage at the top of his lungs, sending massive cracks along the ground beneath him.

"We should end this battle as soon as possible, if you're going to unveil any sort of plan you may have then I highly suggest you do it now. Given my current condition and level of power, I doubt I will be able to hold him off for very long." Cooler's voice sounded increasingly strained as a result.

A deep sky blue light appeared in the sky on the horizon as Kai appeared, his Spirit Ken powered up all the way to the maximum, "Get ready for the god of all fisting you sons of fuckers! I'm pushing my Spirit Ken all the way to the maximum just for you Janemba, and now I'm gonna hit you with every ounce of strength I have left you scaly green fucker! **DRAGON FIST!"** he then poured every ounce of Ki he had left into a golden dragon bursting forth from his fist, his ultimate technique, the Dragon Fist drilling straight through Janemba's gut and out his back in a fraction of a second, resulting in a white hot explosion.

Janemba tried to scream, but his cries were almost immediately drowned out by the resulting ear bursting blast and he was engulfed almost instantaneously.

Kai kept pushing more and more power into the Dragon Fist until he finally ran out of Ki and his body gave out from the strain, the Dragon Fist and the explosion resulting from the attack both fading away into nothing.

With the battle finally over, Cooler pulled himself off of Janemba's charred form and retracted what was left of his final form, though he was clearly just as exhausted as the rest of them ' _That was far too close for my liking. A little bit longer, and I would most likely not have survived.'_ and so, using whatever strength he was still able to muster, he quickly moved over and promptly slung Scarlet's arm over his shoulder "Are you alright?"

Scarlet let out a weak sigh as she spat out "I'll be alright… I think… you did amazing though… all 3 of you did… and you're almost as strong as I am… even with my Spirit Ken…"

"The Saiyan biology may give them an advantage, but it does nothing to change the fact that true power comes from years of conviction, grit, determination and hard work."

"That's one way… of putting it…" Scarlet strained herself slightly, blood pouring from the wound in her left shoulder "I think… I can sense… my son's Ki…"

Kai was lying on top of one of the gigantic jelly beans, completely exhausted and unable to move even an inch "That was… both painful… and awesome… at the same time…"

"You never cease to amaze me." this was when Gohan limped over "I'm still not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Sure that attack wasn't bad, and by not bad I mean I would probably be scared out of my mind of going up against it, but I have my doubts that he's dead."

"How do you figure?" asked Scarlet.

"Well the first reason is that I can still sense his energy seeing how me and Cooler are probably the only ones left with enough strength to, the second is that I can still smell his roasting flesh, and the third is that the landscape here is still warped into something only a little kid would be able to come up with. Or my dad."

"...Well that sucks." that was when Kai began coughing up blood.

"I've got you." Gohan slung Kai's arm over his shoulder "We'd better hurry and get back to Earth so we can get a couple of Senzu Beans from Korin."

"That and the fact that none of us can really do anything aside from standing at the moment, especially if Mr Personality over there is still alive and kicking. Where the hell is he right now anyway?"

"My best guess would be over there." Cooler pointed over towards where the deformed and mangled form of Janemba lay, still alive but severely disfigured as a result of being caught in the explosion of Kai's Dragon Fist.

"Oh. Well fuck."

Janemba stood back up, now thoroughly enraged, and was about to pounce at them when his body suddenly froze up again, to which he threw his head to the literal heavens and let out a furious shriek at the top of his lungs, distorting the already warped reality even further than he already had. Volcanoes were sprouting up along the land and started spewing fire and lava into the air, with the lava turning into water, then into steam, then into liquid obsidian, and then froze in the air entirely as his screams began growing louder and louder, the color suddenly turning inverted and diluted into black and white before finally returning to normal.

The look shared between Gohan, Kai, Cooler and Scarlet was one of awe and horror ' _If the change in the landscape wasn't bad enough, I mean I honestly preferred the jelly beans over whatever the hell this is and I bet any one of the others would agree, his power is shooting way higher than anything any of us have ever felt before!'_

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Meanwhile, back on Earth…

Another battle was raging on ferociously, and was about to reach its conclusion.

Cell stood amidst the rubble glaring down at the battered forms of Piccolo and 17 "To think that the two of you would prove to be this formidable against me, it would appear that you've both grown more in the last few years than I would've anticipated."

"Spare me the praise, it's like you want to make me hurl." 17 spat out at him.

"You know I still could blast you through your chest faster than you could blink, but I tried to be the nice guy and give you both a decent rematch, but you have to be a cocky little shit."

"It's part of my charm, but if you're smart then you'd be taking me a hell of a lot more seriously than this. I can't sense that perfect power coming from you anymore, so it's looking to me like you've lost your edge. Just face it Cell, you've tasted defeat once before and now you're going to taste it again, courtesy of none other than yours truly."

"Shut the hell up already!" Cell blitzed forward and slugged 17 square in the gut, sending him flying into a nearby mountain.

"Dammit!" Piccolo promptly charged at Cell and fired a simple Ki blast at him, which was easily deflected, resulting in the two of them trading even blows across the battlefield, even as they took their clash to the skies.

17 pulled himself out of the rubble and tried to follow them, his mind racing ' _You've gotta be kidding me, how the hell is he keeping up with Cell all by himself?'_

With a mighty crash, Piccolo returned his clash with Cell back to the ground, and he was quick to make a certain observation "Looks like you're starting to slow down, you might have the DNA of Goku, Frieza, myself and all of the others, but you're just as vulnerable as the rest of us. Do you really think you can keep this up?"

"I think you're about to find out. There's something you're forgetting Piccolo, I have the DNA of a Saiyan in me, and that means I get stronger as I fight!" with his anger clearly growing by the minute,Cell promptly blitzed forward and slammed his elbow into Piccolo's face and started beating on him with a brutal barrage of punches and kicks.

Piccolo endured the barrage long enough to find an opening and promptly bound Cell by extending his arms using his Mystic Attack "Looks like your anger is starting to make you lose focus. NOW!"

"What-"

"Got it!" 17 suddenly burst forward and grabbed Cell by the torso, keeping a firm hold on him as he started charging green-colored Ki in his hands "You were saying something about blowing a hole through my gut right? Well how about I turn that back on you!"

"I've had you inside me you fool, I know about your tricks!" Cell prepared to fire a quick Ki blast at 17, only to freeze when he suddenly noticed a certain green barrier surrounding the both of them.

"Take you innuendos and choke on them! **Super Electric Strike!"** keeping him trapped with his Android Barrier, 17 hit Cell at point blank range with a Super Electric Strike, engulfing both of them in an explosion powerful enough to shatter the barrier and send 17 tumbling backwards in a bloody heap.

Piccolo quickly caught 17 before he could roll too far "Well that worked out better than I was expecting."

"And it gets results, see for yourself." 17 jerked a thumb at where the smoke was clearing, only to reveal that Cell had been pretty much roasted by the blast, leaving only a scorched and unrecognizable figure in his place "I guess you were right when you said that creating a barrier to contain the explosion would do some serious damage, even if I did get hurt in the process."

"I never thought you would actually go through with it. Not bad though, seriously. Not only did you slow him down, you actually blew him to bits."

"I think it was a risk worth taking, because even if I wasn't enough to bring him down, you'd be here to do the rest. Good thing that actually did do it though, I definitely don't have another one of those in me."

"You have unlimited stamina."

"But not unlimited endurance."

Yamcha was about to reply, but his head snapped in a certain direction "Looks like talking is gonna have to wait, we've got problems. You feel that power?"

"Yeah, it's huge and evil and insanely strong."

"And it's about to show its face here on Earth." a voice rasped out.

Piccolo and 17 both whipped around to see Gohan, Kai, Cooler and Scarlet materialize behind them using Cooler's Instant Transmission "Gohan, all of you! What the hell happened to all of you?"

"No time for that." Kai spat out some blood "To make a long story short, that thing is insanely powerful and evil with no personality whatsoever and it's about to show its face."

"I think I've got this." Scarlet struggled to get back to her feet on her own "I doubt I have anywhere near enough strength to actually contribute in the fight right now, but the rest of you do so you should be here to fight him off until I get back." and so she promptly disappeared using her Instantaneous Movement.

"And we'll buy him that time. But first this is probably the only chance that I'm ever going to get so…" he shot Gohan a smirk "Looks like I finally reached your level Gohan, now I'm gonna push past it."

At this, Gohan let out a chuckle "Yeah, I have no doubt of that Kai. But don't think I'm gonna make this easy for you."

"If you did then where would the fun be in that?"

"If you're done bickering like the Golden Girls, I think we've got some other things to worry about right now." 17 pointed out dryly.

"Oh yeah right, look the short version is that there's this thing in hell and it's so powerful that it took on all 4 of us and we barely go out with our lives. Now it's transforming and I'd say that it's power is a metric fuckton higher than it was before."

Piccolo let out a sigh "Well as much as I hate to admit it I doubt we have very much chance of winning right now, do we actually have some kind of plan for how we're gonna win?"

"We can win with insults." Gohan told him "Insults can physically harm him and anything and everything he creates using these powers of his. It's not as weird as it sounds, but yes it's still weird. Still though, I'm not sure how effective it's gonna be against that thing now." then there was trembling, the stench of death filling the air.

"Looks like the rest of us are all going to find out soon enough." 17 looked up at the white dot in the sky.

That dot in the sky grew even bigger, another tear forming between the Earth and Other World, being opened by a long red claw, courtesy of Janemba, who then priced the tear open with his bare hands.

"Get ready you guys, he's about to show himself!" Gohan promptly flashed back into Super Saiyan 2, with Kai activating his Spirit Ken, Cooler returning to his final form, albeit with some noticeable damage, and Piccolo and 17 both spiking their auras as much as they could "Hey by the way Kai, I was thinking."

"You wanna elaborate?" Kai's tone was increasingly dry.

"I'm not trying to brag when I say this, but I'm still a fair bit ahead of you in terms of actual power at the moment, but in terms of techniques, creativity and maybe even intellect, I think you have me beat, so maybe you deserve to take charge on this one."

"...As if you had to ask." so Kai stepped forward and flared his Spirit Ken aura, his body crackling with white electricity "Now get ready assholes, I say that we're about to be in for the fight of our lives."

That was when Janemba fully emerged into the Earth, his body now much larger, comparable in size to a Great Ape actually, his skin now colored black and purple, a glowing black mark suddenly appearing directly in the center of his head. His voice was warped and mangled in a way that made them all very uncomfortable "I… am… a god…"

"For fuck's sake, just looking at that thing is making my eyes burn." 17 muttered "I mean you guys said that that thing was strong, but I seriously don't think anything deserves to be as strong as that."

Kai shot a smirk at him "Well nothing except for yours truly."

"If you wanna start squabbling then I highly suggest you do it later." Cooler told them dryly "As far as I'm able to tell, that thing has apparently absorbed all of the reality warping energy he had unleashed except for whatever is keeping the Check In Station in Other World out of commision, hence why Scarlet is still here on Earth even though he's dead. But now that all of it is inside him that thing's power is a considerable amount greater than before. Fortunately for us though,I don't believe he's tapped into the full power of that form yet so we might still have a chance, but we have to act fast."

Janemba let out an insane cackle as he brought down his deformed claw, forcing all of those gathered, them being Kai, Piccolo, 17, Gohan and Cooler, to scatter into the air, his claws slicing through the tops of skyscrapers like butter, leaving marks on the Earth itself.

"Dammit, that thing's definitely fast." 17 muttered.

That was when Janemba burst forward and began sprouting gooey tentacles all over his body at random, striking Cooler and sending him tumbling back.

"You wanna go ugly, well let's go! **Photon Flash!"** 17 burst forward at full speed, his aura flaring around his body, and he promptly fired a Photon Flash, the blast promptly slamming straight into Janemba head on.

Janemba let out a shriek when it made contact and he was soon being pushed back a great distance by the attack.

' _So at least this thing can be damaged, his power is insane but his defense and durability clearly aren't at their best at the moment.'_

Janemba took that chance to suddenly blitz in front of 17 and slashed him across the chest with his deformed claws, sending him flying through the air, then let out a loud and high pitched deafening shriek that unleashed a powerful shockwave that could be felt for miles around, leaving Kai, Piccolo, 17, Gohan and Cooler rather disoriented as a result.

Gohan was one of the few still able to stand, now back down to his Super Saiyan form ' _Come on already Miss Scarlet, I hate to admit it but as we are now we're not gonna last for much longer against this thing!'_

Janemba blitzed in front of Gohan and send him flying with a mere sweep of his hand, leaving him to tumble back down the street and into a skyscraper.

" **Nail Gun!"** a white hot Nail Gun shot past Janemba and ended up piercing him through the shoulder, courtesy of Kai.

Janemba let out a loud and deafening yowl of pain and sent Kai flying to the heavens with a mere swing of his wrist.

' _Now!_ **Special Beam Cannon!"** Gohan crossed the distance in the blink of an eye and didn't waste even a second as he hit Janemba with a full power Special Beam Cannon, blowing through the left side of Janemba's head, removing one of his eyes in the process.

Janemba shrieked in white hot agony and clutched the singed part of what was left of his head with one hand, leaving him wide open from the left side.

" **Death Flash!"** Cooler burst forward towards Janemba, his purple aura flaring as he fired forward a full power Death Flash, the sheer force of it managing to rip off one of Janemba's arms and the entire left side of his ribcage, exposing a gooey black substance inside of it.

Janemba let out another howl of pain.

"I've had just about enough of you!"

Janemba's head snapped up and he let out a snarl at what he saw.

Scarlet was floating above him, her Spirit Ken aura crackling with a large amount of white-colored electricity, her hands cupped out in front of her with red-colored Ki building in her palms "I'm ending this right here and right now! **Wolf Fang CANNON!"** she fired forward her Wolf Fang Cannon, the blast slamming directly into Janemba's side "Now Kai, do it!"

"Right! **NAIL GUN!"** Kai fired a full power Spirit Ken powered Nail Gun, the blast slamming directly into Janemba's already heavily damaged left side, the combined force of both attacks causing Janemba's shoulders to crack even further.

Janemba let out yet another shriek, before his head did a complete 180 twist and fired two Eye Beams, one being significantly weaker due to the loss of his left eye, knocking Kai away and sending him flying across the horizon.

Scarlet was able to rebound and fired a quick Ki blast at the ground, resulting in an explosion that created a thick layer of smoke ' _There, now I've got a cover so that I can get these Senzu Beans to the others.'_ he began blitzing around using her Instantaneous Movement, feeding Senzu Beans to 17 and the others.

Gohan quickly swallowed his own Senzu Bean flashed back into Super Saiyan 2 as an idea suddenly came to him ' _Kai said that this thing can be hurt by insults, I guess our best chance is to at least check and see if that still applies. It's times like this I'm glad Super Saiyan 2 really lets me work through my shit!_ Ugly bastard! Filthy monster! Deformed jackass!"

Janemba just stared at him, tiny cracks forming along his chest, but he either didn't notice or didn't care as he charged forward and slammed his gigantic fist into Gohan, then followed up with a kick to the jaw and sent him flying through the clouds and crashing to the ground with a loud thud.

"Okay… I imagined that going differently… Ow…"

Janemba's jaw cracked open as he began charging a full power Hell Gate blast from his mouth, fully intent on finishing off Scarlet and the others once and for all.

"That's not good. Come on guys, we've gotta hurry and finish this." Scarlet stepped forward, now sporting minor wounds to cover the healed ones that were fixed by the Senzu Beans "So how many of you can still fight?"

"Come on mom, who do you think you're talking to?" Kai pulled himself back to his feet and powered up his Spirit Ken to the absolute max.

"Looks like that thing is planning to take us out along with pretty much anything else it can get its hands on." 17 flared his white aura "So that means that we have to take him out first."

"Well what the hell do you know, for once we agree on something."

"So do I for that matter." Piccolo pushed his own aura as high as he could go, with Gohan flaring his Super Saiyan 2 aura and Cooler spiking his own purple aura.

Scarlet then stepped up and flared her own milky white-colored Spirit Ken aura as high as he was able to "Alright everyone, let's give it all we've got!" she cupped his hands out in front of her, with red colored Ki building up in her palms " **Wolf… Fang… CANNON!"** she fired forward a full power Wolf Fang Cannon.

" **NAIL GUN!"** Kai flared his Spirit Ken aura once more and fired forward a full power Nail Gun with every ounce of Ki he was able to muster.

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Gohan fired a full power Super Saiyan 2 powered Ultimate Kamehameha.

" **Double Death Flash!"** Cooler fired one Death Flash from each hand, doubling the power of the attack as a result.

" **Photon FLASH!"** 17 used his limitless Ki to his advantage and fired off a full power Photon Flash, topping off the assault with all six attacks.

Janemba finished charging his full power Hell Gate and let the blast loose, slamming it straight into the combine blast, and he slowly began pushing them all back.

"Come on guys, don't give up!" Gohan put more power into his Ultimate Kamehameha, with everyone else doing the same, though they were continuously being pushed back.

However, that was when 17 suddenly pulled back his Photon Flashand flew directly up to the Hell Gate blast with his Android Barrier activated "I think I get it!"

"Dammit 17, what the hell are you doing?!" Piccolo barked at him.

"You guys just hold it off for as long as you can, I'll take care of things from up here!" Kai began pushing the Hell Gate blast back as much as he could in order to make room for the others to finish it off.

"All of you need to get ahold of yourselves, you can't waste this chance that he's making for all of us!" Kai poured more power into his Nail Gun, with everyone else pouring as much power as they could into their own attacks.

With his Android Barrier activated, 17 forced his way straight through the Hell Gate blast until he was right in front of Janemba's face ' _Come on, come on… There it is! That mark on his forehead!_ **Photon Flash!"** making use of his limitless Ki reserves, he landed a solid Photon Flash on the black mark on Janemba's forehead, though he himself was electrocuted in the process, causing him to scream in pain and forcing him to break off with his Photon Flash, as well as being sent flying backwards "Sorry guys… the rest… I leave… to you…" and he fell to the ground.

Janemba cried out in pain and agony and his Hell Gate blast decreased in size, allowing the others to gain some leeway.

"Come on guys! One… more… PUSH!" Gohan scraped together even more of his strength and poured it into his Ultimate Kamehameha, with Scarlet, Kai, Piccolo and Cooler all doing the same for their Wolf Fang Cannon, Nail Gun, Special Beam Cannon and Double Death Flash respectively, giving their combined blast the boost that it needed.

Having completely given up on his Hell Gate blast at this point, Janemba raised his hands to catch the combined Ki blast, only for the sheer power and heat to begin burning his arms away as a result.

"This! Ends! NOW!" Kai poured every last ounce of his strength he was able to dig up into the blast and pushed it further upwards towards Janemba, and it finally exploded like a star.

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Meanwhile, in Other World…

Slowly but surely, the jelly bean prison surrounding the Check In Station began to fade away, and the Other World began to return to normal.

Shin looked around and saw all of the carnage fading away ' _Excellent, it appears that they have succeeded. Now I had best hurry and make sure they all survived._ **Kai Kai."** and he suddenly disappeared.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, back on Earth…

Gohan picked himself up off the ground "Is everyone still alive?"

"Most of us." 17 staggered to his feet, albeit shaking slightly, and pointed to where Scarlet lay not far from him "I mean she is already dead after all, she's got the halo and everything."

"Yeah, that's fucking hilarious." Kai looked over to where Janemba lay motionless on the ground, heavily burnt and maimed as if it was melting "Looks like that thing is still alive though."

"Hold that thought." Piccolo pointed to where the features of Janemba were beginning to melt away.

Janemba's flesh evaporated into nothing, leaving the uninjured form of Saike underneath, and his eyes slowly opened as he crawled up onto his hands and knees "Oh god… where am I?" he looked up and saw Piccolo and Shin looming over him, thoroughly freaking him out "Oh god, please don't kill me! I'll never listen to music when I'm working again, I promise!"

"He's babbling." Cooler noted dryly.

"I could always give him the back of my hand." Kai offered nonchalantly "I mean it always works with Gohan whenever he gets on my nerves."

Saike soon calmed down and struggled to his feet "Wh-Who are you guys?"

"Take a breather you guys, I've got this." Scarlet pulled herself back to her feet, then stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder "You don't have to be afraid of us, you're among friends here. My name is Scarlet, that right there is my son Kai, and then there's Gohan, Cooler, Piccolo and I think his name is 17."

Seriously though, that demon inside of you can really pack a wallop."

"Demon? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You were possessed by an evil entity." Shin told him "It was either seal it inside of you or kill you along with it. You should be grateful to these warriors, they spared your life."

"...Wait, I think I remember now. There was an explosion with the Soul Cleansing Machine- Oh crap, how much damage did I do?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed." Goku helped Saike to his feet "But that being said I'm probably gonna have to put a good word in with King Yemma to make sure you don't get fired, I mean he's a good guy but he does put up with a lot."

"...Do I have any say in this?" he received numerous dry looks "I didn't think so."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About 2 hours passed and now the sun was setting over the skies.

By this point, Kai was informing Videl about the day's events, as well as what happened after the battle was over "So after that, my mom took the kid back to Other World and pulled a few strings to make sure he didn't get fired, though as far as I'm concerned the little bastard got better than he deserved."

"Tell me about it." Videl scowled at the thought "How the hell are we supposed to make things any better though? Hell literally broke loose, and at least a few hundred thousand people got killed in all of that chaos!"

"Plus there's whatever might have happened on other planets in all that shit."

"So how the hell can people be expected to move on from that? It's not like there's some kind of magic reset button that can undo all of the damage and bring back all of the people that were killed." this caused Kai to burst out laughing, which did not amuse her "You're a fucking sociopath, you know that?"

"Yeah I do, but that's irrelevant." Kai pulled out a capsule and threw it, revealing a container that he opened to reveal all 7 Dragon Balls inside of it "I could've sworn I'd told you about the Dragon Balls at some point already."

"I think I'd remember if you did."

"Huh. Well whatever, let's get this underway. Eternal Dragon Shenron, I summon you to grant my wish!" nothing happened.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"Wait for it."

Sur enough, the Dragon Balls started glowing a bright orange as the skies were covered by a pitch black darkness, and in a massive golden light, Shenron appeared before them in all of his majestic glory " **I am the Eternal Dragon. State your wishes and I shall grant them, so long as they are within my power."**

"Yep, that's Bigger Green himself. What do you think?" Kai was met only with silence and the sight of Videl's jaw literally dropping to the ground "Yeah, that's about what I was expecting from you. Alright Bigger Green here's the deal, I've got some shit to deal with so I'm gonna give you both of my wishes in one go. I want you to bring back all of the people that were killed today when Hell literally broke loose, and fix any damage that might have been caused. You got that?"

" **Those are simple requests."** Shenron's eyes started glowing as he carried out the wish, and the glowing subsided after a moment " **Your wishes have been granted, and as such, I bid you farewell! Bigger Green out!"** and with that, Shenron disappeared in a golden light as the 7 Dragon Balls disappeared, scattering across the world to be left dormant for another year.

"And to think that used to take my uncle and his friends weeks at a time to collect, I did it in like 45 minutes at the most." Kai glanced over at where Videl was still looking jaw-dropped "So what did you think?"

"Unbelievable, you're so fucking unbelievable." was all Videl could manage to say even after snapping out of her stupor.

"Yeah well, take your time processing that. In the meantime, I've got a meeting that I have to be at, so no more training today." and so Kai promptly blasted off into the skies, with Videl being left alone as a result.

"...What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About a half hour passed.

Kai dropped down in a random wasteland where he found Gohan and Cooler standing and waiting for him "Don't tell me you guys started without me."

"I made it a point that we would wait until you got here." Gohan told him "He hasn't arrived yet either though."

"Works for me, I mean someone had to use the magic reset button to undo all of the damage done during the zombie apocalypse today."

"If you're done with that, he should be coming any moment now." Cooler told him dryly.

"Yeah I know, I can see his mohawk from behind that rock. Alright Shin, get out here and tell us what this is about already."

Sure enough, at that moment Shin stepped out and revealed himself to the group "So we meet once again Son Gohan, Kai Sapien. Before anything else, I truly must commend you on your admirable performance in the heat of battle today."

"We did what we train for, plain and simple."

"So I can see." Shin turned his attention to Cooler, and his creepy smile widened by a noticeable margin "It would seem that your advice to me was far more accurate than I had ever dared to hope it would be Cooler. Your allies here on Earth truly are quite the formidable group of warriors, but these two by far have the most latent potential." he turned his attention back towards Kai and Gohan "Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the two of you are students of the other half of the former guardian of this world, am I correct?"

"If by that you're referring to us being students of Piccolo, then yes." Gohan told him "Why do you ask?"

"And now he is bound to the former guardian in question, and that may very well give him some insight into my identity. Would that be true?"

"Well he and Kami have merged back into a single Namekian warrior, so if he were to meet you then most likely."

"I see. And wold that insight into my identity spread to the two of you as well?"

"If you're asking if we have any idea who the hell you are, then no." Kai's tone was increasingly flat "As far as either of us know, you're just some creepy little imp with a mohawk."

"I see. Well then I suppose I may as well enlighten you." Shin took a deep breath and promptly looked both Kai and Gohan in the eye "I am the Supreme Kai."

"...Okay first question: There's a Supreme Kai?"

"Indeed, and I would appreciate it if the two of you were not to tell anyone about my identity just yet, at least not until the time is right."

"Alright then, but at least tell us why you're keeping an eye on Earth in the first place?"

"Because a horrible evil rests on this world, an evil the likes of which the universe has never seen before. Allow me to tell you of the history behind the menace that is… Majin Buu."

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we get into yet another movie adaptation, and this time it's Fusion Reborn, though minus the Fusion, so basically it's the Z fighters facing off against the likes of Janemba, along with several of their past enemies such as Frieza, Bojack, Turles, etc. It's not just for fan service either, this is meant to show just how much the Z fighters and their allies grown since facing off against the likes of these enemies. It also gives me a chance to show what Scarlet can really do, especially since she was the first one to discover the Spirit Ken.**

 **One example of showing how much they've grown is with Tarble facing off against the likes of Vegeta, showcasing his newfound mastery over Super Saiyan, as well as hi newfound confidence since he was saved by Goku during the incident on the Planet Tech Tech. Another would be 18 killing Dr Gero. Maybe that one is a little bit redundant, but I think that since 17 did the deed, it's only right that she got to do the same.**

 **For long time followers of this story, you probably remember that I back during the Namek Saga, I had three of the five members of the Ginyu Force (Burter, Jeice and Guldo) were felled on Namek, the former two by the hand of Vegeta, whereas the last two (Ginyu and Recoome) escaped and were recruited by Cooler. Looking back, I'm not too proud of this decision, mainly because I had absolutely no idea where I was going to go with it, and so I decided to scrap it by saying that Ginyu and Recoome had been killed off-screen, so now the Ginyu Force has been fully reunited in death. Sorry to those of you who were looking forward to it, and I hope that you understand my reasons for this.**

 **I know having Piccolo and 17 take on Cell is kind of an odd choice, but having the likes of Goku, Gohan or even Kai would've been far too predictable and easy. I went this way because, well keep in mind that Piccolo was the first of the Z-fighters to ever encounter Cell, and I figured I would make a nice little nod to that. As for the inclusion of 17, well I wanted to give him some more spotlight because he's become one of my favorite characters now, especially after he makes his appearance in the Tournament of Power.**

 **By the way, I'm both happy with and somewhat surprised by all of the positive reception being received by the Kai x Videl pairing I mentioned. But yeah, when you think about it that actually does make a lot of sense considering their similar personality types, their love of martial arts.**

 **Now then, to close out this chapter, I want to thank all of you for getting this story up to 20,000 views, and here's hoping to 20,000 more. This wouldn't be possible without all of the support you've given me, so thank you for that.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 480 million

Kai (Spirit Ken): 72 billion

Kai (Spirit Ken + Dragon Fist): 720 billion

Scarlet: 800 million

Scarlet (Kaioken 10x): 8 billion

Scarlet (Spirit Ken): 120 billion

Gohan: 2.5 billion

Super Saiyan Gohan: 17.5 billion

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan: 105 billion

Goku: 2.2 billion

Super Saiyan Goku: 15.4 billion

Super Saiyan 2 Goku: 92.4 billion

Raditz: 2 billion

Super Saiyan Radiz: 14 billion

Tarble: 1.6 billion

Super Saiyan Tarble: 11.2 billion

Yamcha: 80 million

Yamcha (Spirit Ken): 12 billion

Tien: 80 million

Tien (Spirit Ken): 12 billion

Krillin: 75 million

Krillin (Spirit Ken): 11.25 billion

Weighted Piccolo: 46 billion

Unweighted Piccolo: 59.8 billion

Zangya: 10 billion

Cooler: 20 billion

Final form Cooler: 60 billion

Android 17: 1 billion

Android 17 (Super Electric Strike + Grand Explode): 30 billion

Android 18: 975 million

Android 18 (Super Electric Strike): 5.85 billion

Videl: 2,800

Combined attack (Gohan, Kai, Cooler, Scarlet, Piccolo): 500 billion

Vegeta: 200,000

Cell Jrs: 6 billion each

Cell: 80 billion

Frieza (suppressed): 12 million

Dr Gero: 75 million

Slug: 4 billion

Slug (Giant Form): 10 billion

Bojack: 28 billion

Cell: 80 billion

Janemba: 75 billion

Super Janemba: 300 billion

Hyper Janemba: 500 billion


	36. High School Days, Kai's Proposition

**Guest:** You'll have to read to find out, but spoilers, it's happening in this chapter.

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you like this chapter. Yep, it's basically Fusion Reborn without any Fusion. Yeah, I've been wanting to give Scarlet some screen time for a good while now, and writing out her interactions with the rest of them were pretty fun too. Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun writing out the Kai x Videl moments, and she's definitely going to be leagues beyond her strength level in canon. Yeah, the kind of stuff that goes on with the Z-fighters would probably drive any normal person to insanity, and I think Videl personifies that pretty well. Yeah, that chapter had a lot going on. And the one thing I didn't like about the original movie was that, well it felt like a gigantic conglomeration of missed opportunities, so I decided to expand on that here, and judging by your reaction, I say I did that quite well. And yes, the prelude to the Buu arc seemed like the perfect way to cap it off. All in all, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 **Guest:** Kai has a lot of latent potential for a full-blooded Earthling, and while he lacks the Saiyan biology that Gohan has, he has the edge in terms of creativity and techniques, which allow him to keep up with Gohan at multiple different levels.

 **Yasserkend8:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you like this story so much. Yeah, the pairings are a lot of fun to do. I do plan to continue into Super (albeit with some significant changes), as well as the Tournament of Power, but I do have plans for how GOD Toppo will be defeated, due to the absence of Vegeta. GOD Cooler does sound like a very interesting idea though, so I'll take it into consideration.

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The sun was shining brightly over the skies above.

A certain Son Gohan, now clad in a blue collared shirt and long brown-colored slacks, flew through the skies on Goku's old cloud the Flying Nimbus, his mind drifting with the wind as he started reflecting on recent events ' _To think it's been 7 years since the fight with Cell, 6 years since Kai went up against Bojack, and about three and a half years since that whole mess with that monster Janemba. But at the same time there came a warning, because Cooler had went ahead and introduced us to his mysterious ally Shin, whom we had met once before, but then he revealed his true identity… as in he's the Supreme Kai. I've been multi-tasking so much ever since then. After all, with training with Kai and everyone else, studying and just trying to have some sense of normalcy in my life, I've been burning through a lot of energy and even more time with all of that on my plate. And now as if the universe wants to throw some other element into that mix, my mom suddenly decided that I'm gonna be going to high school in Satan City. As for whether or not she actually knows that Kai is already going to that school, I honestly have no idea, but if she doesn't, then maybe it's for the best if I don't tell her just yet. But it does work out pretty well too, after all I can head over to West City to train with Kai that much faster. I guess this is just another day in the life of Son Gohan._ Well it looks like the edge of the city, I'd better go ahead and go on foot for the rest of the way. Thanks for the ride Nimbus, we'll have to pick this up later okay?" and so he leapt off of the Flying Nimbus and landed gracefully on the ground of the city, but then he looked up to see a certain billboard, and he couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of it as he started hoofing it ' _Part of me still can't believe that everyone in the world believes that Mr Satan is the one who saved the world from Cell, Bojack and even Janemba, so because of that he's a way bigger deal now than he ever was before. They even changed the name of the town to Satan City as a way of honoring him, since this is the city where he lives. I think it should be pretty obvious that Kai is absolutely livid about it, and he's got a dart board with Mr Satan's face on it as proof of that.'_ he looked down at his watch ' _Oh crapbaskets, looks like I spent way too much time taking the scenic route. I can't afford to be late on my first day, but at least no one is looking so this should be okay.'_ he promptly started running forward at full speed through the streets, which seemed to be only a blur to those who saw it, and he continued doing so until he stopped when he noticed something, that being a heavy shootout between some cops and a pack of criminals from a nearby bank, and he let out a sigh ' _More criminals? That's about as original as Family Guy ripping off the Simpsons, this is like the third time. Oh god, now I'm turning into Kai. I guess it was only a matter of time. I guess I'm gonna have to flash into Super Saiyan real quick so that no one will be able to tell it's me.'_ so he promptly flashed into Super Saiyan and prepared to dart around the corner, only to stop when he noticed something ' _What the hell?'_

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Now for what Gohan saw…

The scene of the bank robbery wasn't getting any better.

The robbers were still shooting up a storm like a couple of madmen, forcing the cops to cower behind a nearby car "How the fuck do you like them apples you little bastards?!"

"I don't know guys, how do you like this?" a red and white blur suddenly blitzed onto the scene and knocked out two of the guys with one blow each, leaving them to fall to the ground in two simultaneous unconscious heaps, while the blur revealed herself as the form of a beautiful young woman with long black hair kept in two pigtails that reached past her shoulders, and her attire consisted of a white t-shirt and black shorts. This was none other than Videl Satan herself, 16 years old and 3 years into her training with Kai.

"You just made one hell of a bit mistake you little fucker!" the third one tried to shoot at her like a maniac.

Videl just let the bullets hit her and fall to the ground harmlessly "So you wanna rethink that one-liner before or after you come out of the coma?" she promptly knocked the guy out with a single kick to the face "After the coma it is then."

"Who the fuck is this bitch?! The hell with this, we've gotta get out of here!" the last two guys in the getaway car tried to run away in a desperate panic.

"And then there were two." Videl stuck out her fist and sent out a simple shockwave that turned the getaway car over in an instant, and then she blew on her fist like she was blowing out a flame, like a boss.

"That was incredible!" the various witnesses were left dumbstruck and awe-inspired by the sight of Videl's physical prowess "That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen Miss Videl, thank you so much!"

"No need guys, I'm just putting my training to good use. The Golden Warrior does his part, but he has to know that this city already has someone protecting it. God, I sound like someone from My Hero Academia right now don't I? Anyway I'd better get going, I can't afford to be late for school." and so she promptly took off faster than the eye could see.

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Meanwhile, with Gohan…

Having seen and heard it all, Gohan was left pretty dumbfounded "Okay, that was pretty impressive."

"You glad you didn't have to get involved in that?"

Gohan whipped around to see Videl standing there a short distance away "Um, I wasn't going to get involved in that or anything. That would be really dangerous."

"You don't have to pretend, I can sense and use Ki and I know you're a hell of a lot stronger than you want people to know."

"Um… well okay then."

"Yeah, well I'd better go so I'll see you." and so she blitzed out of view.

' _She knows how to use Ki and she's hundreds of times stronger than the average person, even those who practice martial arts. This stinks of Kai in every sense of the word. Wait, is she that apprentice that Yamcha told me about? Oh crap I don't have time to worry about it, I've gotta get to school or I'm gonna be late!'_ and so he took off towards the school.

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About an hour passed, and the schoolday at Orange Star Junior High was about to get underway.

Having already arrived at the scholl in advance, Videl was talking with Kai, Erasa and Sharpner about the events of the morning "At least I got there so the Golden Warrior didn't have to get involved again. Speaking of which, I know for a fact that Kai is a definite no, but Sharpner what about you? If there's any chance of you being the Golden Warrior then I say just go ahead and tell us already."

"We went over this with the Crimson Warrior already, I wasn't your guy then and I'm not your guy now." Sharpener told her flatly.

"Yeah yeah I know, you don't want to waste your time cosplaying My Hero Academia."

"Not that it's not a great anime though." Kai pointed out "Let's face it, that anime is insanely well-written and the protagonist is going to the top."

"You talking about Deku or Bakugo?"

"I think it's obvious which one is the MVP, he aims for the top and will never settle."

"Bakugo it is then, shouldn't be surprised since you're basically him toned down by like seven notches."

"Hey hold on a second." Kai pretended to have come up with an idea "So Videl, did you ever think that either of them might be as strong as your beloved father?"

"Get real for a minute Kai." she let out a scoff "First of all lose the sarcasm, it gets annoying as fuck after a while."

"It's part of my charm."

"No it isn't. Second of all, in regards to this so-called Golden Warrior being stronger than my dad, we know he defeated Cell, but I don't really know if he's kept up with his training over the past few years."

"Bout fucking time someone said it, he grew complacent and that turned into arrogance."

"Another part of your self-proclaimed charm?"

"I admit I'm arrogant, that's the huge difference between us."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself."

"...I've taught you well. _Well at least this one isn't as much of a pain in the ass as her father is proving himself to be. Seriously though, even the fucking Pokemon (Chiaotzu) could beat that fake lying bastard within an inch of his life without even lifting a finger. That stupid pigheaded son of a bitch, he's done nothing but ruin the good name of martial arts with all of his lies. I wish Gohan would just stomp up to him and beat the shit out of him, I swear if he doesn't then at some point I will. Still though, she's far better than he could ever hope to be, and she is beautiful for sure- Oh my fuck, where did that come from?'_

"Ahem." this was when the teacher got their attention, shutting everyone up "Good morning students, we have a new transfer student joining us today and this is his very first day here at Orange Star High School. Don't be shy son, come on in and introduce yourself.

So on that note, Gohan slowly made his way into the class "So yeah, the new student, that would be me. My name is Son Gohan, it's a pleasure to meet all of you."

Erasa almost immediately wound up with hearts in her eyes "Oh wow, this new guy is pretty cute from here. I hope he's got a thing for blondes."

"I can guarantee for a fact that he has absolutely no idea what he has a thing for." Kai told her dryly "Frankly at this point, I would only be semi-surprised if he turned out to be asexual at some point."

"So you don't think I have a shot with him?"

"I never said that, in my opinion you remind me of Botan from Yu Yu Hakusho, and it's been my experience that there's not competent guy in existence that doesn't fall for her."

"So you think I have shot with him?"

"Give me a few months, I'll get it through his skull."

"Enough chatter." the teacher shut them up "So yes, this is Son Gohan, and incidentally, the young man here actually did very well on his admissions tests, as in he aced the math, chemistry, physics, history, literature and foreign language sections, so everything basically." he was met with an uproar from multiple students "That's quite enough out of all of you, and as I was saying I hope that he will inspire some of you to try harder for a chance. Now go ahead and take a seat son, anywhere you like."

"Thank you sir." Gohan pretended to look around "Alright, let me see here…"

"Hey new guy." Kai pointed to a seat next to him "This one right here, it's all yours."

"Oh in that case, thanks." Gohan made his way up and sat down next to Kai, shooting him a dry and unamused look, prompting the start of a telepathic conversation.

" _Alright Mr Golden Warrior, what's with the look?"_

" _Don't give me that. You do realize that about 80% of the people I've seen on my way in here are talking about this supposed Golden Warrior, a guy who fights crime just like the so-called Crimson Warrior that's been showing up every now and then for the past few years.'"_

" _Yeah I figured as much, I just never bothered to care."_

" _Why the hell didn't you tell me you were already fighting crime in this city?"_

" _First reason, I don't give enough of a rat's ass to tell people. Second reason, you never bothered to ask."_

" _I thought you would be more careful about drawing attention from people."_

" _This is me we're talking about, when have I ever cared what people think? Oh crap we'd better start talking out loud._ So anyway Gohan the blonde is Erasa, the raging sourpuss next to her is Videl and the blonde jackass farther back is Sharpener."

"Hi, how's it going?"

"Hey there Gohan, nice to meet you." Erasa batted her eyelashes at him ' _Man this guy is so hot!'_

' _Well she seems nice enough, but why is she looking at me like that? I don't understand women, I don't even understand my own mother._

"You know something Gohan, Videl is kind of a celebrity around here."

"Oh really, how so?"

"Would you believe that she's the daughter of Mr Satan?"

"...Wait a minute, as in Satan City saved the world from Cell? That Mr Satan?"

"Yep."

"...I'm trying and for the life of me I just can't see the resemblance."

"My words exactly." Kai told him dryly "I still don't see how the fuck someone like her came from someone like him."

"Yeah. So Videl, not to be rude but is Kai being serious about this."

"Oh get real." Kai let out another snort "I'm sure waking up to that guy's voice every morning would be really damn swell. _HA! All those laser and flying are nothing but light shows and tricks folks, smoke and mirrors that's all! You've gotta be big and strong like me to beat a big bad bug monster like Cell, nothing but your fists and your big bushy moustache and your big ass afro too!_ " he barked out a perfect impression of Mr Satan's typical arrogant laughter.

"Kai will you please stop impersonating and sit down?" the teacher said dryly, as if this was a regular occurance.

"Sorry." Kai sat down and pulled out a book for the lesson for today.

"I've gotta admit, your Mr Satan impression has really improved." Gohan whispered.

"It takes years of practice, just like developing my poker face."

"What poker face?"

"This face."

"Kai that's just your regular face."

"Exactly."

"...I cannot begin to fathom your mindset."

"Son Gohan. I thought your name sounded familiar." Videl commented out of the blue "You're the guy that Kai keeps talking about."

"He talks about me?"

"Pretty much yeah, whenever he's not brooding or blowing us off, he's talking about how you're his best friend." Erasa told him

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for ruining my rep." Kai grumbled flatly.

"Well it's true, even though it looks like you were exaggerating about him being a nerd. He seems fine to me in that regard."

"Oh. Thanks." Gohan gave a grin towards Erasa, earning a bright smile in return.

"No problem. So have you seen the Golden Warrior at all since you've been in town?"

"I've heard about that term before, but I don't really know anything about it. You think you could elaborate?"

"Oh sure, I mean you are new around here so I guess you wouldn't know about him. You see, the Crimson Warrior is some new crime fighter that's shown up two times now over the past ten days or so to put a few thugs in their place. He's as strong as a rhino, and the one thing that makes everyone know it's him is that he's got golden hair and piercing blue eyes that I hear can just make a girl melt." she let out a dreamy sigh, and as a result she failed to notice the semi-clear signs of Gohan having an inner panic attack.

' _Crap they're talking about me now, I just know it! The two times they were talking about were when I came into the city in order to register for this school!'_

Videl was quick to change the topic of their conversation "So tell me Gohan, how exactly do you know Kai?"

"Well his uncle is a friend of my father, and they introduced us when we were little. His passion and his confidence sort of started rubbing off on me, and we've been best friends since we were like four."

"I see. But you know, I could've sworn I saw the Golden Warrior earlier today, and from what I could tell he was wearing a badge from this high school, along with a blue collared shirt and long brown-colored slacks."

"Uh huh, and what do you mean by that exactly?"

"Nothing really, just making an observation. Sure your clothes are the same, but it couldn't be you since the hair and the eye colors don't match."

"Yeah I know, but that's not a bad thing." Erasa was still looking at him dreamily.

"I never said it was, it's just one hell of a coincidence I guess. _Kai, if you make any cracks about her staring at me like that, I'll turn Super Saiyan 2 and then I can't be held accountable for what might happen.'_

Sharpener smirked "Of course it's nothing but a coincidence, I mean what's the new guy here gonna do, hit the criminals with his brain or something? You heard the teacher, this guy aced all of his tests. The new guy is nothing but a bookworm, not some superhero type of guy. Plus like he said, he doesn't have the right color hair."

"Yeah that's right, it's what she said. _This guy is just oozing smugness and arrogance.'_

Erasa shot him another bright smile "Yeah I guess, Gohan really doesn't seem like the fighting sort of guy. No offense."

"None taken. _Seriously Kai, the last thing I want or neeed is for you to make any cracks about her being my future waifu or something."_

" _You do know I can hear all of your thoughts don't you?"_

" _...Shut up."_

' _So this is the guy then?'_ Videl studied Gohan intently for a moment while he was in the middle of his mental conversation with Kai ' _He seems like too much of a goofball to be someone hardened and serious like the Golden Warrior. But then again, I do remember seeing Kai and the rest of those guys on dad's old tapes of the fight against Cell, and there were at least three warriors that had the ability to change their hair color from black to blonde, and from what I could tell they were tens of times stronger and faster in that state. Dad did say that it was some kind of trick, but then again he said the same thing about Ki control, and Kai basically said that he was telling bullshit. I'll have to have a word with Gohan when I get the chance.'_

' _Oh god, why is she looking at me like that?'_

"So come on Gohan, tell me more about yourself." Erasa kept asking "Are you staying in town for school or are you gonna commute back and forth every day?"

"Well yeah, I'm gonna be commuting in just about every day."

"Oh cool, so how far out do you live?"

"Well have you ever heard of section 439 East? Well that just so happens to be where I'm at."

"Wait are you serious?!" Erasa bolted out of her chair in shock "Kai was serious about that? I thought he was kidding! How the heck are you coming here all the way from Section 439 East? That section has to be at least 600 miles away!"

"Be quiet!" the teacher barked.

Erasa blushed and sat back down, but she kept on going regardless "So what time did you leave home this morning? That's at least 5 hours away even if you took a jet flyer."

"He doesn't." Kai told her simply "He's crashing with me and my family during the week and he goes home on weekends and holidays."

"Oh, well that makes a lot more sense."

"Yeah tell me about it." Kai shot a glance over at Gohan ' _I think this goes without saying but, if it wasn't for me then you would've fucked yourself into a coma a long time ago.'_

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A few hours went by, and the five of them found themselves in the subject that Gohan was dreading but Kai found particularly exciting: gym class.

"Alright you guys, listen up!" the coach called out to them "Since it was such a big hit with you guys yesterday we're gonna play some more baseball, let's see some more hussle today, you got me?"

"So brains, you a baseball genius too?" note the mocking in Sharpener's tone.

At this, Gohave gave a nonchalant shrug "Well I don't know if Kai told you this, but his uncle used to play baseball and he's given me a few pointers every now and then, but I haven't actually played myself before."

"You're kidding right? Of course you haven't, if they don't teach it in a book then you don't know the first thing about it. Have fun getting the new kid up to speed Videl, he's all yours for this one. Kai, you're on my team."

"You're seriously trying to pawn the new guy off on me?" Videl asked dryly.

"Don't be like that Vi, just think about it." Erasa told her "Even if he hasn't played before, I say that he can use that big brain of his to come up with some really good strategies."

"Didn't you say the exact same thing with Kai? Well okay then, I wasn't really opposing anyway, but I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to see what he can do. _It might be a good opportunity to see how he is in terms of Ki control too._ Hey new guy, I'm gonna be putting you in the right field for this game. Do you know where that is?"

"Nope, not a clue." Gohan gave a shrug "But I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually."

"That was only funny when Kai did it."

"Figures."

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Soon enough, the game had started and everything was going pretty uneventfully.

Gohan studied the current situation, his mind racing as he did so ' _Alright Gohan, you've just gotta be sure to take this one nice and easy. Mom and Bulma both told me that if anyone finds out the truth about me and my abilities then it's gonna ruin any chance I have of fitting in here, but then again Kai and dad both told me that I should try to be myself but make sure that I don't get too carried away or I might end up hurting someone. Either way, I've gotta be careful and make sure that I don't stand out too much.'_

"Alright, it's go time." Kai was next up to bat.

' _And any chance of that happening just went up in smoke.'_

"Alright bring it on assclowns, let at least one interesting thing happen before I shoot myself out of boredom."

"Oh trust me, with either one of us around there's no way things will get boring around here." so this was when Videl stepped up to the plate, fully ready to pitch a fast one "Don't think I'm going to go easy on you."

"I'd be ridiculously insulted if you did, now come at me with everything you've got."

"As if you had to ask, there's a swing and a miss coming right up!" she promptly chuckled the ball as hard as she could, at levels of speed that normal people consider to be blinding.

"Fly you little shit, fly!" Kai rammed the bat into the ball as hard as he could, almost sure to bring in a home run.

' _Now!'_ making sure to wait until the ball was far enough out, Gohan leapt into the air about 25 feet and caught, making everyone except Kai nearly lose their shit ' _Looks like the runner on third base isn't actually touching the base, so that means if I throw the ball toe the baseman on third then he'll be out. Okay Gohan, all you've gotta do is toss it down there as gently as you possibly can._ Alright here goes, hey third heads up!" he tossed the ball down as gently as he could.

The guy was able to catch the ball, though he fell back flat on his ass "W-Woah…"

"Sorry, I guess I kind of overdid it there but that is an out isn't it?"

"Y-Yeah…"

Gohan touched the ground with a triumphant roll in mid air "Alright guys that's three outs so come on, let's go ahead and switch sides and bat already." that was when he noticed how they were all gawking at him and the huge shit eating grin Kai had "What? _Crap, I guess I didn't hold back enough. Note to self, what you think isn't enough is still way too much for these guys.'_

The coach was the first one to find his voice "What are you looking hangdog for son? That was an amazing jump, you must have cleared 20 feet at least."

"Well I've never played baseball before but I do workout a lot."

"Well it was still amazing either way." then he turned to the others "Alright, which one of you is up to bat?"

"Come on guys, let's keep it moving."

"Actually dude, I'm pretty sure it's your turn to go up there now." one of the guys told him "You are number 8 aren't you?"

"What? Oh yeah." Gohan grabbed a bat and made his way up.

Videl studied him from her place on the sidelines ' _So he can jump dozens of feet into the air without even trying, and he can throw like a fucking meteor. Now the real question, does he hit as hard as he can jump and catch? Well considering who's going to be pitching, I guess we're about to find out.'_

"Alright, I'm ready for it." Gohan got into a batting stance "So who's going to be pitching?"

"I'll give you one guess." Kai stepped up to the plate looking increasing smug "Oh I'm gonna enjoy this."

"...Oh dear god, people are going to die."

"Yeah that's right, this is gonna be fun."

"I am a dead man walking. _Okay, hitting a homerun isn't too out of the ordinary. I've just gotta make sure it doesn't look too insane or anything, though with Kai pitching it's gonna be hard to hold back. Oh who am I kidding, he'll go all out! But at least I know he won't use the Spirit Ken on me. At least I hope he won't.'_

"Be ready to bring your C-game mother fucker! **Namek-Ken 4x!"** Kai activated the fourth level of his Namek-Ken and channeled the power of the technique into the ball "Here it comes Gohan, now hit this little f*cker like it's the skull of the bastard who made Teen Titans GO!" and then he chucked the ball full force.

' _Son of a-_ Fine, if you wanna play rough then we're gonna play rough!" so Gohan hit the ball as hard as he could, still in his base form keep in mind, and began slowly pushing the ball back despite the force, and eventually managed to send it flying into the sky and out of sight, most likely never to be seen again "Hey coach, that's what they call a home run isn't it?"

"Y-Yeah, sure." the coach muttered, clearly dumbstruck and shaken by what he had just witnessed, along with everyone else present.

"Alright." Gohan just casually walked towards first base while the other guys snapped out of their stupors and ran all the way around ' _Well that was lucky I guess, at least nobody is running away from me and screaming like a pack of banshees.'_

"I'm starting to think to think he's more than just a typical bookworm." Sharpener muttered, seriously freaked out "And Kai too for that matter

"And it only took you about three years of knowing Kai to figure that out?" Videl's tone was dry and almost oozing sarcasm.

Erasa, on the other hand, had cheeks turning increasingly red ' _That was so cool. I mean Kai is kind of a lunatic sure, but Gohan… he seems like he has so much power behind him, and yet he's such a gentle soul… Erasa likey.'_

"Please tell me you're not going "Erasa likey" in your head again."

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Sunset was only about 2 hours away by the time school had ended for the day.

Gohan was walking through the hallways with Kai, and while he was trying to keep his cool, it was painfully clear that he was less than thrilled with Kai at the moment "You know as well as I do that I'm trying to keep a new profile for a reason Kai, for all we know that little grudge match you forced me into earlier probably just cost me any chance I have of fitting in here!"

"Oh lay off of that." Kai waved him off nonchalantly "At this point people probably just think it was all smoke and mirrors like Afro the Ass Clown has been telling them for the past three quarters of a decade."

"Well maybe, but still-"

"You're trying to pass yourself off as normal, and I don't give a shit about normal."

"Hey Kai, and Gohan was it?" this was when Videl showed up, with Erasa silently tagging along behind her.

"Oh hey Videl, look we're gonna have to put training on hold until tomorrow. I'm gonna see how far this assclown has come."

"Yeah I figured, but before that I was just hoping to ask you a few questions though, you don't mind do you?"

"By all means."

"Alright then. For starters Gohan, it took me awhile to piece it together, Kai being aloof and indirect with his answers didn't help much either in that regard, but I think I was able to figure all of it out and now it all makes sense. The guy that I thought was the Golden Warrior, the one that happened to be wearing the exact same outfit as you were today, reminds me a hell of a lot of those guys at the Cell Games that were able to go from black to blonde. You're connected to those other Golden Warriors in someway aren't you?"

Gohan began spluttering in a failed attempt to come up with an excuse "Well I…"

"See Gohan, I told you I wasn't kidding about her." Kai pointed out "She's as perceptive as she is nosy, and she's nosy as fuck. _Not bad looking either- Fuck, where the hell does that keep coming from?!'_

"So I was right, you did know about that." Videl noted, though she didn't sound angry. She didn't even sound surprised.

"Use that head of yours for a minute Videl, of course I knew. He and I have been best friends since we were like 4. He's also my training and sparring partner and probably the only guy on the planet who can fight me on equal footing, though I plan on changing that soon enough."

"Oh for the love of-" Gohan just slapped his face "Dammit Kai, what the hell happened to secrecy?!"

"What happened is simple. It got bitch slapped, torn to shreds, put in the blender, drank by me and then crapped out by me when your insane mother decided to enroll you in the exact same school as me." note how he said all of this totally uncaringly.

Gohan promptly slammed his head against the nearest wall "Oh for-"

"Hey watch it, cursing is my thing."

"Wait a second." this was when Videl spoke up "Kai, if what you're saying is true then wouldn't that mean that Gohan knows the boy who fought Cell during the Cell Games?"

"No he doesn't know him, it was him."

"...I see."

"And I was the kid who sent Cell flying but got a hole through the shoulder. That wasn't a fun day, but it had some good moments."

"The same can't be said for today." Gohan told him from where his head was slammed into a nearby wall.

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So after that little exchange, the two of them left the school and decided to relocate to a nearby mountain a fair distance away from West City, where they changed from their school clothes into their respective gi colors, purple for Gohan and red for Kai.

Of course, once they did, Gohan took the chance to round on Kai in his anger "I seriously can't believe you did that, and on my first day too!"

"Oh give it a rest." Kai waved him off "Part of the reason why you're even in this school is because your mom wants you to make friends other than me right? How the hell do you expect to do that by keeping what defines you and your way of life a secret from potential friends?"

"They'll think I'm a freak if they know everything."

"Well if that's the case then they were never really your friends to begin with. Take it from a voice of experience Gohan, people will always fear what they don't understand but that isn't an excuse to give up. The right people will eventually make themselves known to you, believe me when I tell you this."

"...You mean like I was to you?"

"Don't push your luck, especially considering what's about to happen. Forget about it, let's just get this started already."

"Alright, if you say so." Gohan didn't waste any time as he flashed into Super Saiyan "Alright then, so what are you waiting for Kai? If we're going to do this then we might as well do it properly."

"Way ahead of you, you know that I've never been too good at holding back, especially when it comes to you. **Namek-Ken 30X!"** Kai promptly pushed his Namek-Ken to the 30th level, his forest green aura flaring into life and shaking the ground beneath him like an earthquake.

' _Even after all these years he's still able to keep up with my despite me having Super Saiyan, I shouldn't be surprised by that. I know he'd hate it if I didn't go Super Saiyan 2 against him, but I can't afford to be soft with him, and he would hate me if I did._ I shouldn't be surprised, even now you can keep up with me so easily."

"I wouldn't exactly call it easy, the level I'm at now is something I've achieved through years of push ups, sit ups and plenty of juice. I still use the Namek-Ken every now and then as a sort of tribute to Nail, after all he did understand my goal and strived to help me achieve it, to become the greatest warrior this universe has ever seen. You still have your own path of wanting to be a scholar, but I'm gonna go down my own path too, and do it my own way."

"This monster that the Supreme Kai told us about, Majin Buu, is supposed to be the most dangerous force in the entire universe, and both he and Cooler say that if we don't give this next fight everything we've got, then we're going to lose everything. Such a thought scares me to my core, especially after all the hell we went through with Cell and the Androids, because I can't bare the thought of seeing my best friend or the people I love most die, not again, and because I want to make sure that we both achieve our dreams!" and so he charged forward, meeting Kai in an explosive collision and dealing him a solid elbow to the face.

Kai dodged the next attack and began firing off a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed, resulting in the two of them trading even blows until their fists collidided in a blinding flash, and once they broke off Kai fired a quick Nail Gun from his fingertips.

Gohan dodged the Nail Gun and fired forward a rapid barrage of Ki blasts.

Kai was able to dodge, block and deflect every Ki blast being thrown at him without so much as breaking a sweat "Is that seriously all you've got? I expected a hell of a lot better from the jackass that took out Cell."

"This coming from the guy who took out Bojack, now why don't you go right ahead and see for yourself!" Gohan blitzed behind Kai and dealt him a sharp kick to the face, sending him crashing to the ground in a heap, and then he prepared to follow up with a quick Special Beam Cannon from his fingertips.

Kai rebounded just in time to fire a quick Nail Gun from his own fingertips as he forced his Namek-Ken up to the max, overpowering Gohan's technique as a result.

Gohan blitzed out of the path of the blast, blitzed down towards Kai and kicked him in the chest while he was still preoccupied with his Nail Gun, and then he began forcing Kai on the defensive with a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Quickly losing his patience with taking the attacks, Kai dealt Gohan a heavy fist to the chest and followed up with a Masenko to the face, the force of the blast sending him hurtling backwards as a result.

Gohan was able to rebound almost instantly as the two of them both took to the skies above, their auras blending together to in the form of a double helix.

Kai took the chance to deal Gohan a furious barrage of attacks, in which he dealt him a series of repeated knees to the spine "I don't want you holding back on me in this fight!" the two of them started punching each other in the face and torso over and over again, which ended with the two of them grapping in a fierce power struggle "I thought you would've learned by now not to hold the fuck out on me, I want you to take this seriously!" with a surge of energy, Kai activated his Spirit Ken, with which he gripped Gohan by the arm and threw him high into the air, and then he charged in to finis the fight as his aura crackled with white electricity "I know for a fact you're still holding out on me you son of a mother fucker, now give me all you've got and then come at me with all of it!"

"You want to see my everything?! Well fine, but don't say that I never warned you!" and so with a furious roar, Gohan finally powered up to his Super Saiyan 2 form.

"I said give everything you've got to me, because that's what I'm giving you right now!"

"And everything is exactly what you're going to get!" Gohan charged down towards Kai at full speed, resulting in a blinding clash as hed slugged Kai square in he gut.

Kai slugged Gohan in the gut and dealt him a fist to the face "Come on Gohan, give me all of your strength right here and right fucking now!"

"FINE!" Gohan flared his golden aura as high as he could, his body crackling with a substantial amount of bio-electciricty as a result "Alright Kai, come at me so we can end this once and for all!"

"I PLAN TO!" pushing his Spirit Ken to the absolute max Kai charged at Gohan as high and as fast as he could, resulting in a blinding white light that lit up the sky across the entire wasteland, as well as shaking the surface of the planet for miles around. When everything had subsided a few moments later, Kai had lost his Spirit Ken and was on the ground coughing up a considerable amount of blood "Well…

"Don't be so hard on yourself every time you lose."

"I don't lose, I just learn how much further I have to go. A true warrior has to be ready even in times of peace." he pulled out a Senzu Bean from his gi and swallowed it, and then he handed one to Gohan.

"Yeah I know. _But me and Kai both know better than that. This isn't a time of peace, it's nothing more than the calm before the storm. Cooler and the Supreme Kai warned us about the threat that this Majin Buu represents, but nothing has happened since the incident with Janemba, and that was about three years ago. Whatever is going to happen next, it mst be something bigger than anything we've ever seen before. We're both going to have to get as strong as we can before that happens, in order to protect everyone._ Don't settle for being better when we could the best, and we have to be the best."

"The foundation on which we first crafted our friendship, and they're definitely words anyone should live by. You know just as well what I'm talking about, don't you Videl?"

Sure enough, Videl emerged from the scorched forest surrounding the clearing they were in, and she was clearly left considerably dumbstruck "Okay, so… that was fucking insane in every sense of the word."

"Yeah well guess what, that's a Tuesday for us."

"It's Thursday."

"Whatever. Anyway, as amazing as that was, it confirms what I wanted to know. Gohan, you really are the Golden Warrior aren't you?"

"Oh. That." Gohan let out a sigh "I'm sorry I lied about it, I just didn't want anyone to find out about it. I just want to fit in with other people my own age that can't be considered as legally psychotic." he jerked a thumb at Kai "Like I said, I just wanted to fit in and I thought that if people saw me one shotting criminals and flying around the city fighting crime then they would think I was some kind of freak."

"Whereas someone like me doesn't have to worry about it because I'm the daughter of a man viewed as a god. Anyway there's something else I want to know. So 7 years ago, on the day that the Cell Games took place, it was you and Kai and the rest of your friends and family that had come to challenge him, that was the case wasn't it? That means you two were the kids that were with them right?"

"That's right."

"So it makes sense… My father wasn't the one who defeated Cell after all, it was you guys who saved the world!"

"That's sort of a weekly thing for us to be fair." Kai pointed out.

"Yeah I kind of figured considering how nonchalant you were acting about the whole "Zombie apocalypase" thing a few years ago, but why didn't you tell me my dad wasn't the one who saved the world?"

"Eh, I wanted to see how long it would take for you to piece it together on your own."

"Well it's not like I needed you to lie about it for my sake, I always thought it was weird that my dad would've been able to beat Cell all by himself, so this comes as a big relief."

"Well at least I don't have to worry about you having a mental breakdown, I'd like to think that the last three years I spent training weren't pointless."

"Oh trust me, they were definitely not pointless." Videl spiked her aura and held up her hand, in which she formed a medium-sized Spirit Ball "You see?"

"Impressive. Looks like you might actually be ready for my one of my two patented techniques now."

"Which would be?"

"Guess what, you're about to learn the Nail Gun."

"You mean the white one that-"

"Yep."

"...Well this just turned out to be one hell of a great day."

"I do what I can."

' _Well… suddenly I feel like a third wheel.'_ Gohan looked back and forth between Kai and Videl a few times ' _Well on one hand, if Kai's going out of his way to teach her so much, then it seems the city is in good hands, so I guess I don't need to get involved in the whole crime fighting business after all.'_ he gave a small smile ' _It is pretty nice to see how much Kai has calmed down over the past few years. Good thing too, if we're gonna take down this Majin Buu creature then we're gonna need every advantage we can get.'_

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A few more days went by, and things seemed to calm down and get into a sort of normal routine for our heroes.

Gohan was walking through the streets above Satan City with a bag in hand ' _I know I shouldn't be surprised that so many people order this Door Dash thing, though I can't be the only one who thinks this, but I'm pretty sure it just makes people more lazy.'_

"What part of no don't you understand?!"

' _What's going on?'_ Gohan glanced over to see a certain blonde girl with blue eyes and a light green tubetop on the other side of the road ' _Is that Erasa? Looks like she's in trouble. I'd better take a look at this.'_

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As it turns out, Erasa was being hounded by some guy in a leather jacket, but she wasn't having any of it "Look I'm trying to be nice about this but please, just leave me alone."

"Oh come on babe." the guy wasn't taking the hint "I'm just asking for one date, it's not that big of a deal."

"It is when the girl isn't interested, I said no so just back off!"

"Come on babe!" he started getting way too close for comfort.

"Last chance jerk, get out of my face or I'm calling the cops."

"You're just too sexy when you get mad." he backed her against a wall and started to lean in, when…

"Excuse me." this was when Gohan calmly stepped onto the scene, still clutching the bag in his hands and his gaze firm "I don't know if you noticed this or not, but it's pretty clear to me you're bothering the lady."

"And who the hell are you supposed to be, All Might or some bullshit like that?"

"I'm not a superhero or a My Hero Academia fanatic, I'm just a classmate of hers who knows when she's being bothered by something or someone."

"Are you for real?" the guy let out a snort "What kind of lame oneliner is that, and what's up with the nerd clothes? You've got a few screws loose in there or something?"

"No, but like I said, I can tell when I'm bothering someone, but I think it's safe to say you obviously can't, or you just don't care."

"Oh please, you don't scare me." the guy suddenly rounded on Gohan and slammed his fist into his gut, only to find his hand throbbing as a result, so he promptly swung one at Gohan's face instead.

Gohan cranked his neck to the side and dealt him a fist to the face that sent him stumbling backwards into some trash cans "You know I usually prefer not to use violence, as hard as that might be when you're friends with Kai, but if I have to then I will, even if I don't particularly like it. So are you going to leave the lady alone?"

"You're a goddamn freak you know that? Fuck this, I'm out of here." the jerk pulled himself back to his feet, spat out some blood at Gohan's feet, and then he just walked away sulking to himself.

So with the asshole gone, Gohan turned back towards Erasa "Are you alright?"

"Um, yeah…" Erasa looked up at him and started blushing "No I'm Erasa- I mean-"

"Yeah I know, he didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, no I'm fine." she quickly got herself under control "I just can't stand guys like that, they can't just take no for an answer."

"I know the feeling, trying to force people into something they don't want or they're not ready for just isn't right and it never ends well."

"Tell me about it." they started walking down the street together "Well anyway, thanks for the save. I really appreciate you taking care of that creep for me."

"I don't like to use violence more than necessary, but that's pretty hard to live by when your best friend is a martial arts fanatic. But anyway, I'm just glad that you're okay. But as fun as this has been I really should get going, I've got a delivery to make."

"Door dash?"

"More or less, my dad and my uncle own a sandwich shop in Uncle Jesse's, and in addition to franchising the place, they started doing deliveries. I get that it's for people who might have other priorities and are too busy, but to me it just feels like it's an excuse for people to be lazy."

"I thought I was the only one who thought that- Wait a second." Erasa looked down at the bag, then the address card stapled onto it, and then her expression dulled comically "I know who that's going to right now, it's my dad."

"He ordered three double decker BLT's with coleslaw and fries to match it?"

"He focuses mostly on his work since my mom passed away." that caused Gohan to cringe slightly "Anyway, he most buries himself in his work, so he tries to hold himself over for a few days at a time."

"Oh I see. I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be, everything happens for a reason right?" they stopped in front of her house "Well here it is, thanks for walking me home."

"No problem, you sure you're gonna be okay?"

"I'm a big girl Gohan, I can handle myself, and even if I can't, I do have Videl on speed dial too so I'll be fine." she took the bag from him and handed him a few bills, along with a certain other piece of paper "Anyway there's the tip, I'll give the stuff to my dad for you."

"Erasa this is a 30% tip, I can't possible accept this much from you."

"Call it my way of saying thanks for helping me out today, and not I'm not going to take no for an answer."

"Well… I mean if you're sure then okay." Gohan looked down at the money in his hand, but then he noticed something off "Wait a second, what's this one?"

"That's my phone number stupid, I'm saying call me." she shot him a bright smile, then she winked at him, and then she stepped inside and shut the door, leaving Gohan alone outside and confused as hell.

"...What just happened?" Gohan let out a sigh and took to the skies ' _Well whatever it is, I can only imagine Kai is gonna tear me a new one for one reason or another.'_

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Meanwhile, on Mount Paozu…

A young boy in an orange gi with a blue long sleeve undershirt was walking through the woods of Moutn Paozu "Daddy?" then he stopped walking when he saw Goku meditating on the edge of the cliffside "Daddy!"

"Hm?" Goku looked up from his meditation, then looked down at the boy "Oh sorry Goten, I was just doing some meditating. What are you doing out here?"

"Mommy sent me to look for you since lunch is almost ready."

"Oh great, thanks. Sorry about that, I was just thinking about fighting a bunch of really strong guys."

"Were they super strong?"

"Oh yeah, guys by the name of Frieza, Turles and Cell. They came around a while before you were born, and they were all really bad to the bone. They're all some of the strongest guys that I've ever fought in my whole life, and I don't think there's anyone that I've had to take so seriously in a fight before. I don't know if there are other guys like him out there, but if there are then I'm going to be ready, and that's why I have to get stronger."

"That sounds super cool daddy, I wanna get super strong like you too!"

"Yeah, you probably would be okay if I helped you train yourself up a little bit, but I don't think your mommy would like that very much."

"Oh yeah."

"Oh man that reminds me, I was hoping to pick up a little surprise for your mom before I went back home. You wanna coem with me?"

"Yeah, let's do something nice for momma!" then he let out a yawn "But I'm pretty tired, I don't think I can walk anymore."

"You get tired pretty easily don't you little buddy? Well I guess I can carry you with me if that's what you want."

"Yay!"

"Alright then." Goku reached down and picked up Goten in his arms, and then he took to the skies above Mount Paozu "You know you perked up pretty easily, you were trying to trick your old man weren't you?" he was met with only the sound of Goten's laughter "Yeah, to be honest I shouldn't be too surprised by that. So tell me something son, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I wanna be a big and strong fighter, just like you daddy!"

"Well if you ever want to toughen yourself up then I'm your guy." then he frowned, but only slightly "But listen Goten, no matter what your mom or I say, you can grow up and be whatever it is you want to be. Fighting makes me happy most of the time, and if you want to fight that's fine, but only if it really makes you happy. You understand me?"

"Yeah, okay daddy."

"Great." Goku looked up at the sun shining above them ' _This little guy reminds me of how I was with Grandpa Gohan since I was little. Come to think of it, he's at least 7 now and I haven't even tried training with Goten once. I've been in and out of Gohan's life for so long, I might as well have not been there at all. Let's be real, Piccolo has been acting like more of a father to him than I ever was, and even Kai to an extent. Things were nice and peaceful before Raditz and Beets first showed up on Earth, but that was because I didn't think there was anyone out there that I couldn't beat. God I couldn't have been more wrong. Then I died and Gohan was left alone with the likes of Kai and Piccolo for a year, and then I left him and Chichi alone for another year while I was working with Cooler and training Tarble after the battle with Frieza on Namek. Then came the fight with Cell, and I initially chose not to let them wish me back, because I thought that I was keeping them safe. I thought that with me gone the Earth would finally be at peace. I was wrong, I was so horribly wrong, and I only realized that after Kai told me that Chichi was pregnant, and so the Namekians wished me back, and I was so happy, I was gonna be a dad again. But at the same time, I was terrified that Gohan might resent me for putting him through all of that pain and suffering, and Kai made it no secret that he sure as hell did. Well now's my chance then, with this little guy here I have a chance to redeem myself. I have another son with whom I can do this right, so I can't mess it up.'_

"Hey daddy, is something wrong?"

Goku snapped out of his thoughts "It's nothing son, nothing at all. Not anymore anyway. Come on, we should get moving."

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A few more weeks went by, and the routine continued.

Kai was pretending to take notes while really drowning out the boring lecture "Torque, applied force, kinetic energy, mass x acceleration, yada yada yada. So start talking blondie, word going around is that Gohan saved you from a mugging the other day?"

"Well not a mugging exactly." Erasa shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly "More like he just got rid of a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer."

"And you gave him your phonenumber."

"He told you about that?"

"He didn't have to, I know people who can read minds, and he doesn't know how to hide shit from me to save his life."

"That was the impression I got from him." Videl pointed out.

"Yeah and he's got the social skills of your typical midlife crisis serial killer, something I've been trying to work on for years now."

"Trying to stop him from becoming one or turn him into one."

"You know the answer to that, but in all seriousness he's got a heart of gold."

"Yeah I know." Erasa let out a sigh as she started blushing "We've been hanging out for a few weeks now too, he's pretty shy most of the time but I can tell he's just the sweetest, and he even said that he wanted to show me something after school today, something that was going to blow my mind. Still though, he talks about you a lot too, so I can tell that the two of you are really close to each other."

"You just figured that out now? I've said before that he's my best friend and we've been that way since we were 4, we've wrecked the shit of god only knows how many people and we've always got each other's backs."

"Wow, sounds pretty exciting to me."

"It loses its luster after awhile, but it doesn't detract from the fact that having a normal life is overrated as fuck."

"No arguments here." the two of them high fived.

"So blondie, what's your verdict on Gohan then?"

"Well let's see…" Erasa started listing off some of Gohan's best qualities "Kind, sweet, loyal, heart of gold, strong as an ox in body and in mind if he can stay with you without going out of his mind. No offense."

"Bitch please, that's a compliment."

"Okay then. Anyway moving on, he also checks the box for being able to throw and/or take a punch, so as long as he doesn't drop any major bombshells that would be a deal breaker, I say he passes the test."

"Test for what?"

"What else, for being my boyfriend of course."

"...Yeah, you might wanna brace for disappointment, he's got the social skills of a brain damaged squirrel."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"And so you should, but now back to the real shit." Kai shoved her aside and promptly broached a new conversation topic to Videl "So give me the update on your progress with learning the Nail Gun."

"You'll see it after school." Videl told him simply.

"Fair enough, you know that we've got a deadline to meet though."

"I'm well aware of that."

"So speaking of Gohan, where is he anyway?"

"Running a refresher course with Piccolo, trying to perfect his skills in a certain area that he's been struggling with."

"So you mean…"

"He's trying to learn how to dodge again."

"And it's going to be hilarious, that's why I'm having Piccolo record it for me."

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Hours passed, and the school day quickly came to an end.

By this point, Erasa had met up with Gohan on the roof of the school, with no one else around to see them "So what's up Gohan, why drag me up here and be so secretive about this all of a sudden?"

"Well here's the thing Erasa, there's a really good reason for that." and so with a few deep breaths, Gohan turned back to face her and looked her dead in the eye "There's something really important that I need to talk with you about, and I want you to be completely honest with me about it."

"No need to be so serious about it, I'll always be honest with you."

"And I really hope the same can be said for me. Erasa, there's something about me that I haven't exactly been honest about."

"What is it, you don't have a girlfriend do you?"

"No no that's not it, in all honesty you're the only girl my own age I've ever even talked with, well unless you count Videl."

"Yeah, but she and Kai had their own thing going on."

"Oh good, so I'm not the only one who thought that- Wait, getting off topic. Anyway it's not that, it's something else. I've been pretty scared of showing this to anyone up until now because I've been afraid of people seeing me as some kind of freak. But as blunt as Kai can be, he's right when he says I shouldn't worry about that as much as I do, and if people can't accept me for who I am and what I can do, then that's their problem."

"Yeah that totally makes sense. Now back to this, what is it you want to tell me?"

' _Well, it's now or never…_ I don't know if you've been able to tell this, but I don't exactly come from a normal family or have a normal life, and I'm not like most other people."

"And thank god for it, compared to some of the other jerks around here, you're a serious breath of fresh air."

"No I get that, I mean I'm actually different. The only way for you to understand is to see it for yourself. But first tell me something, do you believe what Mr Satan keeps saying, about how those warriors from the Cell Gameswere using tricks to make all sorts of fake explosions and things like that."

"Well yeah, I mean flying around and blowing stuff up with balls of light from your hands is the kind of stuff you would only see in anime."

"...Kai is gonna have a field day with this."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll see in a minute, and please promise me you won't have a heart attack over what's about to happen." and so Gohan promptly leapt off the roof.

Erasa let out a shriek of horror, only to stop when she noticed something.

That something turned out to be Gohan himself, floating in mid air at least a foot away from any solid ground "So yeah, this is what I was referring to."

"What the- What exactly am I looking at right now?"

"It's nothing too complicated actually." Gohan floated back down onto the roof, which also caused her to calm down considerably "As for how I can do it, I'm not really good at explaining these sorts of things with words, so just watch and see or yourself."

"Alright." so she did so, and looked on in awe at the sight of Gohan summoning a Ki sphere in his palm "Woah…"

"This is called Ki, and it's the result of you channeling some of your spiritual energy into a certain point of your body."

"It's beautiful… It looks really majestic."

"I've always thought that about it myself. It's not all for show either. You know what I was saying about flying around and blowing stuff up?"

"Yeah."

"Well this how it happens." he dissipated his Ki sphere and let out a sigh "If you think this is too weird for you then I understand, I mean to any normal person I must look like a lunatic or something-" he was cut off by a hand over his mouth.

"You could be next to any psychopath, not naming names but I'm referring to Kai when I say that, and you're anything but crazy."

"So you don't think I'm a freak or something?"

"Why would I? You're definitely way better than any of the jerks around here. I'm just glad you had the guts to share this with me."

"...Oh thank god, that is such a relief." he slumped forward in clear expasperation and breathed a long and loud sigh "I guess Kai was right when he said that I should stop worrying about what people think of me so much."

"Kai is a psychopath in every sense of the word, but he's definitely got his moments, and in this case he's right. I do have one more question though."

"What's that?"

"Does Mr Satan have the ability to use this Ki stuff, is that how he beat Cell?"

"...Kai is gonna lose it over this."

"What's that mean?"

"Nothing, it's just… I'm not sure I'm ready to have _that_ conversation just yet."

"Fair enough I guess." on that note, she suddenly wrapped her arms around Gohan's neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek "Call that my way of saying thanks."

"For what?"

"For trusting me."

"Oh… yeah sure, no problem."

Unfortunately, what neither of them noticed (even with Gohan's heightened senses), was that during all of that, Kai was floating beneath them with a huge shit-eating grin plastered all the way across his face ' _Oh I'm gonna get a metric fuckton of mileage out of this one, and with any luck.'_

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Meanwhile, in the home of the fake Hype…

The sun had long since set, and now our so-called "Champ", none other than Mr Satan himself, was doing what he did pretty much every night: watching videos of himself in a previous tournament to make himself feel better "Oh hell yeah! You see, it's times like this I always do what I love most, watching the master at work."

"That's one thing I will never doubt about you." this was when Videl came in and handed him a bottle of wine.

"Your old man isn't looking too shabby now is he Videl? You just have to keep up with all of your training, and then the day may come where you're ready for the big time yourself."

"Yeah, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. You watching the old clips from the 24th World Martial Arts Tournament again? You know I've heard a few things about the champion that came before you, and from what I can tell he was no slouch either. Did you ever get the chance to meet him in person?"

"Nah, I think his name was Goku or something. He wasn't really all that, he was just some punk amateur that came out of nowhere. Sure he managed to luck his way through the tournament with some sort of razzle dazzle, but he didn't even bother to show his face in the tournament the year that I won, but then again that's probably because he knew I would rip him a new one if he ever bothered to show his face!" he started laughing like a massive jackass.

' _Yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself.'_

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Another day came, and things seemed totally normal at schoo, at least for the most part, but that was about to change.

' _Dammit, come on already, move!'_ Gohan was bolting through the hallways ' _How the hell did I end up making myself late again?'_

"Hold it the fuck up a second loverboy." this was when Kai suddenly blitzed in front of him in the hallway, causing him to screech to a halt "So, late again huh?"

"Yeah, I was just talking with Erasa again and I lost track of time."

"Sounds like the two of you have been getting pretty close lately."

"Well she's really nice and she's easy to hold a conversation with."

"And to think she was so grateful for what you showed her she actually gave you a little something on the cheek."

"Yeah well, I admit that caught me a little bit off guard but- Wait a second… Oh you little son of a-"

"Ha, I got you even faster than I thought I would. Hook, line and sinker mother fucker. I think it's safe to say we can stop pretending since the cat is out of the metaphorical bag, she actually went ahead and kissed you. I've only got one thing to say to you Son Gohan."

"And what's that?"

"Well… it's about fucking time you got some action with a girl!" Kai gave him a huge shit eating grin and patted him on the back "Seriously dude, I haven't been this proud of you since you went and fisted Cell so hard he popped out twins, and that's saying something!"

"So… you're not gonna freak out and try and blast me through a wall?"

"Why would I? For fuck's sake you idiot, is that all you think I ever do?"

"You did it to my uncle after he gave you the idea to start training Videl."

"And I'd do it again, and I most likely will. But in all seriousness, the only thing I'd worry about right now is how Videl is going to react."

"Why, you think she'll be mad?"

"About you making a move on her best friend? Most likely."

"But I'm not the one who-"

"You think she's gonna give a shit about that? She'll probably just aim to eliminate any chance of you ever reproducing."

"You're not gonna tell her?"

"I don't know, it does seem pretty tempting. How about we make a deal, I'll keep silent towards her in regards to your little hook up in exchange for you doing something for me."

"What sort of something?"

"Nothing too bad, just entering the World Martial Arts Tournament that's coming up in a few weeks."

"Wait a second, you mean the World Martial Arts Tournament, as in the one where my dad fought against Jackie Chun, Tien and Piccolo all those years ago?"

"That would be the one, they're holding it again for the first time in years per demand by the so-called lord and savior, and the Hype, as much as I'm disgusted to say that out loud. I still have no idea how he pulled it off, but apparently he pulled out a win in that tournament a few weeks before all that shit with the Androids went down, but your dad was the one who won it before that like 2 decades ago. That was the one were Piccolo basically nuked an island."

"Yeah, my dad told me about that one."

"I did some digging around myself in some old newspapers, and with some information provided by Videl I discovered something pretty jaw-dropping: my mom was a former champion, in the tournament before Jackie Chun faced off with your dad."

"I thought that was King Chappa."

"No I think he was like the 18th or 19th, my mother was the 20th."

"Does Yamcha know about that?"

"I don't know, but if he did then I'm gonna be talking with him about that one. That's what makes this all the more poetic though, it's gonna be fucking amazing. Rivals, sparring partners and lifelong best friends, and now fellow sons of former champions going at it to see who's the best, you can't say that doesn't get your blood pumping at the thought."

"...So the gist I'm getting from this entire situation is that you're blackmailing me into entering the tournament, is that about right?"

"Pretty much yeah, and to be fair even if I didn't Videl probably would somehow."

"...I should've seen this day coming, it was only a matter of time before you started blackmailing me for one reason or another. Alright you've got a deal, I mean even if you didn't get me to enter, chances are my dad or Piccolo probably would somehow."

"Of that I don't have any doubt."

"Alright then, looks like it's settled."

"I guess I'll be seeing you in the ring. This is gonna be a day that we're never going to forget about. See you in the ring." and then he promptly walked off.

' _He's actually blackmailing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, knowing how he is I guess it was only a matter of time.'_

"Oh and dude?" Kai poked his head back around a corner "Just one more thing."

"That's to be expected."

"Just think of it like this: We've still got this whole Majin Buu business to worry about like we heard from the Supreme Kai right? Just think of it this way, now you've got another reason for us to train that much harder. But still, you don't have a fucking clue as to just how much I'm looking forward to this. Hasta la vista mother fucker!" and so he disappeared around a corner once again.

"...Well okay then, that went well."

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we finally get into the third and final act of this fic, and of DBZ as a whole. I'm going to be honest with you, out of the big three overarching story arcs from Z, the Buu Saga was my least favorite. I was never a huge fan of the character of Majin Buu. And for those of you who remember my Rise of a New Generation fic I was doing a few years back, I always ended up stopping short before we even reached that arc. The reason for that was also because of what I was trying to do with the arc itself. I mean with my other DBZ fic, the Rise of a Protector (which was also a crossover with Inuyasha), I was able to mostly replace it with a war against a demon named Magatsuhi, so that was easy enough. But in regards to the Rise of a New Generation, I was trying to replace Majin Buu with a cult of evil Namekians (Dark Namekians from Dragon Ball online, for those of you wondering), but I kept running out of ideas, and I didn't want to make them generic one-dimensional villains. That, and I kept writing myself into a corner because of the limited freedom I had that came with starting at the beginning of the Android saga. That's mainly why I scrapped that fic and decided to start over from scratch, at the beginning of Z, which gives me a lot more freedom to include things such as Raditz being good, Yamcha learning the Kaioken alongside Goku, Cooler being good in this fic, and a bunch of others later on, though I will admit that some could've been done better (World's Strongest adaptation, the Ginyu Force, etc), but hey, live and learn.**

 **For those who hadn't noticed, Videl has some noteworthy differences in terms of her personality compared to how she was in canon by this point. Well aside from being more aware of Ki users, she's more laid back, kind and upbeat compared to canon since she's been training with Kai. And yes, she's pieced together that her dad did NOT save the world from Cell. I know that according to the power levels list below, she might seem too OP, but keep in mind she's been training with someone like Kai for about 3 years, so I think it makes sense that she would make substantial progress in that time.**

 **I'm not sure how many people enjoyed the whole Great Saiyaman thing, but I wasn't personally very fond of it, as in I just cringed at it most of the time. Sure it was funny at times, but overall it was just cringeworthy in my opinion, and since Videl is a hell of a lot stronger than in canon (something I'll go further into in a moment), I figured there really wouldn't be any need for Great Saiyaman, at least in this fic. In order to make up for that, I'm replacing it with some little fluff moments between Gohan and Erasa, a pairing I've really grown quite fond of. Don't think they'll be getting together soon though, at the very least when they do become a couple it's going to be after Majin Buu is defeated, but don't think that will be in the same way either. This arc is going to have numerous changes going for it when we get to the real meat of it. Of course that isn't the only thing I'm adding in, I also included some bonding moments between Goku and Goten, which is especially important when you remember that Goku only agreed to come back to life after the Cell Games after Kai told him that Chichi was pregnant with Goten.**

 **Adding onto the Gohan x Erasa bonding, I used some inspiration from the newest DBZ game, Kakarot, specifically a side quest revolving around Erasa and how she's clearly pining after Gohan. But beyond that, this turned out to be harder than I was expecting, the biggest reason being that, well I've never been in a real relationship before, so I didn't really know how to make it realistic, but all things considered, I think I did okay.**

 **Power levels:**

Kai: 980 million

Kai (Namek-Ken 4x): 3.92 billion

Kai (Namek-Ken 30x): 29.4 billion

Kai (Spirit Ken): 147 billion

Gohan: 3.8 billion

Super Saiyan Gohan: 26.6 billion

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan: 159.6 billion

Videl: 560,000


	37. Tournament Preparations, Coming Conflict

**Hora:** It's not discontinued, I'm simply taking my time with that story so that I can do as well with it as possible.

 **xSonallyGirl129x:** Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked the chapter. I'm glad to see you like the relationship building up between Gohan and Erasa. I honestly wasn't really sure how it was going to turn out, but judging by your reaction, I didn't need to be so worried. As for using content from Kakarot, I was just exploring every possibility. Yep, Videl is a hell of a lot stronger in this fic, and is able to figure things out much faster, so I think she would be closer to the group than in canon. And yes, Kai blackmailing Gohan, it was only a matter of time. All in all, I'm glad to see you liked this chapter, and I hope you like what comes next.

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Needless to say, after Kai's (somewhat) good natured blackmailing of Gohan to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament, word was quick to spread to the others.

"The World Martial Arts Tournament you said?" Yamcha raised an eyebrow at Kai while he was in the middle of doing a series of situps "Well that sure as hell takes me back, but it seems a little bit out of the ordinary coming from someone like you."

"Yeah well, it's basically the same principle as when I entered that intergalactic martial arts tournament a few years back." Kai gave a nonchalant shrug "You guys and my mom honed your skills in those battles, so I figured it's only right I do the same. Plus there's the fact that I already promised Videl I'd enter, and since I have no intention of going down a road like that without dragging someone with me."

"Right, that girl you've been training for the past few years whose dad you hate. Who did you say she was again?"

"Like I'm telling you that, the last thing I need is for Mother of the Year over there to have some kind of shit hanging over my head. All you need to know is that I never would've imagined that a pathetic piece of shit like him would actually find someone who would ever want to reproduce with him."

"Yeah, you realize that's not going to pan out."

"I'll make it pan out for as long as I have to. All you need to know is that she's actually got a decent personality, nothing like her dad at least. She definitely knows her way around a fight, it's only been about three years since I started training her and I'd say that by now, even without the likes of having her potential unlocked, she's around the level that Frieza was at in his first form back on Namek."

"Really? That's pretty impressive all things considered. Anyway the point is, she's entering the tournament, now me and Gohan are too, and you should think about signing up yourself."

"I figured you wouldn't want anyone stealing your spotlight, so why the sudden change of heart about this?"

"Call it whatever the hell you want, but I think of it as mostly pity, considering how things turned out in the last tournament you were in."

"Oh come on, I made it to the quarter finals."

"Where you got your ass kicked and ended up hurting your balls on the head of a nerd that was possessed by a god."

"...You had to bring that up didn't you? How did you even find out about that?"

"Mother of the Year."

"Fuck, I'm gonna have to talk with her about that."

"And nothing will come of it except you sleeping on the couch."

"...I'm gonna choose to ignore that and just tell you, I'm in."

"Good enough for me." Kai pressed a button on his watch, and his outfit morphed from a red t shirt and jeans to his typical red and black gi "I designed this thing myself, with a little bit of input." he jerked a thumb over at the doorway.

"Wow!" as it turns out, standing in the doorway was a little girl with blue hair, and she was looking at Kai in sheer awe, this being an 8 year old Bulla "Wow big brother, you look so cool like that!"

"Yeah I know squirt, but thanks for the input." on that note, Kai turned back to Yamcha "And for the record, part of the reason why I want Gohan in on it is so I have a decent challenge. It's no fun beating the shit out of people if I don't at least get the blood pumping on some level."

"You say that like I'm not a challenge for you." Yamcha pointed out dryly.

"You stopped being a challenge for me after I got the Namek-Ken."

"Speaking of which, we might as well get Big Green and Cooler in on it too. I've got a theory I want to put to the test, back in the days of the Cell Games they had the upper hand on me when it came to raw power, but since then I have no doubt I've closed that gap. After all, training with a Super Saiyan 2 multiple times per week really helps in that regard."

"Don't think I'm out of this either, I've got more than a few tricks up my sleeve to help even the playing field."

"I'm counting on it."

"Wow!" Bulla's eyes lit up even further "Daddy vs big brother?"

"And I'm gonna win squirt, it's not even a contest."

" _I don't know if I would say that exactly sweetie, because I think I'm going to be signing up for this as well."_ a certain female voice broke into their conversation, leaving Kai and Yamcha both frozen in place.

"What the hell?" Kai looked up in awe "I'd better not be hearing things, that's one voice I would never forget. Is that really you up there mom?"

" _Hey there sweetie, and to answer your question, it's most definitely me. I was just checking in to see what you guys were up to, and then I heard you talking about the tournament, so I figured it was about time I added some input into your little conversation."_

"Yeah that figures, it only makes sense that you don't have a lot to do when you're dead. But all snarkiness aside for the time being, were you serious about what you said? Are you really going to come back to Earth and enter the World Martial Arts Tournament with the rest of us?"

" _That's the plan, at least it is so far. It turns out that as long as you stay on her good side, as hard as that may be from time to time, Fortuneteller Baba will give me a day pass to come back to Earth for a full 24 hours. I don't know when else to use it, but if you and my baby brother are going to be doing the tournament then we might as well make it into a family thing."_

"Oh fuck yes to the fuck yes, this is gonna be Rick and Morty levels of insane."

"You'd better hope that doesn't turn out to be a bad thing." Yamcha told him dryly from where he was covering Bulla's ears "I think it's only fair to warn you now sis, I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I was the last time we saw each other. I say that my skills and power are way beyond what I thought possible."

" _I don't expect anything less from you, but don't think I've been sitting up here and doing nothing all this time. One thing is for certain, this is going to be a tournament none of us are ever going to forget."_ she had no idea how right she was, but we'll get to that later.

"Oh shit this is gonna be amazing."

"Yeah I can imagine." Yamcha finally let go of Bulla's ears "Just imagine how everyone else is going to react when they find out, mainly Goku, Krillin, Tien, Tarble and Piccolo."

"They trained with my mom in Other World, or rather most of them did. Didn't she just throw the Triclops and Goku Jr down into hell for a week or two? I'm pretty sure that's what she did back then. Anyway let's get shit underway, we've got a lot of work to do."

"Dammit, right when I let go of her ears! Bulma is gonna have my head if she hears our daughter cursing."

"If she hasn't taught her all sorts of curse words already."

"...Oh yeah that's probably true."

"I know it is dipshit."

"DAMMIT!"

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Later, at a certain sandwich shop…

"No way, your mom is coming back? That's amazing." Gohan made his way into the sandwich shop in question while talking with a certain sociopath on the phone "Now I'm actually looking forward to entering the tournament on some level. Alright I'll spread the word and let the others know, okay I'll see you later." and then he hung up.

"Got another delivery for you to make." 17 promptly shoved a back into Gohan's arms before he could get a single word in.

"I'll get to it in a second, but first, what exactly are you doing here?"

"I owe Raditz a favor, he's doing something with my sister that I assume is along the lines of-"

"Okay okay, please don't be so specific or detailed about that. I'm still scarred from the last time I walked in on them. Anyway I came by to tell him and my dad something really important. By the way, where is dad right now anyway?"

"He kept setting the kitchen on fire, I'm not even sure how since I'm pretty sure none of the stuff in there was actually flammable, so I sent him out to attract new customers." he jerked a thumb towards the front window, where they saw Goku outside in a sandwich suit, dancing around the sidewalk and spinning a sign with surprising gracefulness "It's times like this that I remember that even though he's the man who single handedly destroyed the Red Ribbon Army when he was 14, he's still a moron with surprising levels of skill and gracefulness."

"Where did you even get a sandwich suit that fits his hair like that?"

"We had it custom made, you'd be surprised how much it costs to make something like that in the first place."

"...Note to self, don't let Kai learn about that or he'll never let me hear the end of it."

"Knowing that little bastard and what he's like, I wouldn't be surprised if he already knows about it."

"I know, but a guy can dream right? Anyway I just came by to let you guys know, his mother, you know Scarlet, she's coming back down to Earth to join the World Martial Arts Tournament in a few weeks."

"Tournament huh? I heard about a few of those tournaments. Do we get any money out of entering this?"

"Only if you enter the top 5, in that case you can get somewhere between 1 million and 10 million Zeni."

"And you and the others will be participating?"

"That's how it looks at the moment."

"Then count me in too. Get that delivery stuff underway, I'll tell Raditz and my sister later after we close up." this was followed by the sound of a horn honking, and then several very loud crashing noises "And that sounds like a good reason to close up shop early."

"What exactly was that?"

"My best guess would be your dad's so-called "Skills" causing a massive car crash."

"...Get the closed sign, I'll get moving."

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About an hour later, on Mount Paozu…

17 let out a sigh as he finished explaining the situation to Raditz "The less I tell you about what happened in the aftermath, the better."

"Sounds like a good time to not be there." Raditz cringed at the thought "So did Kakarot end up getting arrested?"

"Thankfully no, they just let him off with a warning, mostly on account of him being able to break their strongest handcuffs like they were made of wet paper, but whatever. So the short version is, Gohan's making a delivery, the shop is closed for the rest of today, and apparently the mother of the little sociopath is coming back down here to enter some tournament."

"The World Martial Arts Tournament, yeah Kakarot did mention something like that to me a few times. I might get in on that too, see how it is and go from there."

"I do look forward to going up against you at some point, so I say do it."

"I have to admit, the thought of actually going up against you and that little bastard does get my blood pumping, but the question will a certain someone approve?"

"Keep your eye on the birdie!" this was when a small blue-colored Ki blast hit Raditz square in the back, courtesy of a little girl with black hair in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes and a brown tail sprouting from her back "How was that daddy?"

"You're definitely getting better Ranch, that one stung." Raditz knelt down before his 5 year old daughter and ruffled her hair, causing her to giggle.

"I say enter it anyway." 17 told him "Even if you do get your ass kicked, you'll still end up with some cash in your pocket."

"Define cash in this case." this was when 18 made her way out of the building, arms crossed and eyes still somewhat cold as ever "As in, how much prize money are they offering?"

"Based on what Gohan's told me until now, the grand prize is a solid 10 million, second place is 5 million, third place is 3 million and so on."

"And just like that I've heard all I need to hear. Raditz you're entering this tournament, I don't want any protests from you, and of course I'm entering too."

"Yeah, momma and daddy kicking butts!" Ranch cheered, earning a few odd looks aimed in her direction.

"See you heard what she's saying, we're winning this, plain and simple."

"You know you didn't have to try and coerce me into fighting." Raditz pointed out dryly "I was still going to do it anyway."

"Sure you were, and I'm Mary Poppins."

"Who?"

"Nevermind. So who else is entering this tournament?"

"Well I know Goku is going to for sure." 17 told her "Kai is still spreading the word himself, so at least a few others will at least try to participate. I for one just hope to go up against that little bastard and rip him a new one."

"You're not very fond of him are you?" Raditz noted dryly.

"Hey, being snarky and punching people out is how he connects with people, so why can't it work with me?"

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Meanwhile, with a certain Son…

' _Okay, the further I get away from the restaurant, the less likely I'm going to be considered an accomplice.'_ Gohan made his way to the address on the bag and rang the door bell, but it was only after he did so that he noticed something ' _Wait a second, isn't this… Oh crapbaskets, what did I get myself into?'_

The door promptly opened to reveal a tall man with short blonde hair, familiar blue eyes and a suit and tie "Is this my order from Uncle Jesse's?"

"Yes sir, right here as requested." he handed him the bag.

"Thank you." the man studied Gohan intently for a moment "Son Gohan I presume?"

"Um… yes sir, how did you know?"

"My daughter speaks of you a great deal, and I can tell that you match that description of hers to a T." he held out his hand "Michael Pencil, nice to meet you."

"You as well sir. Wait a moment, as in Professor Michael Pencil, the Quantum Physics professor at West City University?"

"You've heard of me?"

"I follow your lectures almost every week."

"I see, so a fan. I should be honored, but truth be told I see this as an opportunity to meet the young man that my daughter appears to have taken such an interest in. A good thing too, after all I never approved of some of the young men from her school, like that Sharpner. Tell me, how do you feel about people like him?"

"In all honesty sir, I never really gave it that much thought. When I'm at school, I mostly like to focus on my studies."

"Fair enough. And you have a job, I like that. Tell me something, what time do you get off work?"

"Well considering what's going on down there… right now."

"Good. Do you have any dinner plans?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary for me."

"You do now. Come on in."

"Um… okay then. I just have to make a call, my mom can be pretty strict and she'll have my head if I show up late without a good excuse."

"Fair enough."

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Piccolo raised an eyebrow at what he was hearing from Kai "Is that right? I have to admit, that does sound rather interesting."

"I figured at the very least, you would want to participate." Kai noted "So what do you say Big Green, you in?"

"I'm in alright, but never call me that again."

"Okay."

"Really?"

"No. So what about you Little Green, I'm guessing you're going to be abstaining."

"You're right about that." Dende told him "I'm not really a warrior in any sense of the word, so all things considered I'm really out of my element in that regard."

"Fair enough."

"I have to ask though." Piccolo got his attention "That girl you've been training with, is she your student?"

"What you mean Videl? Yeah I guess you could say that. She's got spunk, she's got a metric fuckton of determination, and thanks to yours truly, she understand that a martial artist never settles."

"I see." Piccolo gave a small smile "I've watched you over the years Kai, and I've watched you grow not just as a man, but now as a teacher as well. I'm proud of you."

"I do what I can. Anyway Yamcha's telling the cueball and the Triclops about the tournament, but in the meantime I think I have one other person in mind who would be pretty interested about the tournament."

"Who do you have in mind?"

"You'll see soon enough."

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Meanwhile, with the student in question…

By this point, Videl was walking with Erasa through the streets of Satan City "I don't know what happened exactly, but somehow Kai talked Gohan into entering the tournament, but he refuses to tell me how."

"Well then I think the tournament is as good as won for him." Erasa told her nonchalantly, which earned a raised eyebrow.

"I thought you were on my side."

"I thought I didn't have to pick sides, but Gohan is a tough guy. Still though, he's lot better than some of the other guys around here." her cheeks started turning pink "I mean he really is a great guy, plus he's got his whole future mapped out, or at least a rough idea of it. I mean he's got the IQ of a mega genius, he's on the path to what I think is going to be a career in teaching, and he's also-"

"Inside your house." Videl pointed through a window, where Gohan was sitting on a sofa inside and talking with Michael.

"...Oh dad you didn't."

"You think he's giving him the dad talk?"

"I'm praying not, the last time that happened one guy ended up in a coma, and the other guy… I don't think they even found his body."

"...You'd better get in there."

"Way ahead of you." and so she bolted inside.

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Meanwhile, inside…

As it turns out, the conversation that Gohan had going with Michael as actually rather pleasant, as in they were going over something rather complicated "So in an isolated system, particles are able to co-exist in a stable phase relationship."

"And if the system is interfered with then that stability turns into chaos." Michael finished that statement for him "Such a thing is unpredictable and dangerous, but at the same time it can also be beautiful."

"And so isolated completely, a quantum system would be able to revert back to separate states of matter, each of them being tangled with a distinct state of its environment."

"So in other words, the object in question would be both in and out of phase-"

"-with multiple parallel realities."

"You really know your stuff don't you?"

"I've done a lot of studying over the years."

"So I can see, I have to admit I'm impressed."

"Dad don't hurt him, we can't afford another guy in a coma because of your method of trying to protect me!" this was when Erasa suddenly bolted into the room so fast that she was practically gasping for air, only to stop when she noticed that there was literally nothing happening worth noting.

"Hey sweetie, welcome home."

"I feel like I just entered an alternate universe, you're actually spending time with a guy from my school and not trying to maim him in some way."

"Nice to see you too." he glanced over at Gohan "You're quite the sharp from what I can tell, and he seems nice enough. Besides, if I told my daughet no then I'm fairly certain that she would be out for my blood. But in all seriousness, treat her right or I will be coming for you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Gohan gave a simple nod.

"Good. Well I have some work to do, so I'll leave the two of you to your business, but keep it nice and low key." and so he made his way out of the room.

"Well… that was less intense than I was expecting, but all things considered your dad seems really cool."

"I shouldn't be surprised you're the one guy he actually likes." Erasa let out a sigh "I guess I never mentioned that he was an advances physics professor. I guess it just slipped my mind."

"Like how I never mentioned that Kai is a certified sociopath."

"So we've both got some skeletons in the closet. So you're gonna compete in the tournament in a few weeks?"

"That's the plan, at least for now. The real problem is that I'm going to have to skip school in order to train for it properly. My dad will be thrilled about that, but the real problem is getting my mom to give me permission to enter in the first place. I love my mom, but she can be pretty strict."

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Later, at the Son home, during the event that Gohan was dreading…

Chichi shot a skeptical look in Gohan's direction "So what exactly is so important that you needed me to come out here in order to ask me, and what exactly are you doing?"

"Oh you mean this?" Gohan stopped gathering a massive pile of boulders in front of him "This is just my way of trying to protect myself from the potential backlash of what I'm about to ask you about."

"You want to ask her if you can her if you can enter the World Martial Arts Tournament and see if you can beat your old man?" Goku offered with his classic Son grin "Hey come on Chichi, I say we let him do it."

"Dad please, I've got this one." Gohan stepped out from his self made barrier "For the record, between me and dad I think we can take home 5 million Zeni at least, so then-"

"Of course you're going to enter the tournament!" Chichi immediately barked at him with surprising levels of enthusiasm "Forget about 5 million, between the two of you I say you can easily get 15 million Zeni out of this!"

"...As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm mom, I don't really know if it's going to be a sure thing that we're going to win."

"Watch your mouth young man, we didn't raise you to be a quitter Son Gohan!"

"Okay, but for the record I'm going to have to take some time off from school if I want to be in the best condition possible for this."

"Fine I say go ahead, drop out or do whatever it is you have to, you can make it up later for that kind of money! Wow, what are the odds huh? Just as the money from my father starts to run out, to think a windfall like this drops straight into our laps!"

"We still have dad and Uncle Raditz at that sandwich shop don't we?"

"And your dad caused a huge traffic accident today."

"...Prize money it is." Gohan glanced up at the moon shining brightly above them, and his thoughts began drifting ' _Maybe Kai was right after all, if this tournament is a reason to get everyone training then that works out for all of us. The more we train now, the better prepared we're going to be when the time comes to deal with this Majin Buu creature.'_

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Meanwhile, with a certain Arcosian…

Cooler raised an eyebrow at what he was hearing through a communicator "So the reason you contacted me is for the sake of a martial arts tournament behind held on your planet?"

" _That's about the sum of it."_

"And the reason you contacted me was because?"

" _The simplest way to describe it is that I want you here so I can test myself against you, my Spirit Ken against your final form."_

"I should have anticipated as much. And there will be numerous powerful warriors gathered at this tournament?"

" _We're all gonna be there, so you tell me."_

"I see. If all of your comrades intend to participate in this tournament, or at least be present, then I will attend as well. When is this tournament?"

" _A solid month from now, a full 30 days. Don't even think about slacking and don't give any bullshit excuses, I want to see you there at your absolute best."_

"And believe me Kai Sapien, you shall." on that note, Cooler severed the communication link with Kai, then promptly put on a Scouter "Salza, Zangya, please report to me immediately for an urgent matter."

Sure enough, within seconds, Zangya and Salza appeared before him "You called?"

"I received a message from one of our comrades on Earth regarding a certain event taking place."

"So then…?"

"I'm not finished. I also received a message from the Supreme Kai, in which he states that _he_ has been coming closer to Earth with each day that passes."

"Will these events correspond with each other?" asked Salza.

"Consdiering the amount of powerful warriors with massive energy reserves that are going to be gathering, it is more than likely. I'll have to train hard for when that day comes, and I'll need your help if I'm to be prepared properly. Can I count on the two of you?"

"Of course my lord."

"And Zangya?"

"I may as well." Zangya stepped forward and looked Cooler in the eye, then promptly grabbed him by the shoulders "And I know just how to start." that was enough for Salza to find a convenient excuse to get the hell out of there.

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Another day came, and training was continuing in full swing for all of those present, though for some it proved to be pretty serious.

Goku stood on the highest point of of Mount Paozu, calming and collecting himself while the air was still ' _Remember, harness your rage and keep it under control, focus it.'_ and then with a primal roar, he flashed into Super Saiyan, then went straight to the next level, that being Super Saiyan 2 ' _There's another level of power beyond this. It's down there somewhere, I can feel it even now. I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about the tournament, so I have to make sure I'm ready. Rage can only take you so far in battle, and all of the power in the world doesn't mean anything if you can't harness it properly.'_

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The rain was pouring down over the skies above in a certain wasteland.

Videl charged towards Kai at full speed, her milky white aura flaring higher and higher with each and every second that passed ' _Dammit, I can't even see his attacks before they hit me, but that doesn't mean I'm just gonna lie down and die like some kind of animal!'_

"Don't let your guard down, you can't even see my attacks coming so you sure as hell won't be able to do any serious damage!" Kai didn't miss a beat as he dodged, blocked and weaved his way around every punch and kick being thrown at him, and eventually he kicked Videl's legs out from under her, which successfully threw her off balance.

Videl used her lack of footing to her advantage and tried to deal Kai a kick to the face, only to be hit with a shockwave that sent her flying.

"So that's where you're at right now in terms of skill, a metric fuckton beyond that naive spoiled brat I first met."

"I'm not the same person I was back then."

"I can see that. You know I spoke to Piccolo a few days ago, back when I told him about the tournament."

"The green guy that trained you and Gohan, and what exactly did he say?"

"About what I was expecting from him at some point, he wanted to get details on how you started out, how you've progressed since then, where you're at right now. He's taking his time right now with his own training, the same going for pretty much everyone else."

"And what did he say when he got what he wanted to know?"

"He said it sounded like you've been handling yourself pretty well up until now, but at the same time he confirmed what I had suspected: You've still got a long way to go, and a lot of potential that you have to unleash before you're ready for the big time. The first thing I did after that was head to Korin and get some Senzu Beans for us to use while I push you to the next level over the next few weeks." he threw the bag in question to the side "You should be glad that I got these, because from here on out I'm gonna be kicking things up a few notches."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. I'm more than ready for you Kai, if I'm going to go to the top in this tournament then I need to get stronger than I've ever even dreamed of being!" so on that note, Videl flared her white aura once more, and with a roar she burst forward, launching a rapid barrage of punches and kicks.

Kai dodged and weaved his way aroun Videl's attacks, taking only a single scratch across his cheek as he did so, but eventually he discovered an opening and slugged her clear in the gut, the force sending her tumbling backwards "You're not the only one who's aiming to get ready for what's coming next."

"Yeah well… here's what I say to that…" Videl staggered back to her feet and promptly spat out some blood "Is that all you've got?"

"You're eager and spunky, I'm gonna have to beat that out of you soon enough, even if it is kind of hot."

"What?"

"What?"

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Training was continuing on Mount Paozu.

Goku was meditating at the highest point on the mountain, only to stop and look back when he noticed something "I thought you were out training by yourself or with Kai, I didn't think you'd come and approach me like this Tien."

Sure enough, Tien stood before him, clad in his new dark blue shirt and white cape, as well as white pants and black boots, and his eyes blazing with resolve and determination and his body radiating that milky white aura "I think we both knew this was going to come Goku, the time has come for you and me to face off with each other."

"You know, seeing you now I think I realize just how much you've grown in the last few years, both as a warrior and in general. You didn't go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber without me or anyone else did you?"

"I thought about it, but I decided it would best be saved for when I really need it. I've been training with Krillin and Yamcha for the past week or so, but right now I think what I need to do the most is test my power for real, against someone that I've long strived after. You and me, one on one, nobody else getting involved in it."

"Alright then, let's get to it." Goku pulled himself back to his feet, spiking his own milky white aura as he did so, and then he flashed into Super Saiyan "You'd better get serious now Tien, if we're going to do this then I don't plan on holding back against you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you." Tien's own white aura flared even higher as he flashed into his Spirit Ken, and then he flared it even higher, the force of his power shattering the ground beneath him.

' _His mastery over this Spirit Ken technique is a lot better than I thought it would be, I guess training with the others as much as he does is really paying off. I'm gonna have to go all out against him in this fight, not that I wouldn't, especially not if he needs me to. I doubt he would like it if I held back against him, so I might as well oblige him._ So this is it Tien, is this how far you can push yourself, at least in regards to this Spirit Ken technique?"

"That's one way of looking at it yeah, I've had almost five years to hone this technique, but I can still feel just how far I have to go. I learned a long time ago from someone I hold in very high regard that there's a difference between those who aim for the top and those who settle, and I can't settle for being better when I could be the best."

"This tournament gives us the perfect opportunity to see just how far everyone has come since the battle with Cell, but even since then there's no guarantee that what we've been putting ourselves through is going to be enough the next time the Earth is in danger. I have to admit, as much as the thought gets my blood pumping, part of me is a little bit nervous, but I still feel calm knowing that my friends are by my side, and that you all have the drive to get stronger right alongside me!" and so Goku charged forward, meeting Tien in an explosive collision and dealing him a solid elbow to the face.

Tien dodged the next attack and began firing off a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed, resulting in the two of them trading even blows until their fists collided in a blinding flash, but then they broke away " **Tri Beam!"** and so he fired forward a Tri Beam.

Goku quickly blitzed out of the path of the Tri Beam and fired a barrage of Ki blasts at full speed and power.

Tien wasted no time or effort as he dodged, blocked and deflected every Ki blast being hurled at him with ease "Don't think that's all it's going to take for you to defeat me!"

"That's the last thing I would expect from you!" Goku blitzed behind Tien and dealt him a sharp kick to the face, the force sending him crashing to the ground in a nearby plateau, and then he prepared to follow up with a quick Kamehameha blast.

" **Dodon Cannon!"** Tien rebounded just in time to fire a golden-colored Ki wave from one hand, which proved to be enough to overpower Goku's Kamehameha as a result.

Goku blitzed out of the path of the blast, blitzed down towards Tien and promptly aimed a kick at his chest while he was still stuck in the position of firing the Dodon Cannon.

" **Four Witches!"** despite being preoccupied by his blast, Tien sprouted an extra set of arms from his back, which allowed him to deal Goku a second Dodon Cannon, this one to the gut, the force proving to be enough to send him tumbling backwards a great distance.

Goku rebounded after a few seconds as the two of them both took to the skies, their auras blending together in the form of a double helix that lit up the skies for miles around.

Tien took the opportunity to deal Goku a furious barrage of attacks, dealing him a series of repeated knees to the spine "I don't want you holding out on me in this fight!" the two of them started repeatedly punching each other in the face and torso, which ended with the two of them grappling with each other in a fierce power struggle "I told you that I didn't want you to hold out on me Goku, I want you to take this seriously!" he grabbed Goku by the arm and hurled her even higher into the air, and he charged in to finish it as he flared his Spirit Ken aura "I know that you're still holding back against me, I told you that I wanted to to come at me with everything you've got!"

"You want me to give you everything Tien? Well fine, but don't forget that you're the one who asked for this!" with a mighty roar, Goku's Super Saiyan aura ascended to the next level, Super Saiyan 2.

"I said to give me everything, because that's what I'm giving you!" Tien promptly crossed his arms and spiked his Ki.

"And everything is exactly what you're going to get!" Goku charged downwards towards Tien at full speed, resulting in a blinding clash as he slugged Tien full force in the gut.

Tien coughed up some blood, but then he shot Goku an uncharacteristic smirk as he motioned behind him.

' _What the- Oh crapbaskets.'_

As it turns out, a second Tien blitzed between the two of them with his hands in a very familiar position "Fuck power levels, fuck Super Saiyans, and FUCK YOU! **TRI BEAM!"** he fired forward a full power Tri Beam, which proved to be powerful enough to send Goku tumbling backwards across the battlefield.

Goku pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood himself, though now he was forced to revert back to Super Saiyan "To think that was powerful enough to blast me clear out of Super Saiyan 2… You really have gotten a lot stronger since the fight with Cell."

"That Tri Beam was packed with as much power as all of the ones I used against Cell, but combined into a single blast. Combine that with the fact that I perfected my Multi Form so it doesn't divide my power level, and as arrogant as this may sound, I may very well be able to match a Super Saiyan."

"Looks like you managed to pull that off even better than I was expecting, you really are something else you know." Goku spiked his golden Super Saiyan aura "Now come on Tien, I say it's time for us to finish this!"

"Believe me Goku, I intend to!" pushing his Spirit Ken to the absolute limit, Tien charged forward towards Goku as he pushed his speed to the max, resulting in a blinding clash that lit up the skies across the mountain, as well as shaking the mountain itself to its core. When everything had subsided after a few moments, Tien had lost his Spirit Ken and Goku had lost his Super Saiyan form, and as such, both of them tried to press forward, but only ended up falling to the ground in two simultaneous heaps.

Goku was the first one to lift his head and met Tien's gaze, and the two of them promptly shot each other a smirk "Let's call this one a tie for now… But we'll keep pushing each other, and we'll keep growing stronger, like any true martial artist does."

"A tie, huh… I can live with that… This time at least… Can you get up?"

"No… you?"

"No…"

"...We might have a problem."

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The rain was pouring down from the skies above.

Videl was sent crashing to the ground in a heap, but she didn't waste a second as she pulled herself back to her feet and readied herself for her next attack "I'm not done yet… not by a long shot… I have to get stronger… I have to get so much stronger… I'm gonna be the best… I will stand… I will fight… I will win…"

Kai studied the look in Videl's eyes intently for a moment, but then he just facepalmed himself rather hard "And that right there is another one of your many issues presenting itself. The fact is that you're just psyching yourself up and making yourself far too eager for your own good."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that if you just tell yourself that you have to win then you can't call it training, there's no point to it. You have to be willing to face the reality of your situation and do whatever work is necessary, and if you can't tap into the true power that lies within then all of the motivation in this world or any other won'd be enough for you to meet your goal." that left Videl frozen to her very core "I know as well as anyone that having a goal to strive for can make you stronger, but the problem is that when your emotions get in the way of reasoning and cloud your judgement, they can turn into more of a hindrance than a help. You want your emotions to complement your strength rather than just compensate for it. If you're too desperate to win and if your desires make you afraid, then you won't be able to assess the situation from a logical standpoint, and that in turn will cause you to misjudge the abilities of your opponent, and that's going to result in you losing."

"So then… that's what I've been doing wrong… Dammit… How the hell could I have let myself be so blind?!" with a furious roar, Videl spiked her aura and shattered the ground beneath her as a result.

"If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that there's no such thing as a fight that you can't lose, and I've learned that the hard way, god only knows how many times. Anyway, it might have taken me a long time but I've come to terms with that fact and accepted it, and now you have to do the same. Then and only then will you be able to come out on top."

"Kai… Yeah, I think I get it now."

"You've got what it takes, I have faith that you'll overcome these obstacles and end up as part of the big leagues. I believe in you, and you have to believe in yourself."

"And I promise on that faith you put in me, I won't let you down."

"I know you won't." Kai glanced over in a certain direction "That's enough for today, I've gotta go check on something. You good to fly your way home?"

"I'll be fine."

"Good enough for me." and so he blasted off, the bag of Senzu Beans still in hand.

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About an hour later, up on Mount Paozu…

Goku and Tien pulled themselves back to their feet as they finished consuming the Senzu Beans being given to them by Kai "Thanks for that Kai, if you hadn't come along when you did then who knows how long we would've been stuck like that."

"You would've been up in about an hour at the most." Kai pointed out dryly "Your modesty thing can get old after awhile. Truth be told it was just dumb luck on your part that I found you two jackasses up here."

"Then why did you come here at all?" asked Tien.

"To make sure that Gohan doesn't either end up dying alone, and/or me ending up having to be his life partner."

"...Come again?"

"He texted me and said that he met his future girlfriend's dad, who also turned out to be one of the idiot brothers' best customers and a quantum physics professor that he idolizes. The guy knows his stuff too. Anyway now Gohan's bringin the girl home to meet parents of the year one and two, and I'm here to make sure no one fucks it up beyond recognition."

"So… you're saying that you think Chichi will-" Goku was promptly cut off.

"Look me in the eye and tell me I'm wrong."

"...You're not."

"And there you go."

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Meanwhile, with the love birds in question…

"Alright here we are, home sweet home." Gohan slowly dropped down to the ground on the grounds of Mount Paozu and let Erasa down from where she was being carried by him on his back, though he noticed that she seemed nervous "You okay? What's the mater?"

"Are you sure this is alright?" asked Erasa "I mean you said yourself that your mom is about as open to these kinds of things as Kai is conservative."

"That's an understatement. But they're going to love having you around, just give them a little bit of time and you'll see. Hey mom, I'm home!"

"Hi honey, I was wondering when you were going to-" Chichi poked her head out the door, only to stop when she noticed Erasa standing there "So… who's your friend?"

"Oh this? This is Erasa, a friend from school. Her dad is one of our best customers, I met him a few days ago, and I figured it was only fair that she meet you guys now, so please don't get mad or anything like-" he was cut off by a hand covering his mouth.

"Gohan do I look that unreasonable to you? And for the record, my covering your mouth makes that a rhetorical question. Frankly, the fact that you have a friend your own age that isn't a sadist is a massive relief to me."

"Uh… okay then. I wasn't expecting that."

"I don't think any of us were." this was when Kai landed on the ground out of nowhere and grabbed onto Gohan by the back of his gi "Go ahead and do chick stuff, blonde Botan feel free to get acquainted with the insanity that comes with these people, and in the meantime Gohan and I have some business to attend to." and so the two of them suddenly blitzed away.

Erasa could only stare blankly at the spot where Gohan had once stood "So… does that sort of thing happen a lot?

"Only when Kai is around, which is pretty much all the time." Chichi let out a sigh, then promptly gripped Erasa by the shoulders "Anyway you said your name was Erasa right? Come on in, let's talk woman to woman."

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Meanwhile, with the two heroes of this story…

Gohan released himself from Kai's grip and let out a sigh "Did you really have to drag me out of there like that?"

"You say that like I wasn't saving your ass from what was probably the most awkward situation of your life." Kai pointed out dryly.

"That's irrelevant!"

"No it's not."

"...Fine, let's just drop it. I know why you dragged me off in the first place."

"I talked to Cooler last week, he said that he agreed to take part in the tournament, but only after he heard how many of us are gonna be there."

"You think this Babidi character is going to make his move during the tournament?"

"It only makes sense, that many people that call themselves warriors, and the the real deal in the form of us."

"You think he'll try to steal their energy?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, it's a prime opportunity, and we need to make sure that we're ready for it when the big day comes."

"I still think we should tell the others about it."

"We will when the time comes, but if we tell them without knowing for certain about it happening and it turns out it doesn't, we'll lose any credibility we've got."

"I know the Supreme Kai wants us to stick with secrecy until he's ready to reveal himself, but he has to know that him being "covert" won't mean much if we're caught unprepared."

"Yeah well some higher ups have a habit of being idiots, even in the face of facts just throwing themselves in their faces."

"So what then, we just let it play out?"

"I don't see what other choice we have. All we can do is make sure that everyone is training as hard as we can, although chances are that Piccolo already knows. He is part god now."

"That would not surprise me in the slightest. Well speaking of being prepared, we might as well do some of that while we're out here. You think we have enough time for a quick spar before my mom calls us back?"

"I think there's only one way to find out. **Namek-Ken 5x!"** Kai activated his Namek-Ken and boosted it to the fifth level "Let's get this shit underway." and so he promptly blitzed out of view.

' _He's as fast as ever.'_ Gohan managed to block the first attack, which quickly resulted in the two of them trading even blows, sending shockwaves across the entire clearing, before the two of them broke away from each other "You're as good as ever."

"You shouldn't sound surprised by that."

"That's not it, what surprises me is the fact that you're holding back against me."

"Even less reason to be surprised then, you're holding back just as much as I am. I say we get this shit underway, for real this time. **Namek-Ken 30x!"** Kai pushed his Namek-Ken to an even higher extent, his green aura towering high above him.

"Fine by me!" Gohan flashed into Super Saiyan and aimed a kick at Kai's head.

Kai blocked the kick and hit Gohan square in the chest with a palm thrust, sending him skidding backwards, then fired off a Masenko.

Gohan flared his Super Saiyan aura and dissipated the smoke that resulted "I'm not done yet, let's settle this! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me...HA!"** he fired a Super Saiyan powered Kamehameha.

" **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!"** Kai countered with his own Kamehameha, the two blasts colliding and engulfing the clearing surrounding them in an explosion, scorching several of the surrounding trees in the process.

With the end of the beam struggle, Gohan powered back down to his base form "I've gotta hand it to you Kai, being able to keep up with me is pretty impressive."

"Like I say, limitations are nothing more than a state of mind. How long did that take?"

"Probably about 10 minutes at the most."

"That figures. Anyway let's head back, with any luck lunch is ready and hopefully we can get there before my mom gives Erasa any major mental scars."

"Hey, that's my shtick."

"Oh believe me, I know."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About an hour passed, and lunchtime had come.

It was during this time that Chichi continued her lighthearted interrogation of Erasa "So tell me something dear, how long have you been spending time with my son here?"

"I think it's been about two or three months now." Erasa shot a bright smile in Gohan's direction as he was chowing down on some rice "I invited him to sit with me on his first day, but looking back he was probably sitting there mostly because of Kai."

"That honestly wouldn't surprise me, but don't think too much about it. And how did the two of you start spending time together?"

"He chased off a guy who didn't know how to take no for an answer, it turns out my dad is one of the best customers of that sandwich shop in West City, which just so happens to be owned by a certain someone's dad and uncle. He was pretty shy at at first, but he's gotten a lot more open and he's told me a lot about himself. It's really a pretty big honor in my eyes."

"That's good to hear, very good. I'm glad to hear that Gohan has a nice young woman with a good head on her shoulders in his life."

"Oh, well…" she started blushing "I appreciate that, thanks."

"No need, just being honest." with that in mind, she turned to Gohan "So then tell me something else Gohan, you've quite the catch here, so when do you plan to marry this poor girl?"

That proved to be enough to make Gohan do a spit take and for it to land right in Goku's face, which didn't even make him look up from his food "What the- Why do you- I don't-"

"Convienent distraction." Kai held up a gigantic score card "8/10."

"But I don't- That's not- I didn't-"

"So Gohan and Erasa are getting married?" Goku finally looked up "Erasa is going to be our daughter then? Hey Chichi, does that mean that you and I have to do that thing again where we have to-"

"WE ARE NOT GETTING MARRIED YOU GUYS, STOP SAYING THAT!"

"Whatever you need to tell yourself." Kai told him dryly, earning a scream of frustration that sounded far more comical than you should.

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Meanwhile, in Other World…

King Kai watched from his place on the Grand Kai's planet as Scarlet was training hard while using a series of weights on her arms and legs ' _She's a natural, to think she picks things up even faster than Goku did!'_

"Looks to me like the pretty little lady up there is working up quite a sweat."

King Kai glanced back to see a certain pink skinned figure approach him "Well talk about getting an unexpected guest, it's been awhile hasn't it South Kai?"

"They say that this Scarlet woman is one of the most capable fighters in all of the North Galaxy, or at least she would be if she were still alive. So tell me something North Kai, how heavy are those weights that you've got clamped onto his aerms and legs."

"What, you mean those? They're nothing to write home about, just a simple 2 tons a piece."

"...You said 2 tons a piece?"

"I said 2 tons a piece. What's the matter South Kai, you didn't think they would be that heavy now did you?"

"Well… and here I thought they would be heavier than that. 8 tons is actually pretty simple when you think about it, and I think Papoi's hat weighs more than that. He's the greatest hero in the last 2,000 years in my neck of the woods down in the South Galaxy. He's quite fine, and in comparison to him your guy might as well be a 90-pound weakling."

"Oh really? Well it turns out there's a martial arts tournament coming up soon on a little planet called Earth, and Scarlet has been given special permission to head back down there for a day and compete, so why don't you put your money where your mouth is and let Papoi compete in it too?"

"Oh you bet I will. He's gonna enter that contest, you don't need to worry about that, and he's going to win the entire ball of wax, I guarantee it!"

"Okay then. Hey Scarlet, do you want me to make those weights a little bit more of a challenge for you?"

"Hm?" Scarlet paused in the middle of a kata and glanced down at King Kai "If you think that's for the best then I don't mind, but how much heavier were we talking exactly?"

"I was thinking along the lines of a nice and round number, about 10 tons in total for each one, which should bring it to about 40 in total."

"Uh huh. No disrespect King Kai, but isn't that pushing it a little bit? Even if I'm dead, keep in mind that I can only take so much."

At this, South Kai promptly burst out laughing "You said it quite well little lady, there isn't a single person living or dead who can handle that kind of weight. And you North Kai, was that your idea of a joke?"

"Well truth be told, it's more of a matter of whether or not I can use the Kaioken while I have these things on. I mean as long as I use Kaioken, 10 tons each will be simple. So what's the verdict then King Kai?" she received a thumbs up "Okay then, let a rip."

"Uh…"

"You heard the lady South Kai, let a rip." King Kai told him "Go ahead and do the honors of changing his weights to 10 tons a piece."

"But that's 40 tons in total, if you're bluffing little lady then you'd better say something now, because I'm really going to do it! I'm not kidding."

"I'm not either." Scarlet told him.

"Uh… 40 tons missy, do the math!"

"Seriously, just do it already."

"Alright fine, but if you do the math then it's not my fault, you got me? **40 tons!"** with a wave of his hands, South Kai changed the 2 ton weights that Scarlet was wearing to 10 tons, bringing it to a total of 40 tons, which resulted in her slowly sinking towards the ground "Now what do you say to that?"

"I say… **Kaioken!"** Scarlet's crimson aura flashed into life, and she started going through her katas with breathtaking ease, which left South Kai and Papoi dumbstruck and slack jawed at the sight.

"Uh…"

"So yeah, that martial arts tournament that I mentioned earlier is going to be starting up in 28 Earth days from now." King Kai told him smugly "As strong as he is, I'm sure that Papoi is eager to enter."

"...Actually you know what, I think we're gonna have to pass on that one. Papoi feels that those kinds of tournaments are a real yawn. It's not like we're going to be missing out on anything overly important right?" and so the two of them left.

"Nice try you smoug son of a bitch."

"He's not the only one you know." Scarlet pointed out dryly.

"Maybe, but I still one."

"I rest my case."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another day came, and things were getting surprisingly hectic with the Son family, or perhaps I should say, the _other_ Son family.

Meanwhile, with the _other_ Son family…

"Don't let your guard down you goddamn porcupine!" 18 was practically pouncing at Raditz and attacking him with every once of her strength and speed.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Raditz found himself dodging and blocknig her attacks with ease, though he was growing rather irritated "When I said I wanted to get in an "early morning workout" with you, this is not what I meant!"

"I know damn well what you meant, and if you want to have any chance of getting that out of me then you'll have to earn it!"

"Oh come on, you know how fired up that gets me!"

"I don't need any excuses from you!"

What they didn't notice was that Goku was watching them from near their house, though he looked pretty confused "You know, when Raditz said he was gonna be getting in an early morning workout with 18, I thought he meant something entirely different. Maybe I've been spending too much time around Kai, he must be rubbing off on me and the rest of us."

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Meanwhile, on the Lookout…

Dende watched in awe as Piccolo continued with his meditation, his mind drifting ' _He's been at it for almost 48 hours now, and the amount of energy I'm sensing from him is truly amazing. It's like the longer he meditates, the more powerful he becomes. This has to be thanks to everyone else entering the World Martial Arts Tournament.'_

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Meanwhile, with another Saiyan and half-Saiyan…

Things were quiet on Mount Paozu early in the morning.

Tarble was in the middle of stretching, with a certain half-Saiyan accompanying him "Alright then, I think I should start by turning Super Saiyan." so on that note, he promptly flashed into Super Saiyan "Okay then, so are you ready to help me train Goten?"

"Yeah!" Goten pumped a fist with the classic Son grin plastered across his face.

' _He reminds me so much of sensei, he has the same face and hair, and even all of that energy and cheerful optimism.'_ Tarble couldn't help but smile slightly ' _To think it's been more than ten years since sense rescued me after I lost everything to Turles and his men. I thought that I had no reason left to live anymore, but he took me in, trained me, gave me a family and a home, and he made me who I am. Training his son is the least I can do to repay his kindness.'_

"Something wrong Uncle Tarble?" Goten's innocent question quickly snapped Tarble out of his thoughts "Sorry Goten, it's nothing. So are you ready to get started? We both want to become stronger don't we?"

"Yeah!"

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Hours passed, and the day progressed onwards.

By this point, Videl and Kai had taken a breather from training, and were now enjoying a nice lunch break "You know I really do have to thank you Kai, I feel like training with you is exactly what I needed."

"Don't think I'm letting you get soft on me." Kai told her flatly "As far as I'm concerned, your training has only just begun, along with mine for that matter."

"Wait what?"

"Listen to me Videl, I know for a fact that what you've tapped into up until now is only a mere fraction of the power that you have the potential to reach. We've been able to break through one wall up until now, and now I want to find the rest. You can't tell me that you're not curious, that you don't want to know how strong you can truly become. You can't just settle for being better when you could be the best there is. We've only been at it for about two weeks, we still have half that time left before the day of the tournament comes. I say we take that time and put it to good use, you want to be stronger than you've ever been don't you?"

"...Stronger than I've ever been? I have to admit that offer does sound pretty enticing. Alright then, I'm in Kai. I say let's do it."

"Perfect, but before we do, I'm gonna call in a favor from a certain someone. Hang on a minute, I'm gonna go make a call." and so he left.

"...Did he just use that as an excuse to stick me with the bill?"

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About an hour went by.

Kai and Videl touched down in a large abandoned desert "He's not usually one to bring up a ton of dramatic flare, but he knows how to make his presence known."

"Should I be concerned about this guy?" asked Videl.

"Just don't get on his bad side, not that I've actually seen it. The point is, just don't do anything that would piss him off."

It was at this moment that Cooler suddenly materialized in front of Kai via Instant Transmission, with a certain Namekian figure appearing along with him "I see that you've indeed been taking your training quite seriously Kai Sapien."

"The same could be said for you, but let's skip the pleasantries and formalities and all of that bullshit. You know why I called you and Forte and had you come here."

"I anticipated it was because you were in need of his talents."

"Not me specifically, I think I'll be fine for the time being, but I do know someone who would benefit from what he's got to offer." he jerked a thumb at Videl, who was trying to keep herself composed.

"I take it this young woman is the protegee you mentioned?"

"That's the short version, but yeah."

"I see then. Forte, your talents are required."

"Understood my lord." Forte promptly stepped forward and removed his hood, revealing his Namekian features "Now then, before we proceed, if you have any questions for me then feel free to ask them."

"I do have one." Videl slowly stepped forward "So how does this work exactly?"

"Just kneel down before me and let me place a hand atop your head. That will allow me to unlock your potential, at least to an extent."

"What do you mean to an extent?"

"Take Kai here for example. He has had his potential awakened twice in his lifetime. It can be done to a person more than once, but once it has been done to a person, they must biologically age five years before it can work again."

"So once you do this, I have to wait five years before you can do it again?"

"Essentially yes."

"Okay then. I'm ready." Videl knelt down before him.

"Such determination in you child, it reminds me of the young man here." Forte placed a hand on top of Videl's head, and a white glow surrounded her body.

Taking a moment to soak it in, Videl slowly got to her feet and spiked her aura "You said that your name was Forte right? Thank you for this, it feels incredible. I can feel the power surging inside of me."

"The fire inside of you burns brightly with passion."

"Someone taught me that if I'm going to be the best then I can't settle for anything less."

"You're welcome." Kai told her dryly "But we're not done yet though, there's one last thing we need to do for you."

"Do you wish for me to do the same for you?"

"Not right now, if it can only be done once every five years then I think I should save it and use it wisely, rather than waste it. In the meantime though, Cooler, Forte, you guys can go now." and so he took off, with Videl quickly following right behind him.

Cooler and Forte watched them depart until they were out of sight "It would seem I was right after all to trust in that boy to be prepared for the inevitable arrival of Majin Buu."

"You say that as if you were unsure of it yourself." Forte noted.

"Part of me did show some concerns in regards to the boy's personality, considering how brash and anger driven he used to be, but it seems my concerns were of no consequence. He's matured greatly over the years, and he's a true asset to these warriors and this world."

"He may very well surpass you in time, if he hasn't already."

"Very true my friend. Now come, we must return to the base. I have training to continue with myself."

"So be it then my lord." and so the two of them vanished from Earth via Cooler's Instant Transmission.

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About another hour went by.

Korin didn't even have to turn around from his place at the ledge of his tower to know exactly who was standing behind him "I figured it was only a matter of time before you came back, and you brought company this time around."

Sure enough, Kai stood behind him, with Videl standing right next to him "I shouldn't be surprised that you knew we were here, so you know why we're here too I take it."

"I do, but unfortunately drinking that stuff only works once for each person, so trying it a second time wouldn't do you any good."

"I figured that much, and frankly I'm not here for me, I'm here for her." he promptly jerked a thumb over in Videl's direction.

"Looks like you have the right idea."

"You're damn right I do. The Ultra Divine Water is packed with mystical properties and magical zing, it will greatly enhance the abilities of the one who drinks it, but first you're going to have to track it down in order to drink it and enjoy its benefits."

"Actually those are the old rules, after you drank it during that whole mess with Cell the others got in on it too, and when Tien drank it, he brought it back so we don't have to waste time going through all of that again, so now I keep it here." he revealed the pot and the teacups involved in the process "Go ahead and drink up."

"...Huh. Well that seems anticlimactic."

"Yeah well, watching the same process happen over and over again gets tiresome after awhile, and given what's about to happen, I don't think we can afford to wait for that."

"So you know then?"

"I see a lot of stuff up here."

"Fair enough. Anyway Videl, you're up. Are you willing to take this risk? Keep in mind that if it doesn't work, you will die."

"...I'll do it." Videl's eyes blazed with determination "I can't afford to settle for the level I'm at right now." she took the cup, poured some of the water for herself, and she downed it in a single go, which almost immediately left her writing in agony on the ground as a result.

"So how long does this usually take?"

"Considering her current level, I'd say we have about an hour before she's through." Korin told him.

"Fair enough. So in the meantime, we've got some talking to do about the whole Majin Buu thing."

"So we do. Come with me then." and so the two of them went into another room, at the same time leaving Videl writing on the ground.

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About an hour passed.

Kai and Korin made their way back into the outer area of the tower, and they found Videl still writing on the ground "I thought you said it would be over by now."

This was when Videl slowly stopped squirming on the ground, and then she promptly pulled herself back to her feet "Did I… Yeah I think I did…"

"Yep, you survived, just like the rest of us."

"It's weird though, I don't feel any stronger. I mean sure I feel a little bit different, but I can' really explain it."

"That's about what I felt when I drank the stuff, it's not going to show itself until you actually put it to the test in a fight."

"I'll take your word for it. But on top of all of that, I feel really at peace too."

"Like I said, you get used to it. Come on, let's get moving. We've got another two weeks until the tournament, and I've got more shit to teach you."

"And I'm more than ready for it now." she let out a sigh and shot him a look filled with blazing determination "Teach me everything you can."

' _So that means everything except the Dragon Fist._ Alright, I've taught you most of the Ki based attacks I know, but I do have something in mind. It's a technique that I learned from a friend a few years before Cell showed up. It's called the Namek-Ken."

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 **With each passing moment, the day of the World Martial Arts Tournament continues to loom ever closer, but at the same time, a grave threat is also looming over the horizon, one unlike anything our heroes have ever seen before. Whether they know it or not, their training will be put to the test, and they will be in for the fight of their lives. The big day arrives, next time on Dragon Ball Z: the Next Generation!**

 **A/N:**

 **And with this chapter, we get some more slice of life moments and character interaction, along with some serious training for the big event to come: the World Martial Arts Tournament. Not only are most of the main cast participating, but we'll also be seeing the return of Scarlet to the land of the living, if for only about 24 hours. Of course, not everything is going to be lighthearted and fun, since we've got a looming threat to worry about. Now then, to all of you out there, let me just wish you all a Happy Father's Day.**

 **One thing I think that's worth noting right now is that, putting it as bluntly as I possibly can, Goten and Ranch will not be going Super Saiyan, at least not this early in the story. For as long as I've been a fan of Dragon Ball, one thing that's really bugged me is how people keep saying that the original Super Saiyan form isn't anything special anymore, and to an extent, they're right. Granted most of the complaints I hear are about the back tingling with the Universe 6 Saiyans, but that's an argument for another time.**

 **I'm not very good at coming up with puns for names, which is obviously the trend throughout DBZ, so for Erasa's dad's name, I just decided to go with something normal like Michael. I don't think it will stand out too much, seeing how I'm fairly certain there are at least a few people in the DBZ world with normal names.**

 **Yes, this chapter gave something that I'm sure og Dragon Ball fans have been waiting to see for a very long time: a rematch between Goku and Tien. I was originally going to make it a fight between Goku and Gohan, but I thought that was too obvious, and Tien needs a little bit of love, so I decided to give that spot to him instead.**

 **So yes, Videl has had her potential awakened by Forte, the Namekian in Cooler's forces, as well as drinking the Ultra Divine Water, the two combining to give her a substantial increase in power. To clarify, it allows her to compare to people like the Z fighters, at least on some level. Granted she's still a fair ways behind where they're at right now, but you have to start somewhere. As for Kai getting his potential unlocked by Forte again, that will happen, just not yet.**

 **So like with chapter 18, which featured the three years of training in preparation for the arrival of the Androids. The same reason applies here, that being that I figured it might be too confusing, seeing how this is mostly a training chapter, with a minor story focus. The main story focus will return in the next chapter.**

 **Just for the sake of being clear, the lineup for the tournament (at least as far as Z fighters go) is as follows: Goku, Gohan, Kai, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Cooler, Krillin, 17, 18, Raditz, and Tarble. That will leave enough room for Videl, Mr Satan, and two others I plan on having appear in the next chapter. Yes they work for a certain malevolent force, but at the same time they're two characters who haven't appeared in the canon series in a VERY long time.**


End file.
